The Count of Monte Cristo

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even threats would have been, and he had not ceased when two reports of
a pistol were heard; he had fired them himself, and had killed two men.
The Palikares, who were prostrated at my father's feet, now sprang up
and fired, and the room was filled with fire and smoke. At the same
instant the firing began on the other side, and the balls penetrated the
boards all round us. Oh, how noble did the grand vizier my father look
at that moment, in the midst of the flying bullets, his scimitar in his
hand, and his face blackened with the powder of his enemies! and how he
terrified them, even then, and made them fly before him! 'Selim, Selim!'
cried he, 'guardian of the fire, do your duty!'--'Selim is dead,'
replied a voice which seemed to come from the depths of the earth, 'and
you are lost, Ali!' At the same moment an explosion was heard, and the
flooring of the room in which my father was sitting was suddenly torn up
and shivered to atoms--the troops were firing from underneath. Three or
four Palikares fell with their bodies literally ploughed with wounds.

"My father howled aloud, plunged his fingers into the holes which the