The Count of Monte Cristo

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vendetta against me, who had followed me from Nimes to Paris, who had
hid himself in the garden, who had struck me, had seen me dig the grave,
had seen me inter the child,--he might become acquainted with your
person,--nay, he might even then have known it. Would he not one day
make you pay for keeping this terrible secret? Would it not be a sweet
revenge for him when he found that I had not died from the blow of his
dagger? It was therefore necessary, before everything else, and at all
risks, that I should cause all traces of the past to disappear--that
I should destroy every material vestige; too much reality would always
remain in my recollection. It was for this I had annulled the lease--it
was for this I had come--it was for this I was waiting. Night arrived;
I allowed it to become quite dark. I was without a light in that room;
when the wind shook all the doors, behind which I continually expected
to see some spy concealed, I trembled. I seemed everywhere to hear your
moans behind me in the bed, and I dared not turn around. My heart beat
so violently that I feared my wound would open. At length, one by one,
all the noises in the neighborhood ceased. I understood that I had