"Who comes there?" he cried.
"A friend, a friend!" said Peppino; "but where is the captain?"
"There," said the sentinel, pointing over his shoulder to a spacious crypt, hollowed out of the rock, the lights from which shone into the passage through the large arched openings.
"Fine spoil, captain, fine spoil!" said Peppino in Italian, and taking Danglars by the collar of his coat he dragged him to an opening resembling a door, through which they entered the apartment which the captain appeared to have made his dwelling-place.
"Is this the man?" asked the captain, who was attentively reading Plutarch's "Life of Alexander."
"Himself, captain--himself."
"Very well, show him to me."
At this rather impertinent order, Peppino raised his torch to the face of Danglars, who hastily withdrew that he might not have his eyelashes burnt.
His agitated features presented the appearance of pale and hideous terror.
"The man is tired," said the captain, "conduct him to his bed."
"Oh," murmured Danglars, "that bed is probably one of the coffins hollowed in the wall, and the sleep I shall enjoy will be death from one of the poniards I see glistening in the darkness."
From their beds of dried leaves or wolf-skins at the back of the chamber now arose the companions of the man who had been found by Albert de Morcerf reading
"Caesar's Commentaries," and by Danglars studying the "Life of Alexander."
The banker uttered a groan and followed his guide; he neither supplicated nor exclaimed.
He no longer possessed strength, will, power, or feeling; he followed where they led him. At length he found himself at the foot of a staircase, and he mechanically lifted his foot five or six times. Then a low door was opened before him, and bending his head to avoid striking his forehead he entered a small room cut out of the rock.
The cell was clean, though empty, and dry, though situated at an immeasurable distance under the earth.
A bed of dried grass covered with goat-skins was placed in one corner.
Danglars brightened up on beholding it, fancying that it gave some promise of safety.
"Oh, God be praised," he said; "it is a real bed!"
"Ecco!" said the guide, and pushing Danglars into the cell, he closed the door upon him.
A bolt grated and Danglars was a prisoner.
If there had been no bolt, it would have been impossible for him to pass through the midst of the garrison who held the catacombs of St. Sebastian, encamped round a master whom our readers must have recognized as the famous Luigi Vampa.
Danglars, too, had recognized the bandit, whose existence he would not believe when Albert de Morcerf mentioned him in Paris; and not only did he recognize him, but the cell in which Albert had been confined, and which was probably kept for the accommodation of strangers.
These recollections were dwelt upon with some pleasure by Danglars, and restored him to some degree of tranquillity.
Since the bandits had not despatched him at once, he felt that they would not kill him at all.
They had arrested him for the purpose of robbery, and as he had only a few louis about him, he doubted not he would be ransomed.
He remembered that Morcerf had been taxed at 4,000 crowns, and as he considered himself of much greater importance than Morcerf he fixed his own price at 8,000 crowns.
Eight thousand crowns amounted to 48,000 livres; he would then have about 5,050,000 francs left.
With this sum he could manage to keep out of difficulties.
Therefore, tolerably secure in being able to extricate himself from his position, provided he were not rated at the unreasonable sum of 5,050,000 francs, he stretched himself on his bed, and after turning over two or three times, fell asleep with the tranquillity of the hero whose life Luigi Vampa was studying.
Chapter 115.
Luigi Vampa's Bill of Fare.
We awake from every sleep except the one dreaded by Danglars.
He awoke.
To a Parisian accustomed to silken curtains, walls hung with velvet drapery, and the soft perfume of burning wood, the white smoke of which diffuses itself in graceful curves around the room, the appearance of the whitewashed cell which greeted his eyes on awakening seemed like the continuation of some disagreeable dream.
But in such a situation a single moment suffices to change the strongest doubt into certainty.
"Yes, yes," he murmured, "I am in the hands of the brigands of whom Albert de Morcerf spoke."
His first idea was to breathe, that he might know whether he was wounded. He borrowed this from "Don Quixote," the only book he had ever read, but which he still slightly remembered.
"No," he cried, "they have not wounded, but perhaps they have robbed me!" and he thrust his hands into his pockets.
They were untouched; the hundred louis he had reserved for his journey from Rome to Venice were in his trousers pocket, and in that of his great-coat he found the little note-case containing his letter of credit for 5,050,000 francs.
"Singular bandits!" he exclaimed; "they have left me my purse and pocket-book.
As I was saying last night, they intend me to be ransomed.
Hallo, here is my watch!
Let me see what time it is."
Danglars' watch, one of Breguet's repeaters, which he had carefully wound up on the previous night, struck half past five.
Without this, Danglars would have been quite ignorant of the time, for daylight did not reach his cell.
Should he demand an explanation from the bandits, or should he wait patiently for them to propose it?
The last alternative seemed the most prudent, so he waited until twelve o'clock.
During all this time a sentinel, who had been relieved at eight o'clock, had been watching his door.
Danglars suddenly felt a strong inclination to see the person who kept watch over him.