Chapter 22. The Smugglers
Dantès had not been a day on board before he had a very clear idea ofthe men with whom his lot had been cast. Without having been in theschool of the Abbé Faria, the worthy master of La Jeune Amélie (the nameof the Genoese tartan) knew a smattering of all the tongues spoken onthe shores of that large lake called the Mediterranean, from the Arabicto the Provençal, and this, while it spared him interpreters, personsalways troublesome and frequently indiscreet, gave him great facilitiesof communication, either with the vessels he met at sea, with the smallboats sailing along the coast, or with the people without name, country,or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of seaports, and wholive by hidden and mysterious means which we must suppose to be a directgift of Providence, as they have no visible means of support. It is fairto assume that Dantès was on board a smuggler.
At first the captain had received Dantès on board with a certain degreeof distrust. He was very well known to the customs officers of thecoast; and as there was between these worthies and himself a perpetualbattle of wits, he had at first thought that Dantès might be an emissaryof these industrious guardians of rights and duties, who perhapsemployed this ingenious means of learning some of the secrets of histrade. But the skilful manner in which Dantès had handled the lugger hadentirely reassured him; and then, when he saw the light plume of smokefloating above the bastion of the Château d’If, and heard the distantreport, he was instantly struck with the idea that he had on board hisvessel one whose coming and going, like that of kings, was accompaniedwith salutes of artillery. This made him less uneasy, it must be owned,than if the new-comer had proved to be a customs officer; but thissupposition also disappeared like the first, when he beheld the perfecttranquillity of his recruit.
Edmond thus had the advantage of knowing what the owner was, without theowner knowing who he was; and however the old sailor and his crew triedto “pump” him, they extracted nothing more from him; he gave accuratedescriptions of Naples and Malta, which he knew as well as Marseilles,and held stoutly to his first story. Thus the Genoese, subtle as he was,was duped by Edmond, in whose favor his mild demeanor, his nauticalskill, and his admirable dissimulation, pleaded. Moreover, it ispossible that the Genoese was one of those shrewd persons who knownothing but what they should know, and believe nothing but what theyshould believe.
In this state of mutual understanding, they reached Leghorn. Here Edmondwas to undergo another trial; he was to find out whether he couldrecognize himself, as he had not seen his own face for fourteen years.He had preserved a tolerably good remembrance of what the youth hadbeen, and was now to find out what the man had become. His comradesbelieved that his vow was fulfilled. As he had twenty times touched atLeghorn, he remembered a barber in St. Ferdinand Street; he went thereto have his beard and hair cut. The barber gazed in amazement at thisman with the long, thick and black hair and beard, which gave his headthe appearance of one of Titian’s portraits. At this period it was notthe fashion to wear so large a beard and hair so long; now a barberwould only be surprised if a man gifted with such advantages shouldconsent voluntarily to deprive himself of them. The Leghorn barber saidnothing and went to work.
When the operation was concluded, and Edmond felt that his chin wascompletely smooth, and his hair reduced to its usual length, he askedfor a looking-glass. He was now, as we have said, three-and-thirty yearsof age, and his fourteen years’ imprisonment had produced a greattransformation in his appearance.
Dantès had entered the Château d’If with the round, open, smiling faceof a young and happy man, with whom the early paths of life have beensmooth, and who anticipates a future corresponding with his past. Thiswas now all changed. The oval face was lengthened, his smiling mouth hadassumed the firm and marked lines which betoken resolution; his eyebrowswere arched beneath a brow furrowed with thought; his eyes were full ofmelancholy, and from their depths occasionally sparkled gloomy fires ofmisanthropy and hatred; his complexion, so long kept from the sun, hadnow that pale color which produces, when the features are encircled withblack hair, the aristocratic beauty of the man of the north; theprofound learning he had acquired had besides diffused over his featuresa refined intellectual expression; and he had also acquired, beingnaturally of a goodly stature, that vigor which a frame possesses whichhas so long concentrated all its force within itself.
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To the elegance of a nervous and slight form had succeeded the solidityof a rounded and muscular figure. As to his voice, prayers, sobs, andimprecations had changed it so that at times it was of a singularlypenetrating sweetness, and at others rough and almost hoarse.
Moreover, from being so long in twilight or darkness, his eyes hadacquired the faculty of distinguishing objects in the night, common tothe hyena and the wolf. Edmond smiled when he beheld himself; it wasimpossible that his best friend—if, indeed, he had any friend left—couldrecognize him; he could not recognize himself.
The master of La Jeune Amélie, who was very desirous of retainingamongst his crew a man of Edmond’s value, had offered to advance himfunds out of his future profits, which Edmond had accepted. His nextcare on leaving the barber’s who had achieved his first metamorphosiswas to enter a shop and buy a complete sailor’s suit—a garb, as we allknow, very simple, and consisting of white trousers, a striped shirt,and a cap.
It was in this costume, and bringing back to Jacopo the shirt andtrousers he had lent him, that Edmond reappeared before the captain ofthe lugger, who had made him tell his story over and over again beforehe could believe him, or recognize in the neat and trim sailor the manwith thick and matted beard, hair tangled with seaweed, and body soakingin seabrine, whom he had picked up naked and nearly drowned. Attractedby his prepossessing appearance, he renewed his offers of an engagementto Dantès; but Dantès, who had his own projects, would not agree for alonger time than three months.
La Jeune Amélie had a very active crew, very obedient to their captain,who lost as little time as possible. He had scarcely been a week atLeghorn before the hold of his vessel was filled with printed muslins,contraband cottons, English powder, and tobacco on which the excise hadforgotten to put its mark. The master was to get all this out of Leghornfree of duties, and land it on the shores of Corsica, where certainspeculators undertook to forward the cargo to France.
They sailed; Edmond was again cleaving the azure sea which had been thefirst horizon of his youth, and which he had so often dreamed of inprison. He left Gorgone on his right and La Pianosa on his left, andwent towards the country of Paoli and Napoleon.
The next morning going on deck, as he always did at an early hour, thepatron found Dantès leaning against the bulwarks gazing with intenseearnestness at a pile of granite rocks, which the rising sun tinged withrosy light. It was the Island of Monte Cristo.
La Jeune Amélie left it three-quarters of a league to the larboard andkept on for Corsica. Dantès thought, as they passed so closely to theisland whose name was so interesting to him, that he had only to leapinto the sea and in half an hour be at the promised land. But then whatcould he do without instruments to discover his treasure, without armsto defend himself? Besides, what would the sailors say? What would thepatron think? He must wait.
Fortunately, Dantès had learned how to wait; he had waited fourteenyears for his liberty, and now he was free he could wait at least sixmonths or a year for wealth. Would he not have accepted liberty withoutriches if it had been offered to him? Besides, were not those richeschimerical?—offspring of the brain of the poor Abbé Faria, had they notdied with him? It is true, the letter of the Cardinal Spada wassingularly circumstantial, and Dantès repeated it to himself, from oneend to the other, for he had not forgotten a word.
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Evening came, and Edmond saw the island tinged with the shades oftwilight, and then disappear in the darkness from all eyes but his own,for he, with vision accustomed to the gloom of a prison, continued tobehold it last of all, for he remained alone upon deck. The next mornbr
oke off the coast of Aleria; all day they coasted, and in the eveningsaw fires lighted on land; the position of these was no doubt a signalfor landing, for a ship’s lantern was hung up at the mast-head insteadof the streamer, and they came to within a gunshot of the shore. Dantèsnoticed that the captain of La Jeune Amélie had, as he neared the land,mounted two small culverins, which, without making much noise, can throwa four ounce ball a thousand paces or so.
But on this occasion the precaution was superfluous, and everythingproceeded with the utmost smoothness and politeness. Four shallops cameoff with very little noise alongside the lugger, which, no doubt, inacknowledgement of the compliment, lowered her own shallop into the sea,and the five boats worked so well that by two o’clock in the morning allthe cargo was out of La Jeune Amélie and on terra firma. The same night,such a man of regularity was the patron of La Jeune Amélie, the profitswere divided, and each man had a hundred Tuscan livres, or about eightyfrancs.
But the voyage was not ended. They turned the bowsprit towards Sardinia,where they intended to take in a cargo, which was to replace what hadbeen discharged. The second operation was as successful as the first, LaJeune Amélie was in luck. This new cargo was destined for the coast ofthe Duchy of Lucca, and consisted almost entirely of Havana cigars,sherry, and Malaga wines.
There they had a bit of a skirmish in getting rid of the duties; theexcise was, in truth, the everlasting enemy of the patron of La JeuneAmélie. A customs officer was laid low, and two sailors wounded; Dantèswas one of the latter, a ball having touched him in the left shoulder.Dantès was almost glad of this affray, and almost pleased at beingwounded, for they were rude lessons which taught him with what eye hecould view danger, and with what endurance he could bear suffering. Hehad contemplated danger with a smile, and when wounded had exclaimedwith the great philosopher, “Pain, thou art not an evil.”
He had, moreover, looked upon the customs officer wounded to death, and,whether from heat of blood produced by the encounter, or the chill ofhuman sentiment, this sight had made but slight impression upon him.Dantès was on the way he desired to follow, and was moving towards theend he wished to achieve; his heart was in a fair way of petrifying inhis bosom. Jacopo, seeing him fall, had believed him killed, and rushingtowards him raised him up, and then attended to him with all thekindness of a devoted comrade.
This world was not then so good as Doctor Pangloss believed it, neitherwas it so wicked as Dantès thought it, since this man, who had nothingto expect from his comrade but the inheritance of his share of theprize-money, manifested so much sorrow when he saw him fall.Fortunately, as we have said, Edmond was only wounded, and with certainherbs gathered at certain seasons, and sold to the smugglers by the oldSardinian women, the wound soon closed. Edmond then resolved to tryJacopo, and offered him in return for his attention a share of hisprize-money, but Jacopo refused it indignantly.
As a result of the sympathetic devotion which Jacopo had from the firstbestowed on Edmond, the latter was moved to a certain degree ofaffection. But this sufficed for Jacopo, who instinctively felt thatEdmond had a right to superiority of position—a superiority which Edmondhad concealed from all others. And from this time the kindness whichEdmond showed him was enough for the brave seaman.
Then in the long days on board ship, when the vessel, gliding on withsecurity over the azure sea, required no care but the hand of thehelmsman, thanks to the favorable winds that swelled her sails, Edmond,with a chart in his hand, became the instructor of Jacopo, as the poorAbbé Faria had been his tutor. He pointed out to him the bearings of thecoast, explained to him the variations of the compass, and taught him toread in that vast book opened over our heads which they call heaven, andwhere God writes in azure with letters of diamonds.
And when Jacopo inquired of him, “What is the use of teaching all thesethings to a poor sailor like me?” Edmond replied, “Who knows? You mayone day be the captain of a vessel. Your fellow-countryman, Bonaparte,became emperor.” We had forgotten to say that Jacopo was a Corsican.
Two months and a half elapsed in these trips, and Edmond had become asskilful a coaster as he had been a hardy seaman; he had formed anacquaintance with all the smugglers on the coast, and learned all theMasonic signs by which these half pirates recognize each other. He hadpassed and re-passed his Island of Monte Cristo twenty times, but notonce had he found an opportunity of landing there.
He then formed a resolution. As soon as his engagement with the patronof La Jeune Amélie ended, he would hire a small vessel on his ownaccount—for in his several voyages he had amassed a hundred piastres—andunder some pretext land at the Island of Monte Cristo. Then he would befree to make his researches, not perhaps entirely at liberty, for hewould be doubtless watched by those who accompanied him. But in thisworld we must risk something. Prison had made Edmond prudent, and he wasdesirous of running no risk whatever. But in vain did he rack hisimagination; fertile as it was, he could not devise any plan forreaching the island without companionship.
Dantès was tossed about on these doubts and wishes, when the patron, whohad great confidence in him, and was very desirous of retaining him inhis service, took him by the arm one evening and led him to a tavern onthe Via del’ Oglio, where the leading smugglers of Leghorn used tocongregate and discuss affairs connected with their trade. AlreadyDantès had visited this maritime Bourse two or three times, and seeingall these hardy free-traders, who supplied the whole coast for nearlytwo hundred leagues in extent, he had asked himself what power might notthat man attain who should give the impulse of his will to all thesecontrary and diverging minds. This time it was a great matter that wasunder discussion, connected with a vessel laden with Turkey carpets,stuffs of the Levant, and cashmeres. It was necessary to find someneutral ground on which an exchange could be made, and then to try andland these goods on the coast of France. If the venture was successfulthe profit would be enormous, there would be a gain of fifty or sixtypiastres each for the crew.
The patron of La Jeune Amélie proposed as a place of landing the Islandof Monte Cristo, which being completely deserted, and having neithersoldiers nor revenue officers, seemed to have been placed in the midstof the ocean since the time of the heathen Olympus by Mercury, the godof merchants and robbers, classes of mankind which we in modern timeshave separated if not made distinct, but which antiquity appears to haveincluded in the same category.
At the mention of Monte Cristo Dantès started with joy; he rose toconceal his emotion, and took a turn around the smoky tavern, where allthe languages of the known world were jumbled in a lingua franca.
When he again joined the two persons who had been discussing the matter,it had been decided that they should touch at Monte Cristo and set outon the following night. Edmond, being consulted, was of opinion that theisland afforded every possible security, and that great enterprises tobe well done should be done quickly.
Nothing then was altered in the plan, and orders were given to get underweigh next night, and, wind and weather permitting, to make the neutralisland by the following day.