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MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER.
SEQUEL TO
ALEXANDER DUMAS'
GREAT NOVEL, THE "COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO," AND CONCLUSION OF "EDMOND
DANTES."
BY
EDMUND FLAGG
* * * * *
"MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER," a wonderfully brilliant, original,
exciting and absorbing novel, is the Sequel to "The Count of
Monte-Cristo," Alexander Dumas' masterwork, and the continuation
and conclusion of that great romance, "Edmond Dantes." It possesses
rare power, unflagging interest and an intricate plot that for
constructive skill and efficient development stands unrivalled.
Zuleika, the beautiful daughter of Monte-Cristo and Haydee, is the
heroine, and her suitor, the Viscount Giovanni Massetti, an ardent,
impetuous young Roman, the hero. The latter, through a flirtation
with a pretty flower-girl, Annunziata Solara, becomes involved in a
maze of suspicion that points to him as an abductor and an
assassin, causes his separation from Zuleika and converts him into
a maniac. The straightening out of these tangled complications
constitutes the main theme of the thrilling book. The novel abounds
in ardent love scenes and stirring adventures. The Count of
Monte-Cristo figures largely in it, and numerous Monte-Cristo
characters are introduced. "MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER" is the latest
addition to Petersons' famous series, consisting of "The Count of
Monte-Cristo," "Edmond Dantes," "The Countess of Monte-Cristo,"
"The Wife of Monte-Cristo," and "The Son of Monte-Cristo."
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
WM. L. ALLISON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS.
CONTENTS
Chapter. Page.
I. MONTE-CRISTO AND THE PRIMA DONNA 21
II. A STRANGELY SENT EPISTLE 33
III. THE INTRUDER IN THE CONVENT GARDEN 45
IV. A STORMY INTERVIEW 57
V. ANNUNZIATA SOLARA 69
VI. THE POWER OF A NAME 81
VII. IN THE PEASANT'S HUT 91
VIII. A SYLVAN IDYL 101
IX. THE ABDUCTION 112
X. THE COUNTESS OF MONTE-CRISTO 130
XI. THE BEGGAR AND HIS MATES 142
XII. FATHER AND DAUGHTER 156
XIII. MORCERF'S ADVENTURE 166
XIV. ZULEIKA AND MME. MORREL 183
XV. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING 195
XVI. AMID THE COLOSSEUM'S RUINS 206
XVII. PEPPINO'S STORY 218
XVIII. MORE OF PEPPINO'S STORY 228
XIX. THE MANIAC OF THE COLOSSEUM 238
XX. THE ISLE OF MONTE-CRISTO 248
XXI. ZULEIKA LEARNS THE TRUTH 264
XXII. THE WONDROUS PHYSICIAN 274
XXIII. A MODERN MIRACLE 285
XXIV. A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER 296
XXV. A VISIT TO THE REFUGE 306
XXVI. VAMPA AND MONTE-CRISTO 316
XXVII. THE BANDITS' REPRISALS 326
XXVIII. THE RAID ON THE BANDITS 336
XXIX. VAMPA'S TRIAL 346
XXX. JOY UNBOUNDED 363
MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER.
_SEQUEL TO ALEXANDER DUMAS' GREAT NOVEL, "THE COUNT OF
MONTE-CRISTO," AND CONTINUATION AND CONCLUSION OF "EDMOND DANTES."_
CHAPTER I.
MONTE-CRISTO AND THE PRIMA DONNA.
The Count of Monte-Cristo was in Rome. He had hired one of the numerous
private palaces, the Palazzo Costi, situated on a broad thoroughfare
near the point where the Ponte St. Angelo connects Rome proper with that
transtiberine suburb known as the Leonine City or Trastavere. The
impecunious Roman nobility were ever ready to let their palaces to
titled foreigners of wealth, and Ali, acting for the Count, had
experienced no difficulty in procuring for his master an abode that even
a potentate might have envied him. It was a lofty, commodious edifice,
built of white marble in antique architectural design, and commanded
from its ample balconies a fine view of the Tiber and its western shore,
upon which loomed up that vast prison and citadel, the Castle of St.
Angelo, and the largest palace in the world, the Vatican.
The Count of Monte-Cristo had always liked Rome because of its
picturesque, mysterious antiquity, but his present mission there had
nothing whatever to do with his individual tastes. He had fixed himself
for a time in the Eternal City that his daughter Zuleika, Haydee's[1]
child, might finish her education at a famous convent school conducted
under the auspices of the Sisterhood of the Sacred Heart.
