World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 22 Nos. 34 and 27 (1)
Dantès suffered all the sufferings of prisoners who were forgotten in prison.

His arrogance at first is the result of hope and self-knowledge of innocence.Then he wondered if he was really innocent, which somehow showed that the Commander had a reason to think he was insane.At last he plummeted from the peak of arrogance and began to pray, but not to God, but only to man, because God is the last savior.The unfortunate man should have prayed to God from the very beginning, but in fact looks to God after all hope has died.

Dantès then begged the prison to show kindness and transfer him from the current dark prison to another prison, even if it is a deeper and darker prison, because once transferred to a prison, even if it gets worse and worse, it is a crime after all. Changing the cell can also give Dantès a few days to spend his boring time.He begged the prison to release him, give him some air, read books and play musical instruments.But nothing is accurate, but it doesn't matter, he still asks for him.The new guard tried not to speak, and was less lazy to open his mouth than the old one, but Dantès always talked to him, because it is always a pleasure to talk to people, even if they are dumb.Dantès spoke because he wanted to hear his own voice. He also tried talking to himself, but he was terrified instead.

Before being imprisoned, Dantès felt that it was terrible for a group of prisoners to be locked in one cell. Tramps, thieves, and murderers were all shameless. Together, they must be acting recklessly and making friends with each other. , but now he wishes he was locked in this kind of cell, where he could see other faces instead of the silent, cold face of the guard.He envied the convicts in livery, with chains on their feet and branded shoulders.At least, convicts are very lucky to be able to get together, to breathe the air of nature, and to see the sky.

One day he begged the guard to apply to the prison for him to transfer a prisoner to accompany him, anyone, even the crazy elder he had heard about.The guard was very cruel on the surface, but in fact he still had a bit of humanity. Although he didn't show anything on his face, he often sympathized with the prisoner in his heart. It was a bad luck for him to be imprisoned so severely at such a young age.He reported the request of the 34th to the commander.But the commander was as prudent as a politician, thinking that Dantès wanted to gather the prisoners to plan some kind of conspiracy, first to find a helper for himself and then to plan to escape from prison, so he rejected his request.

In the circle of men, Dantès was at the end of his rope, so he turned to God.As we have said, it will happen sooner or later.All kinds of pious thoughts have been scattered in the world, but the unfortunate will only pick them up when they are overwhelmed by fate. At this time, Dantès regained his senses.He thought of the prayer his mother taught him, and realized the meaning that he never understood before, because when people are in good times, prayer is just a platter of meaningless empty words, until one day, when people pray to God in adversity, Pain will tell him how noble those words are.Then Dantès prayed, not out of piety, but out of resentment, and he prayed so loudly that he was no longer afraid of hearing his own voice.At this time he became in a trance, and he could see the light of God with every word he uttered.He told the Almighty God about the things in his life of mediocrity. He was thinking about the lessons left by the previous events, and he was also thinking about what he would do in the future.At the end of every prayer, he would express his desire, and usually this desire is easier to express when people ask others than when people ask God-forgive us our sins, and we will forgive those who have wronged us.Fervent prayers were said, but Dantès remained his prisoner.

At this time, he was in a very gloomy mood, and he saw gloomy clouds before his eyes.Dantès is very simple and has no education. All kinds of past events have cast a veil in his eyes, which can only be lifted by science.He was alone in a dark prison, and his thoughts were extremely poor. It was impossible to reconstruct the lost years and resurrect those vanished countries.Once the ancient city is imagined, it looks more poetic and magnificent. Looking around, it is so grand and magnificent, and it is dazzling under the brilliant sky, as if it was painted by the British painter John Martin (1789-1854). Babylon, but Dantès could never reproduce these ancient cities.Looking back on the past, it was so short; looking at the present, it was so bleak; looking forward to the future, it was so hazy.Is it possible that those 19 years should be endlessly recollected and savored in this endless night? There is no distraction to help him relieve his worries, and he is full of energy. It would be great if he could soar in the years of history. Yet his mind was bound like a hawk in a cage.Only one thought haunted his mind: his happiness, unknowingly ruined by some untold misfortune.He was thinking desperately, pondering over and over again from all aspects, and swallowing this idea in one gulp, just like the cruel Uglan devouring the head of Archbishop Roger in the hell described by Dante.Dantès once had a belief in power, but it was fleeting. Others gave up this belief after success, but he always gained nothing.

