Danglars followed Edmond and Mercedes with his eyes untilthe two lovers disappeared behind one of the angles of FortSaint Nicolas, then turning round, he perceived Fernand, whohad fallen, pale and trembling, into his chair, whileCaderousse stammered out the words of a drinking-song.

"Well, my dear sir," said Danglars to Fernand, "here is amarriage which does not appear to make everybody happy."

"It drives me to despair," said Fernand.

"Do you, then, love Mercedes?"

"I adore her!"

"For long?"

"As long as I have known her - always."

"And you sit there, tearing your hair, instead of seeking toremedy your condition; I did not think that was the way ofyour people."

"What would you have me do?" said Fernand.

"How do I know? Is it my affair? I am not in love withMademoiselle Mercedes; but for you - in the words of thegospel, seek, and you shall find."

"I have found already."

"What?"

"I would stab the man, but the woman told me that if anymisfortune happened to her betrothed, she would killherself."

"Pooh! Women say those things, but never do them."

"You do not know Mercedes; what she threatens she will do."

"Idiot!" muttered Danglars; "whether she kill herself ornot, what matter, provided Dantes is not captain?"

"Before Mercedes should die," replied Fernand, with theaccents of unshaken resolution, "I would die myself!"

"That's what I call love!" said Caderousse with a voice moretipsy than ever. "That's love, or I don't know what loveis."

"Come," said Danglars, "you appear to me a good sort offellow, and hang me, I should like to help you, but" -

"Yes," said Caderousse, "but how?"

"My dear fellow," replied Danglars, "you are three partsdrunk; finish the bottle, and you will be completely so.Drink then, and do not meddle with what we are discussing,for that requires all one's wit and cool judgment."

"I - drunk!" said Caderousse; "well that's a good one! Icould drink four more such bottles; they are no bigger thancologne flasks. Pere Pamphile, more wine!" and Caderousserattled his glass upon the table.

"You were saving, sir" - said Fernand, awaiting with greatanxiety the end of this interrupted remark.

"What was I saying? I forget. This drunken Caderousse hasmade me lose the thread of my sentence."

"Drunk, if you like; so much the worse for those who fearwine, for it is because they have bad thoughts which theyare afraid the liquor will extract from their hearts;" andCaderousse began to sing the two last lines of a song verypopular at the time, -

`Tous les mechants sont beuveurs d'eau;C'est bien prouve par le deluge.'*

"The wicked are great drinkers of waterAs the flood proved once for all."

"You said, sir, you would like to help me, but" -

"Yes; but I added, to help you it would be sufficient thatDantes did not marry her you love; and the marriage mayeasily be thwarted, methinks, and yet Dantes need not die."

"Death alone can separate them," remarked Fernand.

"You talk like a noodle, my friend," said Caderousse; "andhere is Danglars, who is a wide-awake, clever, deep fellow,who will prove to you that you are wrong. Prove it,Danglars. I have answered for you. Say there is no need whyDantes should die; it would, indeed, be a pity he should.Dantes is a good fellow; I like Dantes. Dantes, yourhealth."

Fernand rose impatiently. "Let him run on," said Danglars,restraining the young man; "drunk as he is, he is not muchout in what he says. Absence severs as well as death, and ifthe walls of a prison were between Edmond and Mercedes theywould be as effectually separated as if he lay under atombstone."

"Yes; but one gets out of prison," said Caderousse, who,with what sense was left him, listened eagerly to theconversation, "and when one gets out and one's name isEdmond Dantes, one seeks revenge" -

"What matters that?" muttered Fernand.

"And why, I should like to know," persisted Caderousse,"should they put Dantes in prison? he has not robbed orkilled or murdered."

"Hold your tongue!" said Danglars.

"I won't hold my tongue!" replied Caderousse; "I say I wantto know why they should put Dantes in prison; I like Dantes;Dantes, your health!" and he swallowed another glass ofwine.

Danglars saw in the muddled look of the tailor the progressof his intoxication, and turning towards Fernand, said,"Well, you understand there is no need to kill him."

"Certainly not, if, as you said just now, you have the meansof having Dantes arrested. Have you that means?"

"It is to be found for the searching. But why should Imeddle in the matter? it is no affair of mine.";

"I know not why you meddle," said Fernand, seizing his arm;"but this I know, you have some motive of personal hatredagainst Dantes, for he who himself hates is never mistakenin the sentiments of others."

"I! - motives of hatred against Dantes? None, on my word! Isaw you were unhappy, and your unhappiness interested me;that's all; but since you believe I act for my own account,adieu, my dear friend, get out of the affair as best youmay;" and Danglars rose as if he meant to depart.

"No, no," said Fernand, restraining him, "stay! It is ofvery little consequence to me at the end of the matterwhether you have any angry feeling or not against Dantes. Ihate him! I confess it openly. Do you find the means, I willexecute it, provided it is not to kill the man, for Mercedeshas declared she will kill herself if Dantes is killed."

Caderousse, who had let his head drop on the table, nowraised it, and looking at Fernand with his dull and fishyeyes, he said, - "Kill Dantes! who talks of killing Dantes?I won't have him killed - I won't! He's my friend, and thismorning offered to share his money with me, as I shared minewith him. I won't have Dantes killed - I won't!"

"And who has said a word about killing him, muddlehead?"replied Danglars. "We were merely joking; drink to hishealth," he added, filling Caderousse's glass, "and do notinterfere with us."

"Yes, yes, Dantes' good health!" said Caderousse, emptyinghis glass, "here's to his health! his health - hurrah!"

"But the means - the means?" said Fernand.

"Have you not hit upon any?" asked Danglars.

"No! - you undertook to do so."