Zuleika was fifteen years of age, but looked much older, having the
early maturity of the Greeks, whose ardent blood, on her dead mother's
side, flowed in her youthful veins. She had attained her full height,
and was tall and well-developed. She strongly resembled her mother,
possessing brilliant beauty of the dreamy, voluptuous oriental type. Her
hair was abundant and black as night. She had dark, flashing eyes,
pearly teeth, full ruby lips and feet and hands that were of fairylike
diminutiveness, as well as miracles of grace and dainty shapeliness. In
temperament she was more like Haydee than the Count, though she
possessed her father's quick decision and firmness, with the addition of
much of his enthusiasm.
The Palazzo Costi was magnificently furnished, so the Count had made no
alterations in that respect, bringing with him only the family wardrobe
and a portion of his library, consisting mainly of oriental manuscripts
written in weird, cabalistic characters and intelligible to no one but
himself.
The household was made up solely of the Count, his son Esperance,[2] his
daughter Zuleika, the faithful Nubian mute Ali and five or six male and
female domestics. Having no other object than his daughter's education,
the Count wished to live in as thorough retirement as he could, but it
was impossible for him to keep his presence a secret, and no sooner had
it become known that he was in Rome than he was besieged by hosts of
callers belonging to the highest nobility, mingled with whom came
numerous patriots, disciples of the unfortunate Savonarola,
distinguished for their firm devotion to the cause of Italian liberty.
At an early hour of the morning upon which this narrative opens the
Count of Monte-Cristo sat alone in a small apartment of the Palazzo
Costi, which had been arranged as his study and in which his precious
manuscripts were stored in closely locked cabinets. The Count had a copy
of a Roman newspaper before him, and his eyes were fixed on a paragraph
that seemed to have fascinated him as the serpent fascinates the bird.
The paragraph read as follows:
"Mlle. Louise d' Armilly, the famous prima donna, who will sing to-night
at the Apollo Theatre her great role of _Lucrezia Borgia_, has, it
appears, a deep impenetrable mystery surrounding her. She is French by
birth, and is said to be the daughter of a banker, who vanished under
peculiar circumstances, but, as she positively declines to speak of her
history, we can only give the rumors concerning her for what they are
worth. M. Leon d' Armilly, brother of the prima donna, who supports her
in Donizetti's opera, also refuses to be communicative. At any rate, the
mere hint of the mystery has already caused quite a flutter of
excitement in high society circles and that is sufficient to insure a
crowded house."
"Louise d' Armilly!" murmured the Count, half-audibly. "The name is
familiar, certainly, though where I have seen or heard it before I
cannot now recall. The lady is French by birth, the paper says, and that
fact, at least, is a sufficient pretext for me to visit her. I will call
on her as a fellow countryman, and the interview will demonstrate if she
is known to me."
The Count arose, went to his desk and, seating himself there, wrote the
following brief epistle:
"Edmond Dantes,[3] Count of Monte-Cristo, desires permission to call
upon Mlle. Louise d' Armilly at ten o'clock this morning. In this desire
M. Dantes is actuated solely by the wish to lay the homage of a
Frenchman at the feet of so distinguished an artiste of his own nation
as Mlle. d' Armilly."
Having finished, sealed and addressed this note, the Count touched a
bell which was immediately answered by the ever-watchful Nubian.
"Ali," said the Count, in the Arabic tongue, "take this letter to the
Hotel de France and wait for a reply."
The faithful servant bowed almost to the floor, took the missive and
departed. When he had gone, the Count walked the apartment with the long
strides habitual to him at such times as he was engrossed by some
all-powerful thought.
"Surely," he muttered, "this artiste can in no way interest me
personally, and yet I feel a subtile premonition that it would be wise
in me to see her."
He was still pacing the study when Ali returned. The Nubian's usually
impassible face bore traces of excitement and horror. He prostrated
himself at his master's feet and, with his visage pressed against the
floor, held up his hand, presenting to the Count the identical letter of
which he had been the bearer.
"Why, how is this, Ali?" asked the Count, frowning. "My letter sent back
without an answer. The seal has been broken, too. It must have been
read."
The mute slowly arose and began an eloquent pantomime which his master
readily translated into words: "You went to the Hotel de France and sent
up the letter. In ten minutes it was returned to you by the lady's
valet, who said all the answer the Count of Monte-Cristo deserved from
his mistress was written on the back."
