sufficient presence of
mind to hold his breath; and as his right hand held his knife, he
rapidly ripped up the sack, extricated his arm, and then, by a desperate
effort, severed the cord that bound his legs at the moment he was
suffocating. With a vigorous spring he rose to the surface, paused to
breathe, and then dived again, in order to avoid being seen. When he
rose again, he struck boldly out to sea, and, fortunately, was picked up
by a sailing-vessel.

Now at liberty, fourteen years after his arrest, he renewed an oath of
implacable vengeance against Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort. Nor was
it long before he had discovered the secret cave in the island of Monte
Cristo, with all its dazzling wealth, as the Abbe Faria had truly
foretold. He now stood possessed of such means of vengeance as never in
his wildest dreams had any innocent prisoner hoped to be able to
command.

_III.--Vengeance Begins_

Some two years later Caspar Caderousse, the keeper of an inn near
Beaucaire, was lounging listlessly at his door, when a traveller on
horseback dismounted at his door and entered. The visitor--Monte
Cristo--gave the name of Abbe Busoni, and astonished Caderousse by
showing a minute knowledge of his earlier history. The abbe explained
that he had been present at the death of Edmond Dantes in prison, and
said that even in his dying moments the prisoner had protested he was
utterly ignorant of the cause of his imprisonment.

"And so he was!" exclaimed Caderousse. "How should he have been
otherwise?"

The abbe had heard of the death of Edmond's aged father, and now he was
told the old man had died of starvation.

"Thus Heaven recompenses virtue," said Caderousse. "I am in destitution
and shall die of hunger, as old Dantes did, whilst Fernand and Danglars
roll in wealth. All their malpractices have turned to luck. Danglars
speculated and made a fortune. He is a millionaire, and now Count
Danglars. Fernand played traitor at the battle of Ligny, and that served
for his recommendation to the Bourbons. Afterwards he became Count de
Morcerf, and got a considerable sum by the betrayal of Ali Pasha in the
Greek war of independence."

The abbe, making an effort, said, "And Mercedes--she disappeared?"

"Yes, as the sun, to rise next day with more splendour. She is rich, the
Countess de Morcerf--she waited two hopeless years for Dantes--and yet I
am sure she is not happy."

"And M. de Villefort?" asked the abbe.

"Some