The Count of Monte Cristo

Back Forward Menu

to leave the city by the Porta del Popolo, skirt the outer wall, and
re-enter by the Porta San Giovanni; thus they would behold the Colosseum
without finding their impressions dulled by first looking on the
Capitol, the Forum, the Arch of Septimus Severus, the Temple of
Antoninus and Faustina, and the Via Sacra. They sat down to dinner.
Signor Pastrini had promised them a banquet; he gave them a tolerable
repast. At the end of the dinner he entered in person. Franz thought
that he came to hear his dinner praised, and began accordingly, but at
the first words he was interrupted. "Excellency," said Pastrini, "I am
delighted to have your approbation, but it was not for that I came."

"Did you come to tell us you have procured a carriage?" asked Albert,
lighting his cigar.

"No; and your excellencies will do well not to think of that any longer;
at Rome things can or cannot be done; when you are told anything cannot
be done, there is an end of it."