stunned by his fall, would be immediately bound and gagged by Dantes
before he had power to offer any resistance. The prisoners were then to
make their way through one of the gallery windows, and to let themselves
down from the outer walls by means of the abbe's ladder of cords.
Dantes' eyes sparkled with joy, and he rubbed his hands with delight at
the idea of a plan so simple, yet apparently so certain to succeed.

That very day the miners began their labors, with a vigor and alacrity
proportionate to their long rest from fatigue and their hopes of
ultimate success. Nothing interrupted the progress of the work
except the necessity that each was under of returning to his cell in
anticipation of the turnkey's visits. They had learned to distinguish
the almost imperceptible sound of his footsteps as he descended towards
their dungeons, and happily, never failed of being prepared for his
coming. The fresh earth excavated during their present work, and which
would have entirely blocked up the old passage, was thrown, by degrees
and with the utmost precaution, out of the window in either Faria's
or Dantes' cell, the rubbish being first pulverized so finely that the
night wind carried it far away without permitting the smallest trace to
remain. More than a year had been consumed in this undertaking, the only
tools for which had been a chisel, a knife, and a wooden lever; Faria
still continuing to instruct Dantes by conversing with him, sometimes
in one language, sometimes in another; at others, relating to him the
history of nations and great men who from time to time have risen to
fame and trodden the path of glory.

The abbe was a man of the world, and had, moreover, mixed in the first
society of the day; he wore an air of melancholy dignity which Dantes,
thanks to the imitative powers bestowed on him by nature, easily
acquired, as well as that outward polish and politeness he had before
been wanting in, and which is seldom possessed except by those who
have been placed in constant intercourse with persons of high birth and
breeding. At the end of fifteen months the level was finished, and the
excavation completed beneath the gallery, and the two workmen could
distinctly hear the measured tread of the sentinel as he paced to and
fro over their heads.

Compelled, as they were, to await a night sufficiently dark to favor
their flight, they were obliged to defer their final attempt till that
auspicious moment should arriv