World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

185 Phantom
Valentine, as the prosecutor had told Madame Tangra, had not yet recovered.Indeed, she was exhausted and bedridden all the time, so it was only in her room that she learned from Mme. , or that Benedetto was arrested and brought to justice, what charges him with murder, and so on.But Valentine was so weak that she did not react to these events as she usually does when she is well.You know, at this time, what floated in her sickly head, or passed before her eyes, were only some vague thoughts and some vague phantoms, mixed with strange impressions and ethereal, fleeting The ghost of the ghost, and all of these disappeared in an instant, so all kinds of physical sensations slowly awakened.

During the day, Valentine's sanity was always clearer, because Noirquier was beside her. He had him pushed into the granddaughter's room, and watched her granddaughter with his kind eyes.Besides, Villefort, returning from the court, sat for an hour or two among his father and his daughter in Valentine's room. At six o'clock Villefort retired to his study. At eight o'clock Monsieur Avrini came and personally delivered the girl's evening potion, and the servant pushed Noirquier back to his room.At this moment the nurse, chosen by the doctor, came to replace them all, and did not leave until ten or eleven o'clock, when Valentine fell asleep.The nurse left the room and went downstairs, handing over the key to Valentine's room to M. de Villefort himself, so that no one could enter the patient's room except through Madame de Villefort's apartment and little Edward's bedroom.
Every morning Morrel came to Noirquier's room to inquire about Valentine's news. The situation surprised and delighted him, and his heart became more and more at ease every day.In the first place, Valentine, though still in a state of extreme agitation, was getting better every day; secondly, when he ran to Monte Cristo in a state of desperation that day, didn't Monte Cristo tell him that if Valentine was in two If she doesn't die within an hour, Valentine will be saved?Now four days have passed, and Valentine is still alive.

The state of exaltation we speak of occurs when Valentine is asleep, or rather, when she is just awake and still in a daze.At this time, the night was still and the room was dimly lit. Only the small lamp on the mantelpiece that had been on all night gave off a faint light through the crystal white lampshade. I feel that although I have a fever, I can vibrate my wings like a bird, making those ghosts flutter.At this time, she vaguely saw people coming and going, sometimes it was the stepmother who was waving her teeth and claws at her, sometimes it was Morrel who opened his arms to her, and sometimes it was some strangers like the Count of Monte Cristo who hardly communicated with each other.In this delirium, she felt that everything in the room, even the furniture, was swaying and moving.The girl lay in a trance like this, until two or three o'clock in the morning, and then fell asleep under the attack of drowsiness, and slept until dawn.

That morning Valentine heard that Eugenie had run away from home and that Benedetto had also been arrested. At night Valentine could not help thinking of these things with mixed feelings, thinking of her own situation. Not long after, these things disappeared like mist. Gradually faded from her mind.At this time, Villefort, Avrigny, and Noirquier left one after another, the big clock of St. Philip's Church in the Ruhr struck eleven o'clock, and the nurse placed Valentine's prescription for her by the nurse. Potion, came out of her room, closed the door, and went downstairs into the pantry.She listened to the chatter of the servants there, and she trembled with fright, and her mind was filled with the gruesome stories which had been told every evening in the antechamber of the Prosecutor's House for three months.The door of Valentine's room had already been tightly closed, but something unexpected happened in the room that night.

At that time, the female nurse had only left the room for about 10 minutes.Like every night, Valentine's fever had started again an hour ago, her brain was no longer controlled by her will, and her mind began to be in a trance again. There is no silence for a moment, but the same thoughts and phantoms are all over and over again.The little lamp that had been burning all night gave off a faint light, and the thousands of rays of light that shot from the wick all had strange and grotesque meanings.Suddenly, under this flickering yellow light, Valentine saw in a trance that the door of her study was slowly opening in the recess next to the fireplace, and she felt that although the hinges on the door were turning, there was no movement. sound.

At other times Valentine would have seized the ribbon hanging from the bell and rang it, and called for someone to come at once, but in the situation she was in she was not at all surprised.She knew that the hallucinations in front of her eyes were caused by her insanity, and the reason why she didn't panic was also because she knew that these ghosts that appeared at night would disappear by dawn, leaving no trace during the day.A figure appeared behind the door, and Valentine, who had been accustomed to seeing phantoms of one kind or another because of her fever, did not panic, but looked with wide-eyed eyes, hoping to recognize Morrel.The figure walked towards the bed, but stopped again, as if listening carefully for something.At this moment, a ray of light from the small lamp just fell on the face of the midnight visitor. "Not him!" she murmured.She waited quietly, because she always felt that she was dreaming, and the figure in front of her would be the same as the figure she saw in the dream, and finally disappear or become someone else.

