The Count of Monte Cristo

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my brother's assassination in the streets of Nimes, I had never
entered the town; the result was that the inn-keeper with whom we were
connected, seeing that we would no longer come to him, was forced to
come to us, and had established a branch to his inn, on the road from
Bellegarde to Beaucaire, at the sign of the Pont du Gard. We had thus,
at Aigues-Mortes, Martigues, or Bouc, a dozen places where we left our
goods, and where, in case of necessity, we concealed ourselves from the
gendarmes and custom-house officers. Smuggling is a profitable trade,
when a certain degree of vigor and intelligence is employed; as for
myself, brought up in the mountains, I had a double motive for fearing
the gendarmes and custom-house officers, as my appearance before the
judges would cause an inquiry, and an inquiry always looks back into the
past. And in my past life they might find something far more grave than
the selling of smuggled cigars, or barrels of brandy without a permit.
So, preferring death to capture, I accomplished the most astonishing
deeds, and which, more than once, showed me that the too great care we
take of our bodies is the only obstacle to the success of those projects