The Count of Monte Cristo

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with whom he was accustomed to live so intimately, no longer breathed.
He seated himself on the edge of that terrible bed, and fell into
melancholy and gloomy revery.

Alone--he was alone again--again condemned to silence--again face to
face with nothingness! Alone!--never again to see the face, never again
to hear the voice of the only human being who united him to earth! Was
not Faria's fate the better, after all--to solve the problem of life at
its source, even at the risk of horrible suffering? The idea of suicide,
which his friend had driven away and kept away by his cheerful presence,
now hovered like a phantom over the abbe's dead body.

"If I could die," he said, "I should go where he goes, and should
assuredly find him again. But how to die? It is very easy," he went on
with a smile; "I will remain here, rush on the first person that opens
the door, strangle him, and then they will guillotine me." But excessive
grief is like a storm at sea, where the frail bark is tossed from the