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The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 3 The Catalans

Word Count: 3975    |    Released on: 15/03/2018

ong ago this mysterious colony quitted Spain, and settled on the tongue of land on which it is to this day. Whence it came no one knew, and it spoke an unknown tongue. One of its

anner, half Moorish, half Spanish, still remains, and is inhabited by descendants of the first comers, who speak the language of their fathers. For three or four centuries they have remained upon this small promontory, on whi

, rubbing in her slender delicately moulded fingers a bunch of heath blossoms, the flowers of which she was picking off and strewing on the floor; her arms, bare to the elbow, brown, and modelled after those of the Arlesian Venus, moved with a kind of restless impatience, and she tapped the earth with her arched and supple foot, so as to display the pure and full shape of her well-turned leg, in i

n, "here is Easter come round again; te

mes, Fernand, and really you must

had your mother's sanction. Make me understand once for all that you are trifling with my happiness, that my life or death are nothing to

reproach me with the slightest coquetry. I have always said to you, 'I love you as a brother; but do

"Yes, you have been cruelly frank with me; but do you forg

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with nothing but a half-ruined hut and a few ragged nets, the miserable inheritance left by my father to my mother, and by my mother to me? She has been dead a year, and you know, Fernand, I have subsisted almost entirely on public charity. Sometimes you pretend I am useful to you, and that is an excuse to share with me the produce of your fish

of the first shipowner or the richest banker of Marseilles! What do such as we desire but

will remain an honest woman, when she loves another man better than her husband? Rest content with my f

Well, Mercédès, beloved by you, I would tempt fortune; you would bring me good luck, and I should become rich. I coul

remain at the Catalans it is because there is no war; so remain a fi

our fathers, which you despise, I will wear a varnished hat, a striped shirt, a

, with an angry glance, -"what do

se you are expecting someone who is thus attired; but perhaps he wh

a gesture of rage. "I understand you, Fernand; you would be revenged on him because I do not love you; you would cross your Catalan knife with his dirk. What end would that answer? To lose you my friendship if he were conquered, and see that friendship changed into hate if you were victor. Believe me, to seek a quarrel with a man is a bad method of pleasing the woman who loves that man. No, F

uld have shed his heart's blood; but these tears flowed for another. He arose, paced a while up and down the hut, and then, suddenly stopping

girl calmly replied, "and none bu

ill always

ng as

as like a groan, and then suddenly looking her full in the face, wi

ead, I shal

s forgott

joyous voice from w

in excess of love, "you see he has not forgotten me, for here he is!" And

vered them with a flood of light. At first they saw nothing around them. Their intense happiness isolated them from all the rest of the world, and they only spoke in broken words, which are the tokens of a joy so extreme that they seem rather the expr

I did not perceive that there were three of us." Then, t

my cousin, my brother; it is Fernand-the man whom, after you,

air. But Fernand, instead of responding to this amiable gesture, remained mute and trembling. Edmond then cast his eyes scrutinizingly at

with such haste to you, that

house, do you say, Edmond! If I believed that, I would place my arm under yo

lmness which proved to Fernand that the young girl had read the very innermost depths of his sinister thought, "if mis

he continued. "You have no enemy here-there is no one but Fern

ffered him his hand. His hatred, like a powerless though furious wave, was broken against the strong ascendancy which Mercédès exercised

tearing his hair-"Oh, who will deliver me f

rnand! where are you runni

ound him, and perceived Caderousse sittin

re you really in such a hurry that you have no

fore them, " added Danglars. Fernand looked at them

rousse with his knee. "Are we mistaken, and is Da

e's reply; and turning towards the young man, sa

ered the arbor, whose shade seemed to restore somewhat of calmness to his

you?" And he fell, rather than sat down, on

the sea, " said Caderousse, laughing. "Why, when a man has friends, they are not only to offer him

a sob, and dropped his head into his h

that brutality of the common people in which curiosity destroys all diplomacy,

ke was not born to be unhappy in love.

d, " said Caderousse, "hold up your head, and answer us. It's

said Fernand, clenching his h

brave Catalan, one of the best fishermen in Marseilles, and he is in love with a very fine girl, named Mercédès; but it appears,

understand, "

een dismissed, " co

sse like a man who looks for someone on whom to vent his anger; "Mercédès is not

were a Catalan, and they told me the Catalans were not men to allow themselves to be supplan

sly. "A lover is neve

"Why, you see, he did not expect to see Dantès return so suddenly-he thought he was dead, perhap

n whom the fumes of the wine began to take effect, -"under any circumstances Fernand

I should say that wou

ling his own for the eighth or ninth time, while Danglars had merely sipped his. "Never mi

ng glance on the young man, on whose heart

he wedding to

yet fixed!" mur

sse, "as surely as Dantès will be c

ance he scrutinized, to try and detect whether the blow was premeditated; but he read

"let us drink to Captain Edmond Dantè

h unsteady hand, and swallowed the contents

our eyes are better than mine. I believe I see double. You know wine is a deceiver; but I should say it was two lovers walkin

lose one pang tha

them, Ferna

in a low voice. "It i

lo, Dantès! hello, lovely damsel! Come this way, and let us know when the

tenacity of drunkards, leaned out of the arbor. "Try to stand upright, and let the lovers make

