The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

the roof afforded no chance of escape; he therefore resolved to descend,
not through the same chimney by which he had come up, but by a similar
one conducting to another room. He looked around for a chimney from
which no smoke issued, and having reached it, he disappeared through the
orifice without being seen by any one. At the same minute, one of the
little windows of the Hotel de Ville was thrown open, and the head of a
gendarme appeared. For an instant it remained motionless as one of
the stone decorations of the building, then after a long sigh of
disappointment the head disappeared. The brigadier, calm and dignified
as the law he represented, passed through the crowd, without answering
the thousand questions addressed to him, and re-entered the hotel.

"Well?" asked the two gendarmes.

"Well, my boys," said the brigadier, "the brigand must really have
escaped early this morning; but we will send to the Villers-Coterets and
Noyon roads, and search the forest, when we shall catch him, no doubt."