But she felt for her pulse and felt it pounding, and then it occurred to her that she could dispel these disturbing phantoms by drinking water herself.Valentine's drink was very refreshing, and after she told the doctor how restless she was, the doctor had specially prepared it to calm her down. It not only brought down the fever, but also cleared her mind. Every time she drank it, she felt better for a short time.Valentine then reached for the glass on the crystal plate, but just as she stretched out her arms tremblingly from the bed, the figure before her took another two steps hastily towards the bed, and stood very close to the girl. In this place, Valentine heard the breathing of the figure, and felt that she was held down by one hand of the figure.Valentine had never seen such a phantom, or anything like it.She couldn't help but began to believe that she was really awake and not dreaming. She also felt that her mind was very clear, and she couldn't help shivering.Just now she felt being held down, but in fact it was preventing her from stretching her arm out of the bed, and Valentine slowly retracted her stretched arm.

She stared at the figure intently, as if it was here to protect her rather than hurt her.I saw the figure picking up the glass, leaning against the small lamp to check the water in the glass, as if checking whether the water was clear or not.But it was not enough just to see that the man, or rather the ghost, whose footsteps could not be heard on the carpet because he walked so lightly, poured a spoonful of water from the glass. Drink it in one gulp.Valentine was so terrified at what was happening right in front of her that she didn't know what to do.She was thinking that all of this would disappear soon, and that other phantoms might appear, but instead of disappearing immediately like a passing cloud, the man walked towards her, handed the glass to her, and looked at it affectionately. "Now you can drink," she said.

Valentine trembled with terror, for the first time the phantom she had seen spoke to her in such a sonorous voice.She opened her mouth to shout, but the man immediately covered his lips with his fingers. "Monsieur the Count of Monte Cristo!" she whispered.The girl's eyes were full of horror, her hands trembled, and she shrank under the blanket. It could be seen that the girl was in suspense, and she couldn't believe it was true.Of course, the presence of Monte Cristo in her room at this moment, and his entrance through the walls so mysteriously and incomprehensibly, seemed impossible to the bewildered Valentine.

"Don't cry, don't be afraid," said the count, "and don't even have the slightest doubt or uneasiness in your heart. You see someone before you, and this time you are right, Valentine, it is by no means a hallucination. , the man you see before you is the kindest father and the most honorable friend you ever saw in your dreams."

Valentine did not know how to answer, and was terrified at hearing this voice, for the presence of a voice indicated that someone was indeed speaking to her.She was also afraid to talk with her, but her frightened eyes seemed to say: "If you are pure in heart, why are you here now?"

The earl knew everything well, and immediately understood what the girl was thinking. "Listen," he said, "no, you'd better look at me, my eyes are red and paler than usual, because I haven't closed my eyes for four nights. I have been guarding you all night, to save your life for the sake of our friend Maximilian."

A blush of joy flashed across the sick man's cheeks, and as soon as the count uttered the name, the last doubts about the count disappeared in the girl's mind. "Maximilian!" cried Valentine softly, how sweet the name sounded to her. "Maximilian! So he told you everything?"

"Everything is said. He told me that your life was his life, and I promised him that you would live."

"You assured him that I would live?"

"Yes."

"That's true, sir. You were talking about vigilance and protection just now. So you're a doctor?"

"Yes, he is the best doctor God can send you at this time, trust me."

"Haven't you been on watch all night?" asked Valentine anxiously. "And where? I didn't see you."

The count pointed his finger towards the corner of the study. "I'm hiding behind that door, from which I can walk to the next house, which I have already rented."

Valentina suddenly looked proud and shy, turned her eyes away, and then said with horror: "Monsieur, what you are doing is really absurd. You say you are protecting me, but it seems like a great insult."

"Valentine," said the count, "I have spent so much time on watch, and all I have noticed are these few things, who came to your room, and what kind of food was prepared for you. , what drink was given to you. When I felt that these drinks might be dangerous, I came in as I did just now, poured out your glass, and exchanged the poison for a beneficial drink, so you drink Not only did you not be poisoned to death by others, but it made life circulate in your blood vessels."

"Poison? Death?" cried Valentine, thinking that she was suffering from some kind of feverish hallucination again. "What do you say, monsieur?"

