Stories to remember - Chapter 6

THE TRAP CLOSES

Villefort went quickly to his office in the Law Courts. When he arrived there, he asked for the prisoner. He began to question him and soon knew from the honest answers he received that Dante could not be guilty.

'Have you any enemies?' he asked.

'Enemies!' exclaimed Dante. 'I'm not old enough, or important enough to have enemies.'

'Well, perhaps someone is jealous of you,' said the Assistant State Prosecutor. 'You are to be a ship's captain at the age of nineteen. You are to be married to a beautiful young girl who loves you. You may have made somebody jealous.'

'Perhaps you are right,' answered Dante, 'but I don't know who it could be.'

'Well, here is the letter accusing you,' said Villefort, handing him the note addressed to the State Prosecutor.

'Do you recognise the writing?'

Dante read the letter.

'No,' he said, 'but perhaps the writing is disguised.'

'Well, now, tell me honestly. Is there any truth in this letter?' asked Villefort.

'No,' answered Dante. 'There is no truth in it at all. I'll tell you exactly what happened.'

He then explained how Captain Leclere had given him a package to take to Elba and asked him also to take a letter from Elba to France.

'I did what anyone would have done in my place,' said Dante. 'Everywhere the last request of a dying man is sacred: but with a sailor, the last request of his superior is a command which he has to obey. I, therefore, went ashore at Elba with Captain Leclere's package. When I handed it over, I was given a letter to take to a person in Paris. I took it because my captain had ordered me to do so.'

'Yes, I think you are speaking the truth,' said Villefort. 'Give me the letter you brought from Elba, and promise to report here should we wish to ask you any more questions. Then you may go.'

'Am I free then, sir?' asked Dante joyfully.

'Yes, but first give me the letter.'

'It is there on the table,' said Dante. 'It was taken from me when I was arrested.'

'Wait a moment,' said the Assistant State Prosecutor, as Dante picked up his hat to go. ' To whom is it addressed?'

'To Monsieur Noirtier, Rue Coq-Heron, Paris,' replied Dante.

Villefort looked as though he had been struck by a thunderbolt. The letter was addressed to his father! He opened it hastily and read it. It told of a plan of Napoleon Bonaparte to leave the island of Elba with three armed ships. It said that Napoleon's friends in Paris were to expect him to land in France very soon.

Villefort trembled. If anyone knew that such a letter had been addressed to his father, he, the Assistant State Prosecutor, would not only lose his job but might end up as a prisoner in the dread Chateau d'If. What good fortune that the State Prosecutor was out of Marseilles and that he had been asked to question Dante instead!

He turned to Dante again.

'Do you give me your word that you do not know the contents of this letter?'

'I give you my word, sir,' said Dante.

'Well, I must keep you here a little longer now,' said Villefort, 'but I'll make it as short as possible. The main evidence against you is this letter, and you see I am destroying it.'

He held the letter to a candle. soon it was only a little pile of ashes which were then thrown from the window.

'You see what I have done for you?' said Villefort. 'I have burnt the letter. Now you know that you can trust me.'

'Yes, sir,' replied Dante, 'you are very good to me. Now what do you wish me to do?'

'I shall have to keep you here in the Law Courts until this evening. Should anyone else question you, don't breathe a word of this letter. Take care also never to mention the name of the person to whom it was addressed.

'I promise,' said Dante earnestly.

Villefort rang a bell and a policeman appeared.

'Go with him,' said Villefort to Dante.

When the two men had left the room, Villefort sat in his chair. He was still trembling to think of what might have happened had the letter come into the hands of the State Prosecutor. Edmond Dante did not know the contents of the letter, but he knew that it was addressed to Monsieur Noirtier. Villefort could not risk setting him free now. He decided on another plan. Dante must be kept out of the way and he, Villefort, would use the information in the letter to benefit himself.

'With this letter, which might have ruined me, I can make myself rich,' he said to himself.

And with a smile on his face he hurried back to his wedding feast.