CHAPTER XXI.

ZULEIKA LEARNS THE TRUTH.

Nothing occurred to impede the progress of the Haydee and, after a rapid

and pleasant voyage, the beautiful craft cast anchor in the harbor of

Civita Vecchia, the principal seaport city of the Pontifical States,

which owes its origin to the Emperor Trajan. The strict quarantine

regulations of the place caused a brief delay, which Monte-Cristo and

Zuleika bore with ill-concealed impatience, but the period required by

law for purification at length expired and the travelers were accorded

official permission to proceed to Rome. Of this they immediately availed

themselves and in a short time were in the Eternal City comfortably

installed in the best apartments the Hotel de France afforded.

The Count's first care was to send his card to M. and Mme. Morrel, who

at once hastened to his parlor, where the most cordial greetings were

exchanged. That Monte-Cristo should be in Rome did not in the slightest

degree astonish Maximilian and Valentine, who were fully aware of his

habit of suddenly making his appearance in unexpected spots apparently

without motive, but the presence of Zuleika at this critical juncture

both surprised them and filled them with consternation. What answer

should they make to her when she inquired concerning Giovanni? How was

the fact of his sad condition to be kept from her when all Rome knew of

it and it was the current gossip of the city? Valentine had written

several letters to the girl since quitting Paris, but in them had dealt

only in generalities; she had studiously refrained from informing her of

the true state of things, hoping against hope that she would eventually

have some cheering intelligence to impart. The Count, however, speedily

relieved the devoted husband and wife of their anxiety. He knew as well

as they that his daughter could not fail soon to learn that the Viscount

was a maniac and preferred to break the terrible news to her himself. As

soon, therefore, as the greetings were over, before Zuleika could

whisper to Mme. Morrel the question that was trembling on her lips, the

dreaded inquiry as to her lover and his whereabouts, he said, in a quiet

tone:

"Maximilian and Valentine, you, no doubt, wonder why we have come to

Rome, what is our business here. I will tell you. We have come to clear

an unfortunate man, the Viscount Giovanni Massetti, of a fearful charge

that has long hung over him."

M. and Mme. Morrel exchanged glances. Now was their time to speak, to

avow their mission to Monte-Cristo.

"Count," said Maximilian, pointing to his wife, "we also came hither on

the same errand. Zuleika confessed her love for the young Italian to

Valentine, who extracted from her the nature of the charge to which you

have just alluded. Pardon us for having acted without your

authorization, but we desired to succeed before confessing to you the

part we had taken in the affair."

Monte-Cristo smiled.

"You need no pardon from me," he said, gently, much affected by this

proof of devotion to his daughter and through her to him; "on the

contrary you have my gratitude as well as Zuleika's! But what success

have you met with?"

"Alas! none of any moment as yet," answered M. Morrel, sadly.

"Such a result was to be expected," returned the Count, gravely. "You

had no evidence to establish Giovanni's innocence and it was impossible

for you to obtain any. I have the evidence, conclusive evidence! When

the proper moment arrives I will produce it, remove the stain from his

name and confound his enemies!"

"Thank God!" simultaneously exclaimed M. and Mme. Morrel, Valentine

taking Zuleika in her arms, kissing her and clasping her to her bosom.

"But," continued Monte-Cristo, glancing anxiously at his daughter, "the

unfortunate young man must first be taken in hand and cured!"

Maximilian and Valentine again exchanged glances. They felt relieved.

The Count knew all. He was making the disclosure gradually,

considerately. They silently waited for further developments, holding

their breath. Valentine's heart beat almost audibly. Zuleika started

from her arms and gazed at her father with anxious, astonished eyes.

"Cured?" she repeated, in a tremulous voice. "Is Giovanni ill?"

"He is, my child," answered the Count.

What would he say next? How much was he going to disclose? Surely not

the whole of the dreadful truth! These thoughts shot like lightning

through the minds of M. and Mme. Morrel. Maximilian stood like a statue,

motionless, pale, gazing upon Monte-Cristo as a condemned criminal gazes

upon his executioner. Valentine seized her husband's hand and held it

like a vise.

Zuleika stared at the Morrels; she could not understand their action,

their breathless interest. Then her glance reverted to her father and,

for the first time, she saw that, notwithstanding his apparent calmness,

he, too, was under the dominion of some intense emotion.