"True," replied Danglars; "the French have the superiorityover the Spaniards, that the Spaniards ruminate, while theFrench invent."

"Do you invent, then," said Fernand impatiently.

"Waiter," said Danglars, "pen, ink, and paper."

"Pen, ink, and paper," muttered Fernand.

"Yes; I am a supercargo; pen, ink, and paper are my tools,and without my tools I am fit for nothing."

"Pen, ink, and paper, then," called Fernand loudly.

"There's what you want on that table," said the waiter.

"Bring them here." The waiter did as he was desired.

"When one thinks," said Caderousse, letting his hand drop onthe paper, "there is here wherewithal to kill a man moresure than if we waited at the corner of a wood toassassinate him! I have always had more dread of a pen, abottle of ink, and a sheet of paper, than of a sword orpistol."

"The fellow is not so drunk as he appears to be," saidDanglars. "Give him some more wine, Fernand." Fernand filledCaderousse's glass, who, like the confirmed toper he was,lifted his hand from the paper and seized the glass.

The Catalan watched him until Caderousse, almost overcome bythis fresh assault on his senses, rested, or rather dropped,his glass upon the table.

"Well!" resumed the Catalan, as he saw the final glimmer ofCaderousse's reason vanishing before the last glass of wine.

"Well, then, I should say, for instance," resumed Danglars,"that if after a voyage such as Dantes has just made, inwhich he touched at the Island of Elba, some one were todenounce him to the king's procureur as a Bonapartist agent"-

"I will denounce him!" exclaimed the young man hastily.

"Yes, but they will make you then sign your declaration, andconfront you with him you have denounced; I will supply youwith the means of supporting your accusation, for I know thefact well. But Dantes cannot remain forever in prison, andone day or other he will leave it, and the day when he comesout, woe betide him who was the cause of his incarceration!"

"Oh, I should wish nothing better than that he would comeand seek a quarrel with me."

"Yes, and Mercedes! Mercedes, who will detest you if youhave only the misfortune to scratch the skin of her dearlybeloved Edmond!"

"True!" said Fernand.

"No, no," continued Danglars; "if we resolve on such a step,it would be much better to take, as I now do, this pen, dipit into this ink, and write with the left hand (that thewriting may not be recognized) the denunciation we propose."And Danglars, uniting practice with theory, wrote with hisleft hand, and in a writing reversed from his usual style,and totally unlike it, the following lines, which he handedto Fernand, and which Fernand read in an undertone: -

"The honorable, the king's attorney, is informed by a friendof the throne and religion, that one Edmond Dantes, mate ofthe ship Pharaon, arrived this morning from Smyrna, afterhaving touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, has beenintrusted by Murat with a letter for the usurper, and by theusurper with a letter for the Bonapartist committee inParis. Proof of this crime will be found on arresting him,for the letter will be found upon him, or at his father's,or in his cabin on board the Pharaon."

"Very good," resumed Danglars; "now your revenge looks likecommon-sense, for in no way can it revert to yourself, andthe matter will thus work its own way; there is nothing todo now but fold the letter as I am doing, and write upon it,`To the king's attorney,' and that's all settled." AndDanglars wrote the address as he spoke.

"Yes, and that's all settled!" exclaimed Caderousse, who, bya last effort of intellect, had followed the reading of theletter, and instinctively comprehended all the misery whichsuch a denunciation must entail. "Yes, and that's allsettled; only it will be an infamous shame;" and hestretched out his hand to reach the letter.

"Yes," said Danglars, taking it from beyond his reach; "andas what I say and do is merely in jest, and I, amongst thefirst and foremost, should be sorry if anything happened toDantes - the worthy Dantes - look here!" And taking theletter, he squeezed it up in his hands and threw it into acorner of the arbor.

"All right!" said Caderousse. "Dantes is my friend, and Iwon't have him ill-used."

"And who thinks of using him ill? Certainly neither I norFernand," said Danglars, rising and looking at the youngman, who still remained seated, but whose eye was fixed onthe denunciatory sheet of paper flung into the corner.

"In this case," replied Caderousse, "let's have some morewine. I wish to drink to the health of Edmond and the lovelyMercedes."

"You have had too much already, drunkard," said Danglars;"and if you continue, you will be compelled to sleep here,because unable to stand on your legs."

"I?" said Caderousse, rising with all the offended dignityof a drunken man, "I can't keep on my legs? Why, I'll wagerI can go up into the belfry of the Accoules, and withoutstaggering, too!"

"Done!" said Danglars, "I'll take your bet; but to-morrow - to-day it is time to return. Give me your arm, and let usgo."

"Very well, let us go," said Caderousse; "but I don't wantyour arm at all. Come, Fernand, won't you return toMarseilles with us?"

"No," said Fernand; "I shall return to the Catalans."

"You're wrong. Come with us to Marseilles - come along."

"I will not."

"What do you mean? you will not? Well, just as you like, myprince; there's liberty for all the world. Come along,Danglars, and let the young gentleman return to the Catalansif he chooses."

Danglars took advantage of Caderousse's temper at themoment, to take him off towards Marseilles by the PorteSaint-Victor, staggering as he went.

When they had advanced about twenty yards, Danglars lookedback and saw Fernand stoop, pick up the crumpled paper, andputting it into his pocket then rush out of the arbortowards Pillon.

"Well," said Caderousse, "why, what a lie he told! He saidhe was going to the Catalans, and he is going to the city.Hallo, Fernand!"

"Oh, you don't see straight," said Danglars; "he's goneright enough."

"Well," said Caderousse, "I should have said not - howtreacherous wine is!"

"Come, come," said Danglars to himself, "now the thing is atwork and it will effect its purpose unassisted."