The Count of Monte Cristo

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ordinarily have so little respect for anything. I assure you, Franz and
I were lost in admiration."

"Nothing more simple," returned the count. "I had known the famous Vampa
for more than ten years. When he was quite a child, and only a shepherd,
I gave him a few gold pieces for showing me my way, and he, in order to
repay me, gave me a poniard, the hilt of which he had carved with his
own hand, and which you may have seen in my collection of arms. In after
years, whether he had forgotten this interchange of presents, which
ought to have cemented our friendship, or whether he did not recollect
me, he sought to take me, but, on the contrary, it was I who captured
him and a dozen of his band. I might have handed him over to Roman
justice, which is somewhat expeditious, and which would have been
particularly so with him; but I did nothing of the sort--I suffered him
and his band to depart."

"With the condition that they should sin no more," said Beauchamp,