The Count of Monte Cristo

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a few people still moved about and whispered to one another. A lady,
it was said, had just fainted; they had supplied her with a
smelling-bottle, and she had recovered. During the scene of tumult,
Andrea had turned his smiling face towards the assembly; then, leaning
with one hand on the oaken rail of the dock, in the most graceful
attitude possible, he said: "Gentlemen, I assure you I had no idea of
insulting the court, or of making a useless disturbance in the presence
of this honorable assembly. They ask my age; I tell it. They ask where I
was born; I answer. They ask my name, I cannot give it, since my parents
abandoned me. But though I cannot give my own name, not possessing one,
I can tell them my father's. Now I repeat, my father is named M. de
Villefort, and I am ready to prove it."

There was an energy, a conviction, and a sincerity in the manner of the
young man, which silenced the tumult. All eyes were turned for a moment
towards the procureur, who sat as motionless as though a thunderbolt had
changed him into a corpse. "Gentlemen," said Andrea, commanding silence