ad made a
hole twice as large as the first. I thought I had been deceived--had
mistaken the spot. I turned around, I looked at the trees, I tried to
recall the details which had struck me at the time. A cold, sharp wind
whistled through the leafless branches, and yet the drops fell from my
forehead. I recollected that I was stabbed just as I was trampling
the ground to fill up the hole; while doing so I had leaned against a
laburnum; behind me was an artificial rockery, intended to serve as a
resting-place for persons walking in the garden; in falling, my hand,
relaxing its hold of the laburnum, felt the coldness of the stone. On my
right I saw the tree, behind me the rock. I stood in the same attitude,
and threw myself down. I rose, and again began digging and enlarging the
hole; still I found nothing, nothing--the chest was no longer there!"

"The chest no longer there?" murmured Madame Danglars, choking with
fear.

"Think not I contented myself with this one effort," continued
Villefort. "No; I searched the whole thicket. I thought the assassin,
having discovered the chest, and supposing it to be a treasure, had
intended carrying it off, but, perceiving his error, had dug another
hole, and deposited it there; but I could find nothing. Then the idea
struck me that he had not taken these precautions, and had simply thrown
it in a corner. In the last case I must wait for daylight to renew my
search. I remained in the room and waited."

"Oh, heavens!"

When daylight dawned I went down again. My first visit was to the
thicket. I hoped to find some traces which had escaped me in the
darkness. I had turned up the earth over a surface of more than twenty
feet square, and a depth of two feet. A laborer would not have done in
a day what occupied me an hour. But I could find nothing--absolutely
nothing. Then I renewed the search. Supposing it had been thrown aside,
it would probably be on the path which led to the little gate; but this
examination was as useless as the first, and with a bursting heart I
returned to the thicket, which now contained no hope for me."

"Oh," cried Madame Danglars, "it was enough to drive you mad!"

"I hoped for a moment that it might," said Villefort; "but that
happiness was denied me. However, recovering my strength and my ideas,
'Why,' said I, 'should that man have carried away the corpse?'"

"But you said," replied Madame Danglars, "he would require it as a
proof."

"Ah, no, madame, th