The Count of Monte Cristo

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by surprise and terror; and without a word I suffered myself to be
handcuffed and tied to a horse's tail, and thus they took me to Nimes.

"I had been tracked by a customs-officer, who had lost sight of me near
the tavern; feeling certain that I intended to pass the night there, he
had returned to summon his comrades, who just arrived in time to
hear the report of the pistol, and to take me in the midst of such
circumstantial proofs of my guilt as rendered all hopes of proving
my innocence utterly futile. One only chance was left me, that of
beseeching the magistrate before whom I was taken to cause every inquiry
to be made for the Abbe Busoni, who had stopped at the inn of the Pont
du Gard on that morning. If Caderousse had invented the story relative
to the diamond, and there existed no such person as the Abbe Busoni,
then, indeed, I was lost past redemption, or, at least, my life hung
upon the feeble chance of Caderousse himself being apprehended
and confessing the whole truth. Two months passed away in hopeless
expectation on my part, while I must do the magistrate the justice