The Count of Monte Cristo

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order in everything."

"Sire," said Villefort, "I will render a faithful report to your
majesty, but I must entreat your forgiveness if my anxiety leads to some
obscurity in my language." A glance at the king after this discreet
and subtle exordium, assured Villefort of the benignity of his august
auditor, and he went on:--

"Sire, I have come as rapidly to Paris as possible, to inform your
majesty that I have discovered, in the exercise of my duties, not a
commonplace and insignificant plot, such as is every day got up in the
lower ranks of the people and in the army, but an actual conspiracy--a
storm which menaces no less than your majesty's throne. Sire, the
usurper is arming three ships, he meditates some project, which, however
mad, is yet, perhaps, terrible. At this moment he will have left Elba,
to go whither I know not, but assuredly to attempt a landing either at
Naples, or on the coast of Tuscany, or perhaps on the shores of France.