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"Provided, sir, the particulars you wish for do not interfere with my scruples or my conscience I am a priest, sir, and the secrets of confession, for instance, must remain between me and God, and not between me and human justice"

"Do not alarm yourself, monsieur, ill duly respect your conscience"

At this moment the abbe pressed down his side of the shade and so raised it on the other, throwing a bright light on the stranger's face, while his own remained obscured "Excuse me, abbe," said the envoy of the prefect of the police, "but the light tries my eyes very --go on"

"I will come at once to the point Do you know the Count of Monte Cristo?"

"You mean Monsieur Zaccone, I presume?"

"Zaccone?--is not his name Monte Cristo?"

"Monte Cristo is the name of an estate, or, rather, of a rock, and not a family name"

"Well, be it so--let us not dispute about words; and since M de Monte Cristo and M Zaccone are the same"-"Absolutely the same"

"Let us speak of M Zaccone"

"Agreed"

"I asked you if you knew him?"

"Extremely well"

"Who is he?"

"The son of a rich shipbuilder in Malta"

"I know that is the report; but, as you are aware, the police does not content itself with vague reports"

"However," replied the abbe, with an affable smile, "when that report is in accordance with the truth, everybody must believe it, the police as well as all the rest"

"Are you sure of what you assert?"

"What do you mean by that question?"