all I must get there."

He went back to the room where he had left Monte Cristo. Five minutes
had sufficed to make a complete transformation in his appearance. His
voice had become rough and hoarse; his face was furrowed with wrinkles;
his eyes burned under the blue-veined lids, and he tottered like a
drunken man. "Count," said he, "I thank you for your hospitality, which
I would gladly have enjoyed longer; but I must return to Paris."

"What has happened?"

"A great misfortune, more important to me than life. Don't question me,
I beg of you, but lend me a horse."

"My stables are at your command, viscount; but you will kill yourself by
riding on horseback. Take a post-chaise or a carriage."

"No, it would delay me, and I need the fatigue you warn me of; it will
do me good." Albert reeled as if he had been shot, and fell on a chair
near the door. Monte Cristo did not see this second manifestation of
physical exhaustion; he was at the window, calling, "Ali, a horse for
M. de Morcerf--quick! he is in a hurry!" These words restored Albert;
he darted from the room, followed by the count. "Thank you!" cried he,
throwing himself on his horse. "Return as soon as you can, Florentin.
Must I use any password to procure a horse?"

"Only dismount; another will be immediately saddled." Albert hesitated a
moment. "You may think my departure strange and foolish," said the young
man; "you do not know how a paragraph in a newspaper may exasperate one.
Read that," said he, "when I am gone, that you may not be witness of my
anger."

While the count picked up the paper he put spurs to his horse, which
leaped in astonishment at such an unusual stimulus, and shot away
with the rapidity of an arrow. The count watched him with a feeling of
compassion, and when he had completely disappeared, read as follows:--

"The French officer in the service of Ali Pasha of Yanina alluded to
three weeks since in the Impartial, who not only surrendered the castle
of Yanina, but sold his benefactor to the Turks, styled himself truly at
that time Fernand, as our esteemed contemporary states; but he has since
added to his Christian name a title of nobility and a family name. He
now calls himself the Count of Morcerf, and ranks among the peers."

Thus the terrible secret, which Beauchamp had so generously destroyed,
appeared again like an armed phantom; and another paper, deriving its
information from some malicious source, had published two days after