After the ascetic monk's tempering failed, he became angry like a mountain.Edmund cursed and blasphemed, and frightened the watchman back.He slammed his body against the wall again, angrily scolding everything around him, especially himself.Any tiny thing, even a grain of sand, a stalk of hay, or a little wind, he would swear as long as he didn't like it.At this moment, Villefort showed him, and he himself read from beginning to end, and the informant letter he had touched came to his mind, line by line, which seemed to be written on the wall in fiery red letters, as if Belshazzar, regent of Babylon, was killed by Sirus in 539 BC.When Belshazzar had a big banquet for his officials, he suddenly saw the words "count, weigh, and divide" on the wall, indicating that God had counted the duration of his reign and weighed his weight, and his kingdom would be divided in the end. .He said to himself that it was not the vengeance of God, but the hatred of man, that threw him into this abyss.He didn't know who framed him, but let his fanatical imagination curse them with all kinds of torture, and felt that for these people, the most terrible torture was too mild and too short, because after torture, people would Dead, and death is not rest, at least it is numbness close to rest.

Thinking of these enemies, he said to himself over and over again that death is peace, and if one wants to punish people cruelly, other methods must be used instead of killing people all at once.However, he said too much, and he himself fell into the idea of ​​suicide in a daze.As soon as these miserable thoughts come to mind, the person who is crawling on the slope of misfortune stops abruptly. This is real misfortune! This is a stagnant ocean, although the water is vast, but the swimmer only feels that his feet are gradually sinking. Into the sticky deep pool, and finally the whole person was pulled, sucked into the deep pool and buried deeply in it.Once falling into this vast ocean, unless there is a god to rescue, otherwise everything is over, and all struggles can only sink deeper into death.

Yet this state of spiritual moribundity is less dreadful than the former suffering and the possible future punishment; What lies beneath is chaos.In this regard, Edmund took some consolation from the thought that all the sorrows and pains, with their attendant specters, seemed to fly towards the corner of the cell where the Angel of Death might silently stop and wait. .Dantès looked back on his past life with equanimity, and looked forward to his future with horror, so he chose this middle point, which seemed to him a refuge.

"Sometimes," he said to himself, "on my voyages to sea, when I was free and strong, commanding others, and they carried out my orders, I have seen the clear sky suddenly clouded, The sea was moaning and roaring, and the rainstorm suddenly came from a corner of the sky, as if a big roc was flapping the sky and the cape with its huge wings. At that time, I felt that my ship was just an unreliable refuge, like a giant in the palm of my hand. A feather vibrated and trembled. After a while, with the terrible scream of the waves, sharp rocks suddenly appeared, and death was at hand. with all the strength and wisdom a sailor can have against God. I did so because I was happy then, because life was a blessing because I neither called nor chose to die, because I I find it horrible to sleep on a bed of kelp and pebbles, because I feel like a creature in the image of God, and I can't bear to be fed in the belly of seagulls and vultures after death. But it's different now, where I have lost all that could have attached me to life. Death smiles at me today as a nurse smiles at a baby she is about to comfort. But today I die willingly, and I sleep exhausted. Those nights ago , I was desperate, I was angry, and walked 3000 times in this small room, that is, I walked 3 steps, which is almost equal to 100 miles. I was tired, and I fell asleep. Isn’t this also a long sleep?”

As soon as the thought of death crossed his mind, the young prisoner became docile and at ease.He tidied up the hard bed and the black bread he ate, but he only ate a little and couldn't sleep.He had found the end of his life bearable, and now he was at his last, throwing it away when he wanted to, like an old garment.

There are two ways to die.One way is simple.Hanging by tying a handkerchief to the iron grille of the transom; another method is to eat as usual on the surface, but in fact slowly starve to death.The first method of death disgusted Dantès.He hated pirates since he was a child, and pirates were hanged from the mast of a sailing ship, so he felt that hanging was a disgraceful capital punishment, and he didn't want to use it on himself, so he adopted the second method, And it started that day.

Almost four years passed in the mood changes we mentioned above.At the end of the second year, Dantès had forgotten to count the dates. The superintendent of the prison told him the dates during his inspection, but once again he did not care about the passing of the years.

Dantès said that he wanted to die, and he chose the way to die.Now that he had thought it all over, and was afraid that he would change his mind again, he swore to himself that he must die like this. "They brought me food in the morning and in the evening," he thought, "and I dumped it out the window, and it looked like I was still eating." And he did as he said.Twice a day, he poured out the food through the small air window with iron bars. He was very happy at first, then thought about it, and then he was reluctant. He had to think about the time. How did he swear before he mustered up the energy to keep this terrible idea going.These foods used to make him sick, but he was hungry, now he feels greedy when he sees them, and feels delicious when he smells them.Several times he held the plate in his hand for whole hours, his eyes fixed on the morsel of rotten meat or fish and the moldy black bread on it.The last survival instincts still fought inside him, and at times shook his resolve.At this time, the black prison seemed less gloomy, and his situation was less hopeless.He was still young, about twenty-five or so, and had almost fifty years to live, which meant twice as many years as he had already lived.In these long years, how many violent storms will knock open the gate of Chateau d'If, tear down its walls, and finally return him to freedom! This voluntary son of Zeus, the main god of Tantalus in Greek mythology, was punished forever for leaking secrets Do not drink or eat.He pushed the food away from his mouth, but at this time he raised the food to his lips again, but he remembered his oath, he was a noble man, and he was most afraid of breaking his oath, so he ruthlessly Continue to obliterate the last remaining bit of life.Finally one day he had no strength to stand up and throw the dinner he had brought out of the transom.The next day he could not see anything, and could hardly hear a sound. The guards thought that he had some serious illness, and Edmund himself hoped to die early.

