The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

vulnerable point left in his frozen heart.

The case was therefore prepared owing to the incessant labor of
Villefort, who wished it to be the first on the list in the coming
assizes. He had been obliged to seclude himself more than ever, to evade
the enormous number of applications presented to him for the purpose
of obtaining tickets of admission to the court on the day of trial. And
then so short a time had elapsed since the death of poor Valentine,
and the gloom which overshadowed the house was so recent, that no one
wondered to see the father so absorbed in his professional duties, which
were the only means he had of dissipating his grief.

Once only had Villefort seen his father; it was the day after that upon
which Bertuccio had paid his second visit to Benedetto, when the latter
was to learn his father's name. The magistrate, harassed and fatigued,
had descended to the garden of his house, and in a gloomy mood, similar
to that in which Tarquin lopped off the tallest poppies, he began