The Count of Monte Cristo

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entered it. We need scarcely say that all the paths of the mountain were
known to Vampa; he therefore went forward without a moment's hesitation,
although there was no beaten track, but he knew his path by looking at
the trees and bushes, and thus they kept on advancing for nearly an hour
and a half. At the end of this time they had reached the thickest of the
forest. A torrent, whose bed was dry, led into a deep gorge. Vampa took
this wild road, which, enclosed between two ridges, and shadowed by the
tufted umbrage of the pines, seemed, but for the difficulties of its
descent, that path to Avernus of which Virgil speaks. Teresa had become
alarmed at the wild and deserted look of the plain around her, and
pressed closely against her guide, not uttering a syllable; but as she
saw him advance with even step and composed countenance, she endeavored
to repress her emotion. Suddenly, about ten paces from them, a man
advanced from behind a tree and aimed at Vampa.--'Not another step,' he
said, 'or you are a dead man.'--'What, then,' said Vampa, raising his
hand with a gesture of disdain, while Teresa, no longer able to restrain
her alarm, clung closely to him, 'do wolves rend each other?'--'Who