The Count of Monte Cristo

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the morning of the death. The whole establishment had been changed;
another valet was engaged for himself, a new servant for Noirtier, two
women had entered Madame de Villefort's service,--in fact, everywhere,
to the concierge and coachmen, new faces were presented to the different
masters of the house, thus widening the division which had always
existed between the members of the same family.

The assizes, also, were about to begin, and Villefort, shut up in his
room, exerted himself with feverish anxiety in drawing up the case
against the murderer of Caderousse. This affair, like all those in which
the Count of Monte Cristo had interfered, caused a great sensation in
Paris. The proofs were certainly not convincing, since they rested upon
a few words written by an escaped galley-slave on his death-bed, and who
might have been actuated by hatred or revenge in accusing his companion.
But the mind of the procureur was made up; he felt assured that
Benedetto was guilty, and he hoped by his skill in conducting this
aggravated case to flatter his self-love, which was about the only