World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 205 Departure (1)
What happened one after another caused the whole Paris to talk about it.Emmanuel and his wife were discussing this series of events in the living room of the small building in the Rue de Merais, and they were, of course, amazed.They discussed the affairs of the Mocerfs, Tanglars, and Villeforts together, and felt that the events of any one were so unexpected and so sudden.Maximilian happened to come to see them, and was listening, or rather, he was always so indifferent, and he just sat beside the couple talking about them.

"Really," said Julie, "in my opinion, Emmanuel, these people were so rich and so happy yesterday, they planned carefully, they finally made a fortune, they got happiness, and everyone's love." Respect. But when they were planning, they must have forgotten which evil spirit. As a result, this evil spirit is like the French writer Perrault (1628-1703), famous for his fairy tales. Like the goblins in the stories, people forget For asking him to some wedding, some baptism, he pops up out of nowhere to take revenge. It's no joke to forget him, is it?"

"It's true that misfortunes never come singly!" said Emmanuel, thinking of Mosef and Tangra.

"It's so painful," said Julie, thinking of Valentine, but with a woman's instinct she didn't want to say the name in front of her brother.

"If God is punishing them," said Emmanuel, "God is infinitely merciful, it must be in their past experience that even God has not found any place for them to be lenient, so these people are sinners." Deep."

"Aren't you being too hasty in your judgment, Emmanuel?" said Julie. "When my father was about to shoot himself with a pistol in his hand, if someone had said anything like you just said : 'This person deserves what he deserves', wouldn't that be a huge mistake?"

"Yes, but God did not allow the patriarch in the story of Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews and the Arabs, to be tested by God, who was asked to perform the sacrifice of his son, but in the end he stopped him. The sacrifice of the son, likewise, God did not in the end Let our father fall. To the old patriarch who was about to sacrifice his son, and afterward to us, God sent an angel, who cut off the wings of death in the midway of his flight."

Emmanuel had just finished speaking when the bell rang in the house.It was a signal from the gatekeepers that a visitor was coming.But almost before the bell had finished ringing, the drawing-room door opened, and the Count of Monte Cristo was at the door.The young couple cried out with joy, and Maximilian's head lifted, then dropped again.

"Maximilian," the count didn't seem to notice that the family had different reactions to his arrival, so he just said to himself, "Maximilian, I'm here to see you."

"You want me?" said Morrel, as if waking from a dream.

"Yes," said Monte Cristo, "is it not agreed that I will take you with me? I told you to prepare first, didn't I?"

"So here I am," said Maximilian, "to say goodbye to them."

"Where are you going, Monsieur Count?" Julie asked.

"To Marseilles first, madam."

"To Marseilles?" cried the young couple in unison.

"Yes, I want to take your brother with you."

"Ah! Monsieur Count," said Julie, "be sure he is cured before he comes back!"

Morrel turned his face away, not wanting them to see him blushing.

"So you saw that he was troubled too?" said the count.

"Yes," replied the young woman, "I am also worried that he will be annoyed if he is with us."

"I will relieve him," said the count.

"I am ready, sir," said Maximilian, "farewell, my dear friend, farewell, Emmanuel, farewell, Julie!"

"What? Farewell?" cried Julie. "So you're leaving right now, without any preparations or application for a passport?"

"The longer the parting time drags on, the sadder it will be," said Monte Cristo. "I believe that Maximilian has already prepared what must be prepared, and I have given him my greetings beforehand."

"I have a passport, and the suitcases are packed," Maximilian said listlessly.

"That's great," said Monte Cristo, smiling, "you can see that a good soldier works swiftly and swiftly."

"You're leaving us like this," Julie said. "Just go away? Can't you stay with us another day, even an hour?"

"My carriage is waiting at the door, Madame, and I must be in Rome in five days."

"But Maximilian is not going to Rome?" Emmanuel asked.

"I'll go wherever the count wants me to go," Maximilian said with a wry smile, "I'll let him arrange everything. There's only one month left!"

"Oh, my God! How can he talk like that, Monsieur Count!"

"Maximilian was with me all the way," said the count, in a tone that would convince anyone, "that you need not worry about your brother."

"Farewell, sister!" said Morrel again, "farewell, Emmanuel!"

"It made me sad to see him so listless,"

Julie said, "Oh! Maximilian, Maximilian, you keep everything from us."

"Oh!" said Monte Cristo, "you will see him happy and smiling when he comes back."