Ali nodded his head in confirmation of his master's translation, looking
as if he expected to be severely reprimanded for being the bearer of
such an indignity. The Count, however, merely smiled. Curiosity rather
than anger predominated in him. He turned the letter over and read,
scrawled in pencil in a woman's hand, the following brief and
enigmatical but insulting communication:
"Any Frenchman save the ignominious M. Dantes, the so-called Count of
Monte-Cristo, would be welcome to Mlle. d' Armilly. That person she does
not wish to see and will not."
The Count was perplexed and also amused. The fervor of the prima donna
made him smile. He certainly did not know her, certainly had never seen
her. Why then was she so bitter against him? He could make nothing out
of it. Was it possible her name was really as familiar to him as it had
seemed? The irate artiste had surely heard of the Count of Monte-Cristo
and, therefore, could not be mistaken in regard to his identity, but in
what way could he have injured her or incurred her anger? The more he
thought of the matter the more perplexed he grew. As he was debating
within himself what action he ought to take, there was a knock at the
door and a domestic entered, handing him a card upon which was
inscribed: "Captain Joliette."
"Ha!" cried Monte-Cristo, "he comes in time. He will aid me in solving
this mystery."
He motioned Ali from the study, and directed the valet who had brought
the card to show the visitor up at once. In another instant Captain
Joliette entered the room. The Count sprang forward to greet him.
"Welcome, Captain," said he. "I have not seen you since our stirring
adventures in Algeria.[4] I hope you are well and happy. By the way,
what are you doing, in Rome? I was not aware you were here."
"I am here simply by chance," answered the young soldier, with a blush
that belied his words. "I was in Italy on a little pleasure trip and
naturally drifted to the Eternal City. I learned only this morning that
you were installed at the Palazzo Costi and instantly hastened to pay my
respects."
When their cordial greetings were over and they were seated side by side
upon a commodious sofa luxuriously upholstered in crimson silk, the
Count said, abruptly:
"Captain, did you ever hear of a French opera singer named Louise d'
Armilly?"
Again the young man colored deeply, a circumstance that did not escape
the close observation of his companion, who instantly divined that the
famous prima donna counted for more in the reasons that had brought the
Captain to Rome than that gallant warrior was willing to admit.
"Yes," stammered Joliette, "I have heard of her, and report says she is
a remarkably charming lady as well as a great artiste."
"Your tone is enthusiastic, my dear Captain," returned Monte-Cristo,
smiling pleasantly. "Perhaps you are acquainted with Mlle. d' Armilly."
"Well, to confess, Count," said Joliette, with a laugh, "I am acquainted
with her, and, curiously enough, part of my mission here to-day was to
ask you to occupy a box at the performance of 'Lucrezia Borgia' this
evening. Will you accept?"
"With genuine delight," was Monte-Cristo's ready answer. "I desire to
see this mysterious prima donna for more than one reason. In the first
place, her name is dimly familiar to me, though I cannot remember where
I ever heard it, and, in the second place, she flatly refused a visit
from me no later than this morning."
Joliette looked greatly surprised.
"Refused a visit from you, Count! I would not believe it did I not hear
it from your own lips. Mlle. d' Armilly must be mad! She surely cannot
know what an honor it is to receive a visit from the Count of
Monte-Cristo!"
The Count smiled in his peculiar way, and handed the Captain Mlle. d'
Armilly's singular reply to his note. The young man glanced at it in
amazement, reading it again and again; finally he stammered out:
"It is her handwriting, but what can she mean?"
"That is exactly what I would like to know, and I see by your manner and
words that you are powerless to enlighten me. Still, you can tell me who
this Mlle. d' Armilly is, and that will in all probability furnish me
with the key to her rather shabby treatment of me."
"My dear Count, I am acquainted with the young lady, it is true, but,
like yourself, I am in total ignorance so far as her history is
concerned. She is French, that is evident, and she has gone so far as
to admit to me that Louise d' Armilly is only her professional name,
but what her real name is she has more than once positively refused to
disclose to me. She is equally reticent as to the rumors afloat
regarding her. You are, doubtless, aware that she is reputed to be the
daughter of a French banker who mysteriously disappeared. This she
neither denies nor affirms; she merely maintains an obstinate silence
whenever it is mentioned in her presence."
"Your recital interests me greatly, Captain," said Monte-Cristo. "You
are more privileged than myself in that you enjoy the acquaintance of
this eccentric young lady, but she does not seem to repose a greater
degree of confidence in you than in me, for she has told you absolutely
nothing."
"Well," said Joliette, "you will see her to-night, at any rate, despite
her prohibition. She cannot keep you out of the theatre, for the box is
purchased and here are the tickets."
