n an
eye-witness."

"True, true!" said Caderousse in a choking voice, "I was there."

"And did you not remonstrate against such infamy?" asked the abbe; "if
not, you were an accomplice."

"Sir," replied Caderousse, "they had made me drink to such an
excess that I nearly lost all perception. I had only an indistinct
understanding of what was passing around me. I said all that a man in
such a state could say; but they both assured me that it was a jest they
were carrying on, and perfectly harmless."

"Next day--next day, sir, you must have seen plain enough what they had
been doing, yet you said nothing, though you were present when Dantes
was arrested."

"Yes, sir, I was there, and very anxious to speak; but Danglars
restrained me. 'If he should really be guilty,' said he, 'and did really
put in to the Island of Elba; if he is really charged with a letter for
the Bonapartist committee at Paris, and if they find this letter upon
him, those who have supported him will pass for his accomplices.' I
confess I had my fears, in the state in which politics then were, and I
held my tongue. It was cowardly, I confess, but it was not criminal."

"I understand--you allowed matters to take their course, that was all."

"Yes, sir," answered Caderousse; "and remorse preys on me night and day.
I often ask pardon of God, I swear to you, because this action, the only
one with which I have seriously to reproach myself in all my life, is
no doubt the cause of my abject condition. I am expiating a moment of
selfishness, and so I always say to La Carconte, when she complains,
'Hold your tongue, woman; it is the will of God.'" And Caderousse bowed
his head with every sign of real repentance.

"Well, sir," said the abbe, "you have spoken unreservedly; and thus to
accuse yourself is to deserve pardon."

"Unfortunately, Edmond is dead, and has not pardoned me."

"He did not know," said the abbe.

"But he knows it all now," interrupted Caderousse; "they say the dead
know everything." There was a brief silence; the abbe rose and paced up
and down pensively, and then resumed his seat. "You have two or three
times mentioned a M. Morrel," he said; "who was he?"

"The owner of the Pharaon and patron of Dantes."

"And what part did he play in this sad drama?" inquired the abbe.

"The part of an honest man, full of courage and real regard. Twenty
times he interceded for Edmond. When the emperor returned, he wrote,
implored, threatened, a