The Count of Monte Cristo

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rapidly on, though there did not appear to be sufficient wind to ruffle
the curls on the head of a young girl. Standing on the prow was a tall
man, of a dark complexion, who saw with dilating eyes that they were
approaching a dark mass of land in the shape of a cone, which rose
from the midst of the waves like the hat of a Catalan. "Is that Monte
Cristo?" asked the traveller, to whose orders the yacht was for the time
submitted, in a melancholy voice.

"Yes, your excellency," said the captain, "we have reached it."

"We have reached it!" repeated the traveller in an accent of
indescribable sadness. Then he added, in a low tone, "Yes; that is the
haven." And then he again plunged into a train of thought, the character
of which was better revealed by a sad smile, than it would have been by
tears. A few minutes afterwards a flash of light, which was extinguished
instantly, was seen on the land, and the sound of firearms reached the
yacht.