The Count of Monte Cristo

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to two gendarmes, who placed themselves one on Dantes' right and the
other on his left. A door that communicated with the Palais de Justice
was opened, and they went through a long range of gloomy corridors,
whose appearance might have made even the boldest shudder. The Palais de
Justice communicated with the prison,--a sombre edifice, that from
its grated windows looks on the clock-tower of the Accoules. After
numberless windings, Dantes saw a door with an iron wicket. The
commissary took up an iron mallet and knocked thrice, every blow seeming
to Dantes as if struck on his heart. The door opened, the two gendarmes
gently pushed him forward, and the door closed with a loud sound behind
him. The air he inhaled was no longer pure, but thick and mephitic,--he
was in prison. He was conducted to a tolerably neat chamber, but grated
and barred, and its appearance, therefore, did not greatly alarm him;
besides, the words of Villefort, who seemed to interest himself so
much, resounded still in his ears like a promise of freedom. It was four
o'clock when Dantes was placed in this chamber. It was, as we have said,
the 1st of March, and the prisoner was soon buried in darkness. The