And so the day passed.Edmund felt that his mind was gradually dull, and his body and mind were not without comfort.The stomach cramps had ceased, and so had the violent thirst, and when he closed his eyes he saw only the flickering lights, like clusters of will-o'-the-wisps, floating on the muddy ground at night, which is the birth of the land that the world calls death. twilight.At about nine o'clock in the evening, he suddenly heard a dull sound from the wall behind him.

Countless boring animals always came to the cell and made all kinds of noises. Edmund had grown accustomed to hearing them, and he was not afraid of such noises when he slept.But this time, maybe his senses were more sensitive after fasting, maybe the sound was indeed louder than usual, maybe everything had a meaning in his dying day, anyway, Edmund raised his head to hear clearly .What I heard was a very uniform scratching sound, like a giant claw scratching, a strong tooth gnawing, or some kind of tool squeezing stone bricks.The young man's brain was exhausted, but at once the very banal idea that all prisoners think about all the time - freedom.The voice came neither sooner nor later, just when all voices were about to die in his ears, and he felt that God had at last shown mercy to all his suffering, and sent this voice as a warning to him, and he I have reached the edge of the grave, and one foot is trembling in the grave, and now it is time to turn back.When he was brooding, he often thought of his friends and relatives. Could it be that some of them were thinking about him, trying to shorten the distance that separated them? But wrong, Edmund must have misheard, the great death There are all kinds of dreams floating in front of the door, and this is just one of them.But Edmund was still listening to the voice.The sound went on for about three hours, and then there was the sound of something collapsing, and then there was no sound at all.Hours later the sound came again, louder and closer.This movement attracted Edmond's attention, and brought him company.Suddenly the guard came in.

It has been seven or eight days since he decided to die, and it has been four days since he actually started to implement his plan.Edmond never said a word to the guard. The guard talked to him and asked him if he felt sick, but he didn't answer. The guard saw that he was looking too seriously, so he turned around and faced the wall. .But today the guards would probably hear the muffled groan, and would start a fuss, interrupting it forever, and disturbing the only ray of hope that Dantès felt at the end of his life, which was actually difficult to articulate.

The guard brought him breakfast.Dantès lifted his body from the bed, rambling and rambling, why did the food delivered was bad, and the prison was too cold, muttering about this and that, remembering He yelled a few more words, which annoyed the guard.The guard saw that he was sick, so he ordered a soup and fresh bread for him on this day.Fortunately, the guard thought that Dantès was talking nonsense with a high fever, and, as usual, he put his food on the crumbling table and left.As soon as no one was watching, Edmund sounded excitedly again.

The voice was now so clear that Edmund could hear it without much effort. "It's too clear," he said to himself, "that it's broad daylight, and the voices are still ringing, that some prisoner as unfortunate as myself is trying to be free. Oh, if I'm with him, I must Help him!" However, his mind has been used to misfortune, and it is not so easy to regain the joy of ordinary people, and the light of hope in his mind was once again covered by a cloud, and he immediately thought that this voice was the commander's voice. It was made by sending workers to repair the cell next door.

It is not difficult to find out whether this is really the case, but how dare you ask such a question? Of course, the easiest way is to wait for the guard to come, tell him to listen to the sound, and then see how he looks when he listens.But although this is satisfactory, isn't it just ruining the very precious benefits with the momentary pleasure? Unfortunately, Edmond's mind is empty at this moment, and when he has any thoughts, he is buzzing, and his brain is numb from the noise.He is very weak, his mind is like floating water vapor, and he can't condense on a certain specific idea.Edmund knew that there was only one way to restore his clear thinking and clear judgment.He turned his eyes to the steaming soup that the guard put on the table just now, stood up and staggered over, took the soup pot to his lips, and swallowed the soup with an indescribable sense of comfort. drink up.But he bite the bullet and eat such a little food. He has heard before that the survivors of the sea are all starving, but after being rescued, they die because of overeating and drinking.Edmund put the bread that was almost in his mouth back on the table, and went back to bed and lay down.He no longer wants to die.

(End of this chapter)