"Hush! my child," said Monte Cristo again, putting his finger to his lips, "I said there was poison, yes, I said it would kill, and I might as well say it again, that it would kill. But first you drink the potion." Come on." The count took out a small bottle from his pocket, and poured a few drops of the red liquid medicine in the bottle into the glass, "After you drink this liquid medicine, don't drink anything else tonight. "

Valentine stretched out her hand, but as soon as it touched the glass she withdrew it in terror.Monte Cristo took the glass, drank half of it himself, and then handed it to Valentine, who smiled and drank the remaining half of the glass.

"Oh! yes," said Valentine, "I have tasted it, and it tastes like the water I drink every night, and it gives me a clearer chest and a less confused mind. Thank you, sir, thank you."

"That is why you have survived these four nights, Valentine," said the count; "and me, how have I survived? Oh! what a time I have survived for you." Cruel! oh! how dreadful were my torments for you! I trembled when I saw the deadly poison thrown into your glass, lest you should not wait for me The water is pouring into the fireplace, so drink it!"

"Say, sir," continued Valentine, already terrified, "that you were tortured because you saw deadly poison poured into my glass? But since you saw my glass Pour the poison into the cup, you must see who poured it, right?"

"Yes."

Valentine sat up in bed, and drew up the embroidered linen coverlet over her bosom, whiter than snow, which was already sweating with fever, when, from fear, she fell again. Many cold sweats. "Did you see this man?" asked the girl again.

"Yes," replied the count again.

"You speak terribly, sir, and what you want me to believe is a bit outrageous. What? I was in my father's house, I was in my room, I was in my hospital bed Lying on the bed, some people are still unwilling to give up, and they always want to kill me? Oh, please go back, sir, you are trying to confuse me, you are blasphemy, what you say is impossible, such a thing will never will not happen."

"Are you the first to bear the brunt of this hand, Valentine? Haven't you seen Monsieur Saint-Meran, Madame Saint-Meran, and Baroy fall beside you? If three years Wouldn't you have seen him fall too, hadn't M. Noirquier been protected by an attack of fire?"

"Oh, my God!" said Valentine, "is it for this reason that my grandfather has been making me drink the water specially prepared for him for a month?"

"And this water," exclaimed Monte Cristo, "is bitter like half-dried orange peel, is it not?"

"Yes, my God, it is!"

"Oh, now I fully understand," said Monte Cristo, "he also knows that someone is poisoning here, and perhaps who it is. You are his beloved granddaughter, and he has given you a kind of resistance to poison." , can resist this deadly poison, because you have already started to adapt, so this deadly poison has no effect after drinking, that's why you can survive. At first I couldn't figure out why , because you were poisoned four days ago, and the kind of poison you drank generally cannot be cured."

"But, this murderer, who is this murderer?"

"I want to ask you, have you never seen anyone come to your room at night?"

"Yes, I often feel that I see ghost-like shadows floating in front of my eyes. These shadows float over and over again, and finally disappear. But I thought I was having a fever, and this was an illusion. When you came in just now, Well, for a while I thought I was delirious, or dreaming."

"Then you don't know who exactly it is that wants to kill you?"

"I don't know," said Valentine, "why should anyone want me dead?"

"You will soon know who it is," said Monte Cristo, listening attentively.

"Why?" asked Valentine, looking around in bewilderment.

"Because you don't have a fever tonight, you're not delirious, because you're sober tonight, because it's striking twelve midnight, and that's the time for the murder."

"My God! My God!" said Valentine, wiping the drops of perspiration from her brow with her hands.

Sure enough, the bell rang at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, and the long bell rang sadly, as if the bronze hammer hit the girl's heart every time.

"Valentine," continued the count, "do your best to keep calm, don't let your heart beat wildly, don't make a sound in your throat, pretend to be asleep, and you will see, you will see. !"

Valentine took the count's hand. "I seem to hear something," she said, "you go!"

"I'm leaving, and it should be said that we will see you again soon," said the count.Then he smiled sadly and kindly, and the girl was filled with gratitude for seeing it.The count stood on tiptoe and walked gently to the door of the study. Just as he was about to walk away and close the door, he turned around and said to the girl, "Don't move, don't talk, you must act like you are Fell asleep, otherwise, people may kill you, and I will not come to rescue you in time." After urging like facing an enemy, the count disappeared behind the door, and the door was quietly closed again.

(End of this chapter)