own, on which he had been kneeling when M. Villefort entered.
Thus the count was halfway turned towards his visitor, having his back
towards the window, his elbow resting on the geographical chart which
furnished the theme of conversation for the moment,--a conversation
which assumed, as in the case of the interviews with Danglars and
Morcerf, a turn analogous to the persons, if not to the situation. "Ah,
you philosophize," replied Villefort, after a moment's silence, during
which, like a wrestler who encounters a powerful opponent, he took
breath; "well, sir, really, if, like you, I had nothing else to do, I
should seek a more amusing occupation."

"Why, in truth, sir," was Monte Cristo's reply, "man is but an ugly
caterpillar for him who studies him through a solar microscope; but you
said, I think, that I had nothing else to do. Now, really, let me ask,
sir, have you?--do you believe you have anything to do? or to speak in
plain terms, do you really think that what you do deserves being called
anything?"

Villefort's astonishment redoubled at this second thrust so forcibly
made by his strange adversary. It was a long time since the magistrate
had heard a paradox so strong, or rather, to say the truth more exactly,
it was the first time he had ever heard of it. The procureur exerted
himself to reply. "Sir," he responded, "you are a stranger, and I
believe you say yourself that a portion of your life has been spent
in Oriental countries, so you are not aware how human justice, so
expeditious in barbarous countries, takes with us a prudent and
well-studied course."

"Oh, yes--yes, I do, sir; it is the pede claudo of the ancients. I know
all that, for it is with the justice of all countries especially that I
have occupied myself--it is with the criminal procedure of all nations
that I have compared natural justice, and I must say, sir, that it is
the law of primitive nations, that is, the law of retaliation, that I
have most frequently found to be according to the law of God."

"If this law were adopted, sir," said the procureur, "it would greatly
simplify our legal codes, and in that case the magistrates would not (as
you just observed) have much to do."

"It may, perhaps, come to this in time," observed Monte Cristo; "you
know that human inventions march from the complex to the simple, and
simplicity is always perfection."

"In the meanwhile," continued the magistrate, "our codes are in full
force, with all thei