The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

said Albert, "you became the property of this man?"

"No," replied Haidee, "he did not dare to keep us, so we were sold to
some slave-merchants who were going to Constantinople. We traversed
Greece, and arrived half dead at the imperial gates. They were
surrounded by a crowd of people, who opened a way for us to pass,
when suddenly my mother, having looked closely at an object which was
attracting their attention, uttered a piercing cry and fell to the
ground, pointing as she did so to a head which was placed over the
gates, and beneath which were inscribed these words:

"'This is the head of Ali Tepelini Pasha of Yanina.' I cried bitterly,
and tried to raise my mother from the earth, but she was dead! I was
taken to the slave-market, and was purchased by a rich Armenian. He
caused me to be instructed, gave me masters, and when I was thirteen
years of age he sold me to the Sultan Mahmood."