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elf to dash headlong upon his rival, when Mercédès, smiling and graceful, lifted up her lovely head, and looked at them with her clear and bright eyes. At this Fernand recollected her t

o sees the woman he loves stolen from under his nose and takes on like a big baby. Yet this Catalan has eyes that glisten like those of the vengeful Spaniards, Sicilians, and Calabrians, and the other has fists big enough to crush an ox at on

his fist on the table, "hallo, Edmond! do you not see

I am not proud, but I am happy, and hap

lanation!" said Caderousse. "

ry it bodes ill fortune, they say, to call a young girl by the name of her

ghbor, Caderousse, " said Dant

ace immediately, M. Dantès, " said D

, and tomorrow, or next day at latest, the wedding festival here at La Réserve. My friends

rousse with a chuckle; "F

mond; "and we, Mercédès and I, should be ve

y, but his voice died on his lip

rrow or next day the ceremony!

rcédès said just now to Caderousse, 'Do not give me a title

emed in a hurry, and we have lots of time; the Pharaon

ed a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune. But

ll it be the first time you h

es

u busine

lere; you know to what I allude, Danglars-it is sacred.

e grand marshal gave him. Ah, this letter gives me an idea-a capital idea! Ah; Dantès, my friend, you are not yet registered n

the two lovers continued on their way, as calm an

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1 Chapter 1 Marseilles-The Arrival2 Chapter 2 Father and Son3 Chapter 3 The Catalans4 Chapter 4 Conspiracy5 Chapter 5 The Marriage Feast6 Chapter 6 The Deputy Procureur du Roi7 Chapter 7 The Examination8 Chapter 8 The Chateau d'If9 Chapter 9 The Evening of the Betrothal10 Chapter 10 The King's Closet at the Tuileries11 Chapter 11 The Corsican Ogre12 Chapter 12 Father and Son13 Chapter 13 The Hundred Days14 Chapter 14 The Two Prisoners15 Chapter 15 Number 34 and Number 2716 Chapter 16 A Learned Italian17 Chapter 17 The Abbé's Chamber18 Chapter 18 The Treasure19 Chapter 19 The Third Attack20 Chapter 20 The Cemetery of the Chateau d'If21 Chapter 21 The Island of Tiboulen22 Chapter 22 The Smugglers23 Chapter 23 The Island of Monte Cristo24 Chapter 24 The Secret Cave25 Chapter 25 The Unknown26 Chapter 26 The Pont du Gard Inn27 Chapter 27 The Story28 Chapter 28 The Prison Register29 Chapter 29 The House of Morrel & Son30 Chapter 30 The Fifth of September31 Chapter 31 Italy Sinbad the Sailor32 Chapter 32 The Waking33 Chapter 33 Roman Bandits34 Chapter 34 The Colosseum35 Chapter 35 La Mazzolata36 Chapter 36 The Carnival at Rome37 Chapter 37 The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian38 Chapter 38 The Rendezvous39 Chapter 39 The Guests40 Chapter 40 The Breakfast41 Chapter 41 The Presentation42 Chapter 42 Monsieur Bertuccio43 Chapter 43 The House at Auteuil44 Chapter 44 The Vendetta45 Chapter 45 The Rain of Blood46 Chapter 46 Unlimited Credit47 Chapter 47 The Dappled Grays48 Chapter 48 Ideology49 Chapter 49 Haydée50 Chapter 50 The Morrel Family51 Chapter 51 Pyramus and Thisbe52 Chapter 52 Toxicology53 Chapter 53 Robert le Diable54 Chapter 54 A Flurry in Stocks55 Chapter 55 Major Cavalcanti56 Chapter 56 Andrea Cavalcanti57 Chapter 57 In the Lucern Patch58 Chapter 58 M. Noirtier de Villefort59 Chapter 59 The Will60 Chapter 60 The Telegraph61 Chapter 61 How a Gardener May Get Rid of the Dormice that Eat His Peaches62 Chapter 62 Ghosts63 Chapter 63 The Dinner64 Chapter 64 The Beggar65 Chapter 65 A Conjugal Scene66 Chapter 66 Matrimonial Projects67 Chapter 67 The Office of the King's Attorney68 Chapter 68 A Summer Ball69 Chapter 69 The Inquiry70 Chapter 70 The Ball71 Chapter 71 Bread and Salt72 Chapter 72 Madame de Saint-Méran73 Chapter 73 The Promise74 Chapter 74 The Villefort Family Vault75 Chapter 75 A Signed Statement76 Chapter 76 Progress of Cavalcanti the Younger77 Chapter 77 Haydée78 Chapter 78 We hear From Yanina79 Chapter 79 The Lemonade80 Chapter 80 The Accusation81 Chapter 81 The Room of the Retired Baker82 Chapter 82 The Burglary83 Chapter 83 The Hand of God84 Chapter 84 Beauchamp85 Chapter 85 The Journey86 Chapter 86 The Trial87 Chapter 87 The Challenge88 Chapter 88 The Insult89 Chapter 89 The Night90 Chapter 90 The Meeting91 Chapter 91 Mother and Son92 Chapter 92 The Suicide93 Chapter 93 Valentine94 Chapter 94 Maximilian's Avowal95 Chapter 95 Father and Daughter96 Chapter 96 The Contract97 Chapter 97 The Departure for Belgium98 Chapter 98 The Bell and Bottle Tavern99 Chapter 99 The Law100 Chapter 100 The Apparition