The Count of Monte Cristo

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manner of Pliny and Calpurnius, touching the iron-pointed nets used to
prevent the ferocious beasts from springing on the spectators. Franz let
him proceed without interruption, and, in fact, did not hear what
was said; he longed to be alone, and free to ponder over all that had
occurred. One of the two men, whose mysterious meeting in the Colosseum
he had so unintentionally witnessed, was an entire stranger to him, but
not so the other; and though Franz had been unable to distinguish his
features, from his being either wrapped in his mantle or obscured by the
shadow, the tones of his voice had made too powerful an impression on
him the first time he had heard them for him ever again to forget them,
hear them when or where he might. It was more especially when this man
was speaking in a manner half jesting, half bitter, that Franz's ear
recalled most vividly the deep sonorous, yet well-pitched voice that had
addressed him in the grotto of Monte Cristo, and which he heard for the
second time amid the darkness and ruined grandeur of the Colosseum. And
the more he thought, the more entire was his conviction, that the person
who wore the mantle was no other than his former host and entertainer,