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He waited silently, striving to pierce through the darkness

They had left the Ile Ratonneau, where the lighthouse stood, on the right, and were now opposite the Point des Catalans It seeuish a feminine form on the beach, for it was there Mercedes dwelt Hoas it that a presentiment did not warn Mercedes that her lover ithin three hundred yards of her?

One light alone was visible; and Dantes saw that it came from Mercedes' chamber Mercedes was the only one awake in the whole settlement A loud cry could be heard by her But pride restrained hiuards think if they heard him shout like a ht; the boat went on, but the prisoner thought only of Mercedes An intervening elevation of land hid the light Dantes turned and perceived that they had got out to sea While he had been absorbed in thought, they had shipped their oars and hoisted sail; the boat was now nance to address the guards, Dantes turned to the nearest gendar his hand,-"Comrade," said he, "I adjure you, as a Christian and a soldier, to tellI aht accused of treason; tellme, and I proendarme looked irresolutely at his coreat harendarme replied,-"You are a native of Marseilles, and a sailor, and yet you do not knohere you are going?"

"On my honor, I have no idea"

"Have you no idea whatever?"

"None at all"

"That is impossible"

"I swear to you it is true Tell me, I entreat"

"Butme what I must know in ten minutes, in half an hour, or an hour You see I cannot escape, even if I intended"

"Unless you are blind, or have never been outside the harbor, you must know"

"I do not"

"Look round you then" Dantes rose and looked forward, when he saw rise within a hundred yards of hi rock on which stands the Chateau d'If This gloomy fortress, which has for more than three hundred years furnished food for so ends, seemed to Dantes like a scaffold to a malefactor