o doubt, in
acknowledgement of the compliment, lowered her own shallop into the sea,
and the five boats worked so well that by two o'clock in the morning
all the cargo was out of The Young Amelia and on terra firma. The same
night, such a man of regularity was the patron of The Young Amelia, the
profits were divided, and each man had a hundred Tuscan livres, or about
eighty francs. But the voyage was not ended. They turned the bowsprit
towards Sardinia, where they intended to take in a cargo, which was to
replace what had been discharged. The second operation was as successful
as the first, The Young Amelia was in luck. This new cargo was destined
for the coast of the Duchy of Lucca, and consisted almost entirely of
Havana cigars, sherry, and Malaga wines.

There they had a bit of a skirmish in getting rid of the duties; the
excise was, in truth, the everlasting enemy of the patron of The Young
Amelia. A customs officer was laid low, and two sailors wounded; Dantes
was one of the latter, a ball having touched him in the left shoulder.
Dantes was almost glad of this affray, and almost pleased at being
wounded, for they were rude lessons which taught him with what eye he
could view danger, and with what endurance he could bear suffering. He
had contemplated danger with a smile, and when wounded had exclaimed
with the great philosopher, "Pain, thou art not an evil." He had,
moreover, looked upon the customs officer wounded to death, and, whether
from heat of blood produced by the encounter, or the chill of human
sentiment, this sight had made but slight impression upon him. Dantes
was on the way he desired to follow, and was moving towards the end
he wished to achieve; his heart was in a fair way of petrifying in his
bosom. Jacopo, seeing him fall, had believed him killed, and rushing
towards him raised him up, and then attended to him with all the
kindness of a devoted comrade.

This world was not then so good as Doctor Pangloss believed it, neither
was it so wicked as Dantes thought it, since this man, who had nothing
to expect from his comrade but the inheritance of his share of
the prize-money, manifested so much sorrow when he saw him fall.
Fortunately, as we have said, Edmond was only wounded, and with certain
herbs gathered at certain seasons, and sold to the smugglers by the
old Sardinian women, the wound soon closed. Edmond then resolved to
try Jacopo, and offered him in return for his attention a share of his
p