The Count of Monte Cristo

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upon it, I know what I say. Since the first attack I experienced of this
malady, I have continually reflected on it. Indeed, I expected it, for
it is a family inheritance; both my father and grandfather died of it
in a third attack. The physician who prepared for me the remedy I have
twice successfully taken, was no other than the celebrated Cabanis, and
he predicted a similar end for me."

"The physician may be mistaken!" exclaimed Dantes. "And as for your poor
arm, what difference will that make? I can take you on my shoulders, and
swim for both of us."

"My son," said the abbe, "you, who are a sailor and a swimmer, must know
as well as I do that a man so loaded would sink before he had done fifty
strokes. Cease, then, to allow yourself to be duped by vain hopes, that
even your own excellent heart refuses to believe in. Here I shall
remain till the hour of my deliverance arrives, and that, in all human
probability, will be the hour of my death. As for you, who are young