The Count of Monte Cristo

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smugglers there, and the two Corsican bandits with them. He dwelt with
considerable force and energy on the almost magical hospitality he had
received from the count, and the magnificence of his entertainment
in the grotto of the "Thousand and One Nights." He recounted, with
circumstantial exactitude, all the particulars of the supper, the
hashish, the statues, the dream, and how, at his awakening, there
remained no proof or trace of all these events, save the small
yacht, seen in the distant horizon driving under full sail toward
Porto-Vecchio. Then he detailed the conversation overheard by him at the
Colosseum, between the count and Vampa, in which the count had promised
to obtain the release of the bandit Peppino,--an engagement which, as
our readers are aware, he most faithfully fulfilled. At last he arrived
at the adventure of the preceding night, and the embarrassment in which
he found himself placed by not having sufficient cash by six or seven
hundred piastres to make up the sum required, and finally of his
application to the count and the picturesque and satisfactory result
that followed. Albert listened with the most profound attention. "Well,"