The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas

‘The wicked do not die in that way: God seems to take them under his protection to use them as the instruments of his vengeance.’

Here, on the green surface, a frog and a toad had taken up residence, but always on opposite sides of the circle, with their backs turned to one another, owing no doubt to some incompatibility of temperament.

‘You are a delightful guide. Now, will you do something for me?’ ‘What?’ ‘Don’t introduce these gentlemen to me and, if they ask to be introduced to me, give me good warning.’

‘Are you abandoning me, then, doctor?’ ‘Yes, because I cannot go further with you down this road, which leads only to the foot of the scaffold.

‘Because this evening your fever and delirium are gone, you are entirely awake and midnight is striking. This is the murderer’s hour.’

M. de Villefort, a pure Parisian, considered the Père-Lachaise cemetery the only one worthy of receiving the mortal remains of a Parisian family. The others appeared to him like country cemeteries, death’s lodging-houses. Only in the Père-Lachaise could the respectable departed be accommodated at home.