The Count of Monte Cristo

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their dungeons, and happily, never failed of being prepared for his
coming. The fresh earth excavated during their present work, and which
would have entirely blocked up the old passage, was thrown, by degrees
and with the utmost precaution, out of the window in either Faria's
or Dantes' cell, the rubbish being first pulverized so finely that the
night wind carried it far away without permitting the smallest trace to
remain. More than a year had been consumed in this undertaking, the only
tools for which had been a chisel, a knife, and a wooden lever; Faria
still continuing to instruct Dantes by conversing with him, sometimes
in one language, sometimes in another; at others, relating to him the
history of nations and great men who from time to time have risen to
fame and trodden the path of glory.

The abbe was a man of the world, and had, moreover, mixed in the first
society of the day; he wore an air of melancholy dignity which Dantes,
thanks to the imitative powers bestowed on him by nature, easily
acquired, as well as that outward polish and politeness he had before