"But she will be angry with you, Captain," said the Count, slyly, "for
bringing such an undesirable auditor. I had better go alone and occupy
some obscure seat. I do not wish you to forfeit Mlle. d' Armilly's
smiles for me."
"Pshaw!" replied Joliette, "there is plainly some mistake. She does not
know you, will not recognize you. She has certainly confounded you with
some one else."
"Perhaps so," said Monte-Cristo; "but women's memories are good, and I
warn you that you are taking a grave risk."
"None whatever, I assure you. It is more than likely that, in answering
your note as she did, Mlle. d' Armilly was influenced solely by caprice.
If she should ask me after the performance who was my companion, I have
only to give you a fictitious name and she will be none the wiser."
That evening Captain Joliette and the Count of Monte-Cristo made their
way through the dense throng in front of the Apollo Theatre, and were
finally shown into a lower proscenium box commanding a full view of the
stage. Monte-Cristo instinctively sought refuge behind the curtains and
drapery of the box, where he could sit unobserved and yet be enabled to
closely scrutinize the mysterious singer who appeared to have such an
intense aversion for him.
Although still early the house was already crowded in every part, and
throngs were unable to gain even admission. The vast audience was made
up chiefly of the best and most fashionable society in Rome. It included
many of the highest nobility, who occupied the boxes they held for the
season. Everywhere the bright colored, elegant toilets of the ladies met
the eye, while the gentlemen were brilliant in fete attire. Fresh young
faces and noble old visages were side by side, the beauty of youth and
the impressiveness of age, and the male countenances were not less
striking than those of the females. Truly, it was a grand assemblage,
one that should delight the heart and flatter the vanity of even the
most capricious of prima donnas.
At first there was a low hum of conversation throughout the theatre,
together with preliminary visits from box to box, but the flutter began
to subside as the musicians appeared, and by the time they were in their
places in the orchestra absolute silence reigned. When the conductor
made his appearance he was greeted with a burst of applause, which he
gracefully acknowledged with a profound bow. Then he grasped his baton,
tapped lightly upon the rack in front of him, and the delightful
overture to Donizetti's great work commenced.
At its conclusion the curtain slowly rose and the opera began. Mlle. d'
Armilly came forth in due course, and the house fairly rung with
plaudits of welcome. She sang divinely and acted with consummate art,
receiving loud encores for all her numbers. Monte-Cristo who was
passionately fond of music, caught the prevailing enthusiasm and
gradually emerged from the shelter of the protecting curtains and
drapery. He had scanned Mlle. d' Armilly carefully through his
opera-glass and was thoroughly convinced that she was a perfect stranger
to him, although now and then a tone, a gesture or a movement of the
body vaguely conveyed a sense of recognition of some tone, gesture or
movement he had heard or seen somewhere before. The Count, however,
reflected that all women possessed certain points of resemblance in
voice and bearing; he, therefore, passed the present coincidences over
as purely accidental, thinking no more of them.
For a long while Mlle. d' Armilly did not glance at the box occupied by
Captain Joliette and the Count of Monte-Cristo,[5] and it was not until
the former threw her a costly wreath of flowers that she turned her eyes
in that direction. She was about bowing her acknowledgments, when her
gaze rested upon the stately form of the Count. Instantly she paused in
the centre of the stage, turned deadly pale beneath the paint of her
make-up, and, with a loud scream, fell in a swoon. The curtain was at
once rung down, and the director, stating that the prima donna had been
seized with sudden and alarming indisposition, dismissed the audience.
Captain Joliette rushed to Mlle. d' Armilly's dressing-room and the
Count of Monte-Cristo wended his way back to the Palazzo Costi, utterly
bewildered by what had taken place.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A full account of the life of Haydee, will be found in that great
romance "The Wife of Monte-Cristo," published complete and unabridged by
T. B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia.
[2] A full account of his life and of Esperance's remarkable career will
be found in that absorbing novel, "The Son of Monte-Cristo," published
complete and unabridged by T. B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia.
[3] For a full account of the life and career of "Edmond Dantes," one of
the most powerful and thrilling novels ever issued, see "Edmond Dantes,"
published complete and unabridged by T. B. Peterson & Brothers,
Philadelphia.
[4] See "The Son of Monte-Cristo," complete and unabridged edition,
published by T. B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia.
[5] For a full account of the life and remarkable career of "The Count
of Monte-Cristo," Alexander Dumas' masterpiece, one of the greatest
romances ever written, see the illustrated and unabridged edition of it,
published by T. B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia.