"And how did this despatch reach you?" inquired the king.
The minister bowed his head, and while a deep color
overspread his cheeks, he stammered out, --

"By the telegraph, sire." -- Louis XVIII. advanced a step,
and folded his arms over his chest as Napoleon would have
done.

"So then," he exclaimed, turning pale with anger, "seven
conjoined and allied armies overthrew that man. A miracle of
heaven replaced me on the throne of my fathers after
five-and-twenty years of exile. I have, during those
five-and-twenty years, spared no pains to understand the
people of France and the interests which were confided to
me; and now, when I see the fruition of my wishes almost
within reach, the power I hold in my hands bursts, and
shatters me to atoms!"

"Sire, it is fatality!" murmured the minister, feeling that
the pressure of circumstances, however light a thing to
destiny, was too much for any human strength to endure.

"What our enemies say of us is then true. We have learnt
nothing, forgotten nothing! If I were betrayed as he was, I
would console myself; but to be in the midst of persons
elevated by myself to places of honor, who ought to watch
over me more carefully than over themselves, -- for my
fortune is theirs -- before me they were nothing -- after me
they will be nothing, and perish miserably from incapacity
-- ineptitude! Oh, yes, sir, you are right -- it is
fatality!"

The minister quailed before this outburst of sarcasm. M. de
Blacas wiped the moisture from his brow. Villefort smiled
within himself, for he felt his increased importance.

"To fall," continued King Louis, who at the first glance had
sounded the abyss on which the monarchy hung suspended, --
"to fall, and learn of that fall by telegraph! Oh, I would
rather mount the scaffold of my brother, Louis XVI., than
thus descend the staircase at the Tuileries driven away by
ridicule. Ridicule, sir -- why, you know not its power in
France, and yet you ought to know it!"

"Sire, sire," murmured the minister, "for pity's" --

"Approach, M. de Villefort," resumed the king, addressing
the young man, who, motionless and breathless, was listening
to a conversation on which depended the destiny of a
kingdom. "Approach, and tell monsieur that it is possible to
know beforehand all that he has not known."

"Sire, it was really impossible to learn secrets which that
man concealed from all the world."

"Really impossible! Yes -- that is a great word, sir.
Unfortunately, there are great words, as there are great
men; I have measured them. Really impossible for a minister
who has an office, agents, spies, and fifteen hundred
thousand francs for secret service money, to know what is
going on at sixty leagues from the coast of France! Well,
then, see, here is a gentleman who had none of these
resources at his disposal -- a gentleman, only a simple
magistrate, who learned more than you with all your police,
and who would have saved my crown, if, like you, he had the
power of directing a telegraph." The look of the minister of
police was turned with concentrated spite on Villefort, who
bent his head in modest triumph.

"I do not mean that for you, Blacas," continued Louis
XVIII.; "for if you have discovered nothing, at least you
have had the good sense to persevere in your suspicions. Any
other than yourself would have considered the disclosure of
M. de Villefort insignificant, or else dictated by venal
ambition," These words were an allusion to the sentiments
which the minister of police had uttered with so much
confidence an hour before.

Villefort understood the king's intent. Any other person
would, perhaps, have been overcome by such an intoxicating
draught of praise; but he feared to make for himself a
mortal enemy of the police minister, although he saw that
Dandre was irrevocably lost. In fact, the minister, who, in
the plenitude of his power, had been unable to unearth
Napoleon's secret, might in despair at his own downfall
interrogate Dantes and so lay bare the motives of
Villefort's plot. Realizing this, Villefort came to the
rescue of the crest-fallen minister, instead of aiding to
crush him.

"Sire," said Villefort, "the suddenness of this event must
prove to your majesty that the issue is in the hands of
Providence; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me
as profound perspicacity is simply owing to chance, and I
have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted
servant -- that's all. Do not attribute to me more than I
deserve, sire, that your majesty may never have occasion to
recall the first opinion you have been pleased to form of
me." The minister of police thanked the young man by an


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