The Count of Monte Cristo

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good master!" At this moment M. de Villefort, attracted by the noise,
appeared on the threshold. Morrel relaxed his hold of Valentine, and
retreating to a distant corner of the room remained half hidden behind
a curtain. Pale as if he had been gazing on a serpent, he fixed his
terrified eye on the agonized sufferer.

Noirtier, burning with impatience and terror, was in despair at his
utter inability to help his old domestic, whom he regarded more in the
light of a friend than a servant. One might by the fearful swelling of
the veins of his forehead and the contraction of the muscles round the
eye, trace the terrible conflict which was going on between the living
energetic mind and the inanimate and helpless body. Barrois, his
features convulsed, his eyes suffused with blood, and his head thrown
back, was lying at full length, beating the floor with his hands, while
his legs had become so stiff, that they looked as if they would break
rather than bend. A slight appearance of foam was visible around the
mouth, and he breathed painfully, and with extreme difficulty.