The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

assembly. As for the count, he could not have been more overwhelmed if
a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet and opened an immense gulf before
him. 'Madame,' replied the president, bowing with profound respect,
'allow me to ask one question; it shall be the last: Can you prove the
authenticity of what you have now stated?'--'I can, sir,' said Haidee,
drawing from under her veil a satin satchel highly perfumed; 'for here
is the register of my birth, signed by my father and his principal
officers, and that of my baptism, my father having consented to my being
brought up in my mother's faith,--this latter has been sealed by the
grand primate of Macedonia and Epirus; and lastly (and perhaps the most
important), the record of the sale of my person and that of my mother
to the Armenian merchant El-Kobbir, by the French officer, who, in his
infamous bargain with the Porte, had reserved as his part of the booty
the wife and daughter of his benefactor, whom he sold for the sum of
four hundred thousand francs.' A greenish pallor spread over the count's
cheeks, and his eyes became bloodshot at these terrible imputations,
which were listened to by the assembly with ominous silence.