The Count of Monte Cristo

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animals to the count's chariot, took the reins in his hands, and mounted
the box, when to the utter astonishment of those who had witnessed
the ungovernable spirit and maddened speed of the same horses, he was
actually compelled to apply his whip in no very gentle manner before
he could induce them to start; and even then all that could be obtained
from the celebrated "dappled grays," now changed into a couple of dull,
sluggish, stupid brutes, was a slow, pottering pace, kept up with
so much difficulty that Madame de Villefort was more than two hours
returning to her residence in the Faubourg St. Honore.

Scarcely had the first congratulations upon her marvellous escape been
gone through when she wrote the following letter to Madame Danglars:--

Dear Hermine,--I have just had a wonderful escape from the most imminent
danger, and I owe my safety to the very Count of Monte Cristo we were
talking about yesterday, but whom I little expected to see to-day. I
remember how unmercifully I laughed at what I considered your eulogistic