Maximilian glanced at Monte Cristo with an air almost contemptuous and angry.

"Let us go," said the count.

"Before you go, Monsieur Count," said Julie, "let me tell you again about the day..."

"Madame," said the count, taking Julie's hands, "in fact, what you have to say to me can't be worth what I read in your eyes, what you think in your own heart, and what you want to say to me." Not as much as I feel in my heart. If I were like those benefactors in the legend, I should not have seen you before I went. But this virtue is beyond my reach, because I am weak And vain, because if the person who is like me looks at me with tears in eyes and tenderly, it is indeed a joy to me. Now that I am leaving, I can't help but think about myself, and I can't help but feel sorry for me. Say a word, don't forget me, friends, for it is very likely that you will never see me again."

"Don't see you again?" cried Emmanuel, while two large tears trickled down Julie's cheeks. "Can't I see you again? So we're leaving now." Ours is not a mortal, but a god. The god has come to the world and done good deeds, and is about to return to the heaven.”

"Say no words like that," said Monte Cristo hastily, "don't talk like that, my friends. The gods, the gods, the gods, the gods, the gods, the sacks, the salts, the salts, the fortunes, are always enough. It may be beyond the gods, on the contrary, it is the luck of the gods. No, I am a mortal, Emmanuel, your praise is not appropriate, and your words just now are unavoidable." He took Julie's hand and kissed it , Julie threw herself into his arms, and he stretched out his other hand to Emmanuel.Afterwards, he gestured to Maximilian and pulled him away from this cozy little building like a cozy nest.But Maximilian was always like that. Ever since Valentine's death, he had been dispirited, languid and absent-minded.

"Please find a way to cheer up my brother!" Julie said in Monte Cristo's ear.

Monte Cristo held her hand tightly, just as he had held Julie's hand 11 years earlier on the stairs leading to M. Morrel's study. "You always believed in Sailor Samba?" he asked with a slight smile.

"Oh! Of course i!

"Okay then, you can sleep peacefully and listen to God's arrangements for everything."

As we have just said, the coach of the post station was waiting outside the door, and the four strong horses had bristled their manes, and their hooves were impatiently kicking the stone pavement.Standing next to the steps in front of the door was Ali. He was sweating, as if he had just arrived from a long journey.

"Well," the count asked Ali in Arabic, "have you gone to see the old man?"

Ali nodded.

"Did you unfold the letter for him to read as I ordered?"

"Yes." The slave gestured respectfully.

"How did he say it? No, how did he say it?"

In order for his master to see clearly, Ali stepped into the light, and imitated the facial expression of the old man vividly, closing his eyes as Nouakier agreed.

"Very well, he consents," said Monte Cristo, "and let us go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the carriage drove forward, and the horse's hooves stepped on the stone road quickly, shooting sparks. Maximilian leaned against the corner of the carriage and said nothing. Half an hour passed, and the open-top four The carriage stopped suddenly. It turned out that the count had just pulled the ribbon tied around Ali's hand.The Nubian black immediately jumped out of the car and went to open the door.

The night was dark and starry.The place where the car was parked was Villesuf, which is located in the southeastern suburbs of Paris.From the heights of the slopes, from this height, Paris is like a dark sea, with millions of lights floating like shining waves.These are indeed waves, noisier, more turbulent, more capricious, crazier, more turbulent than the stormy sea, ever surging, always white-capped, devour everything forever...

The count stood alone, and the carriage advanced a few steps according to his gesture.He folded his arms and stared for a long time at the great furnace in which all the thoughts that sprang from the seething abyss were first melted, forged, and shaped before turning the world upside down.Here is another Babylon that stirs the heart of passionate poets and the whims of cynical marketers.Monte Cristo gazed for a long time with his piercing eyes, and then he began to murmur to himself. "Great city!" he said softly, bowing his head and clasping his hands, as if in prayer, "I have not been at your gate six months, and I think it was the wisdom of God that led me here, and now It was the wisdom of God that led me out of here victoriously. I came to your city and no one knew it. I only confide this secret to God, because only God can read my heart. Now only God knows, I left here without any sorrow, resentment, or arrogance, but I am leaving now without regret. Only God knows that although I have the power bestowed by God, I am not for myself, and I will not do that kind of thing. Insignificant things. O great city! It was in your agitated breast that I found what I sought, and like a persevering miner, I turned you inside and out, just to get rid of that Filthy thing. Now my work is done, my mission is done. Now you will bring me neither joy nor pain. Farewell, Paris! Farewell!"

