The Count of Monte Cristo

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candles which vary in size from the pascal taper to the rushlight, and
which give to each actor in the great final scene of the Carnival two
very serious problems to grapple with,--first, how to keep his own
moccoletto alight; and secondly, how to extinguish the moccoletti of
others. The moccoletto is like life: man has found but one means of
transmitting it, and that one comes from God. But he has discovered a
thousand means of taking it away, and the devil has somewhat aided him.
The moccoletto is kindled by approaching it to a light. But who can
describe the thousand means of extinguishing the moccoletto?--the
gigantic bellows, the monstrous extinguishers, the superhuman fans.
Every one hastened to purchase moccoletti--Franz and Albert among the
rest.

The night was rapidly approaching; and already, at the cry of
"Moccoletti!" repeated by the shrill voices of a thousand vendors, two
or three stars began to burn among the crowd. It was a signal. At the
end of ten minutes fifty thousand lights glittered, descending from