their mouths.
Then, commencing a loud whistling noise, he rubbed them well all over
their bodies for several minutes; then, undisturbed by the noisy crowd
collected round the broken carriage, Ali quietly harnessed the pacified
animals to the count's chariot, took the reins in his hands, and mounted
the box, when to the utter astonishment of those who had witnessed
the ungovernable spirit and maddened speed of the same horses, he was
actually compelled to apply his whip in no very gentle manner before
he could induce them to start; and even then all that could be obtained
from the celebrated "dappled grays," now changed into a couple of dull,
sluggish, stupid brutes, was a slow, pottering pace, kept up with
so much difficulty that Madame de Villefort was more than two hours
returning to her residence in the Faubourg St. Honore.

Scarcely had the first congratulations upon her marvellous escape been
gone through when she wrote the following letter to Madame Danglars:--

Dear Hermine,--I have just had a wonderful escape from the most imminent
danger, and I owe my safety to the very Count of Monte Cristo we were
talking about yesterday, but whom I little expected to see to-day. I
remember how unmercifully I laughed at what I considered your eulogistic
and exaggerated praises of him; but I have now ample cause to admit that
your enthusiastic description of this wonderful man fell far short of
his merits. Your horses got as far as Ranelagh, when they darted forward
like mad things, and galloped away at so fearful a rate, that there
seemed no other prospect for myself and my poor Edward but that of being
dashed to pieces against the first object that impeded their progress,
when a strange-looking man,--an Arab, a negro, or a Nubian, at least
a black of some nation or other--at a signal from the count, whose
domestic he is, suddenly seized and stopped the infuriated animals, even
at the risk of being trampled to death himself; and certainly he must
have had a most wonderful escape. The count then hastened to us, and
took us into his house, where he speedily recalled my poor Edward to
life. He sent us home in his own carriage. Yours will be returned to you
to-morrow. You will find your horses in bad condition, from the results
of this accident; they seem thoroughly stupefied, as if sulky and vexed
at having been conquered by man. The count, however, has commissioned
me to assure you that two or three days' rest, with plenty of