The Count of Monte Cristo

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therefore it is that I utter the things you have never heard, even from
the mouths of kings--for kings have need, and other persons have fear
of you. For who is there who does not say to himself, in a society as
incongruously organized as ours, 'Perhaps some day I shall have to do
with the king's attorney'?"

"But can you not say that, sir? The moment you become an inhabitant of
France, you are naturally subjected to the French law."

"I know it sir," replied Monte Cristo; "but when I visit a country I
begin to study, by all the means which are available, the men from whom
I may have anything to hope or to fear, till I know them as well as,
perhaps better than, they know themselves. It follows from this, that
the king's attorney, be he who he may, with whom I should have to deal,
would assuredly be more embarrassed than I should."

"That is to say," replied Villefort with hesitation, "that human nature