f to the superior authorities was come,
sprang forward with clasped hands.

The soldiers interposed their bayonets, for they thought that he was
about to attack the inspector, and the latter recoiled two or three
steps. Dantes saw that he was looked upon as dangerous. Then, infusing
all the humility he possessed into his eyes and voice, he addressed the
inspector, and sought to inspire him with pity.

The inspector listened attentively; then, turning to the governor,
observed, "He will become religious--he is already more gentle; he is
afraid, and retreated before the bayonets--madmen are not afraid of
anything; I made some curious observations on this at Charenton." Then,
turning to the prisoner, "What is it you want?" said he.

"I want to know what crime I have committed--to be tried; and if I am
guilty, to be shot; if innocent, to be set at liberty."

"Are you well fed?" said the inspector.

"I believe so; I don't know; it's of no consequence. What matters
really, not only to me, but to officers of justice and the king, is that
an innocent man should languish in prison, the victim of an infamous
denunciation, to die here cursing his executioners."

"You are very humble to-day," remarked the governor; "you are not
so always; the other day, for instance, when you tried to kill the
turnkey."

"It is true, sir, and I beg his pardon, for he his always been very good
to me, but I was mad."

"And you are not so any longer?"

"No; captivity has subdued me--I have been here so long."

"So long?--when were you arrested, then?" asked the inspector.

"The 28th of February, 1815, at half-past two in the afternoon."

"To-day is the 30th of July, 1816,--why it is but seventeen months."

"Only seventeen months," replied Dantes. "Oh, you do not know what is
seventeen months in prison!--seventeen ages rather, especially to a man
who, like me, had arrived at the summit of his ambition--to a man, who,
like me, was on the point of marrying a woman he adored, who saw an
honorable career opened before him, and who loses all in an instant--who
sees his prospects destroyed, and is ignorant of the fate of his
affianced wife, and whether his aged father be still living! Seventeen
months captivity to a sailor accustomed to the boundless ocean, is a
worse punishment than human crime ever merited. Have pity on me,
then, and ask for me, not intelligence, but a trial; not pardon, but a
verdict--a trial, sir, I ask only for a trial; t