Like a patron saint of the night, he glanced once more across the moor, and then, with one hand on his forehead, climbed back into the carriage.The door was closed immediately, and the carriage rolled up a cloud of dust, whizzed away along the other side of the slope, and disappeared in an instant.

The carriage traveled another two miles, and neither of them spoke, Morrel was always meditating, and Monte Cristo watched him meditating.

"Morrel," said the count, "do you regret coming out with me?"

"No, Monsieur Count, but leaving Paris..."

"If I feel that happiness is waiting for you in Paris, Morrel, I will let you stay."

"Valentine rests in Paris, so to leave Paris is to lose Valentine for the second time."

"Maximilian," said the count, "our lost friends do not rest in the earth, they remain in our hearts, it is God's will, so that they will always be with us. They accompany me like this. One of these two friends gave me life and the other gave me wisdom. Their spirit will always live in my heart. Whenever I have doubts, I will listen to their advice. If What good I have done is due to their teachings. You might as well listen to what the voice in your heart says, Morrel, and you might as well ask your own voice, whether you should always say hello to me face."

"My friend," said Maximilian, "my heart is terribly sad, and all I can get is the mist."

"When you are depressed, looking at things always seems to be separated by a layer of black veil. The state of mind determines the field of vision. When you are depressed, what you see must be the miserable sky."

"Maybe so," said Maximilian, and then he fell into meditation again.

The carriage galloped like chasing wind and electricity.The beauty of the journey lies in the speed, which is a kind of boldness of the Earl.The towns along the road flashed past like black shadows, and the big trees swaying in the cool wind of early autumn seemed to be like giants with disheveled hair rushing towards them, but they fled away as soon as they arrived.The next morning they reached Chalons, where the Count's launch was waiting for them.Without a moment's delay, the carriage was immediately pulled onto the boat, and the two travelers boarded the boat.The motorboat was built like a racing boat, and almost like an Indian canoe, with impellers on either side of it like wings, which carried the boat across the water like a bird.Even Morrel was intoxicated by such a rapid speed, and the head-on wind blew his hair, as if it could temporarily dispel the gloom on his forehead.As for the count, as Paris receded, a very human peace, like a halo around the head of a statue, gradually emerged from him.He is like a wanderer living in a faraway country, and now he has finally returned to his homeland.

It didn't take long to see Marseille ahead.This white, warm and vibrant Marseille, just like Tire, which is now named Sur, is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southern Lebanon. It was the cultural and trade center of the Mediterranean region from the 11th century BC to the 4th century BC.An ancient country in northern Africa (now Tunisia) and Carthage, it competed with Rome for hegemony in the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC.Marseilles, the little sister of the city, after Tire and Carthage, Marseilles in the Mediterranean for a while, this Marseilles with a longer history and more youthful charm, now caught their eyes again.This round tower, this Saint-Nicolas Fort, was designed by the French sculptor, painter and architect (1620-1694) of Piget, and the famous buildings designed by him are Toulon City Hall and Marseilles Workhouse.The designed City Hall and the brick pier where they both played as children are among the sights that evoke countless memories.So, as soon as they reached the Rue Carnabier by the pier, the two stopped at the same time.A large ship is preparing to leave the port for Algiers, the deck is full of goods and passengers, some relatives and friends who came to see them off are shouting, some are crying, this scene is even for those who see it every day Speaking of it, it is also touching.However, as soon as Maximilian stepped onto the broad flagstones of the quay, only one thought revolved in his mind, so the moving scene of farewell did not distract him.

"You see," he said, taking Monte Cristo by the arm, "that's where my father stood when the King of Egypt came into port, the upright man, when you saved him from death and disgrace. When he was here, he threw himself into my arms, and now I still feel his hot tears streaming down my face. He was not the only one who cried at that time, many people also cried when they saw us."

Monte Cristo smiled. "There I was," said he, pointing to Morrel at the corner of a street.When the count said this, there was a mournful groan in the direction he pointed, and a woman was seen waving to a passenger on the big ship that was about to leave the port.The woman was wearing a veil, and Monte Cristo looked at her with an expression of such agitation that Morrel would have recognized it if he had been paying attention; big ship.

"Oh! my God!" exclaimed Morrel, "I can never be mistaken! This young man in uniform, waving his cap farewell, is Albert Mocerf!"

"Yes," said Monte Cristo, "I recognize him too."

(End of this chapter)