The Count of Monte Cristo

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had paid the two hundred thousand francs to M. de Boville. Mercedes read
with terror the following lines:--

"The king's attorney is informed by a friend to the throne and religion
that one Edmond Dantes, second in command on board the Pharaon, this day
arrived from Smyrna, after having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo,
is the bearer of a letter from Murat to the usurper, and of another
letter from the usurper to the Bonapartist club in Paris. Ample
corroboration of this statement may be obtained by arresting the
above-mentioned Edmond Dantes, who either carries the letter for Paris
about with him, or has it at his father's abode. Should it not be
found in possession of either father or son, then it will assuredly
be discovered in the cabin belonging to the said Dantes on board the
Pharaon."

"How dreadful!" said Mercedes, passing her hand across her brow, moist
with perspiration; "and that letter"--