"Father!" she cried, clasping her hands appealingly, "what do you mean?

You say that Giovanni is ill, but your look expresses more than your

words! With what fearful malady has he been stricken? Tell me, I conjure

you! I will be strong--I will bear it!"

"My child," said the Count, in a solemn tone, "then summon all your

courage, all your firmness to your aid! Young Massetti, overwhelmed by

his troubles, has fallen a prey to a mental disease!"

"Mon Dieu! mon Dieu!" groaned Zuleika, in anguish, "do you mean to say

that he has lost his mind, that he is a lunatic?"

"Such, alas! is the case! But, my daughter, trust in me! I will find

him and science will effect his cure!"

The poor girl, stunned by the terrible intelligence of her lover's

condition, stood for an instant with her eyes stonily fixed upon her

father. Tears refused to come to her relief. Then she tottered,

staggered as if she had been suddenly struck with a heavy missile, and

fell fainting into Valentine's outstretched arms. Maximilian assisted

his wife to place her in a fauteuil, after which he seized the bell

cord.

"For what are you going to ring?" asked Monte-Cristo, who had hurried to

his daughter's side.

"For brandy," answered M. Morrel, his hand still on the cord. "It will

revive her."

"Never mind the brandy," returned the Count, as he took a small vial

containing a red-looking fluid from his pocket and, opening Zuleika's

mouth, poured eight drops of the liquid down her throat. "This is the

Abbe Faria's elixir, a potent remedy that never yet failed of effect! It

will work like a charm! See! It is already doing its office!"

As he uttered these words Zuleika moved slightly in the fauteuil, then

opened her eyes and gazed about her in bewilderment. Almost immediately,

however, she realized that she had swooned and a full sense of her

father's terrible though considerately made revelation returned to her.

She buried her face in her hands, quivered from head to foot, and then

the glistening drops trickling through her fingers told that the tears

had at last come to calm her. Valentine bent over her, gently stroking

her raven hair and endeavoring in a womanly way to soothe her, while

the Count and Maximilian looked on with anxious countenances, waiting

for Mme. Morrel's touch and influence to do their work.

Suddenly Zuleika removed her hands from her tear-bathed visage,

straightened herself up in the fauteuil and, fixing her glance on

Monte-Cristo, said, in a low, faint and gasping tone that betrayed the

depth, the intensity, of her emotion:

"Father, you spoke of finding Giovanni! Has he disappeared?"

The Count compressed his lips, hesitating to reply. He wished to keep

back as much of the dread truth as possible. He feared the effect upon

his daughter of the startling announcement that young Massetti was

wandering about amid the ruins of the Colosseum like a second King Lear

on the blasted heath. But Maximilian came quickly to his aid.

"There is no need to find the Viscount," he said. "He has already been

found and is at present under treatment in a suitable institution, where

he is both comfortable and contented."

Zuleika cast a grateful look at M. and Mme. Morrel. Monte-Cristo seized

Maximilian's hand and pressed it warmly.

"You have done this, my friend," said he, his countenance brightening,

"and I thank you for it!"

"Do not thank me," replied the husband, gazing fondly and admiringly at

his wife; "thank Valentine, for she it was who formed the plan and

successfully carried it into execution!"

Mme. Morrel cast down her eyes and a heightened color overspread her

charming face.

"You are an angel, Valentine!" exclaimed Monte-Cristo, enthusiastically.

"Maximilian said awhile ago that no success of any moment had as yet

crowned your united efforts, but his statement was too modest. Your

success has been conspicuous; you have taken the first step that I

designed making and simplified my task to a marked degree. I am deeply

indebted to you both."

M. and Mme. Morrel lifted their hands and shook their heads in protest.

"The debt is all on our side," said Maximilian, deprecatingly, "and no

matter what we may do we can never discharge it. We owe you the

happiness of our lives!"

Monte-Cristo turned the conversation; he took but little credit to

himself for the benefits he had conferred upon his fellow-creatures,

considering that every good action on his part went towards atoning for

the terrible catastrophes he had caused in the prosecution of his

relentless vengeance against his old-time enemies.

"Tell me," said he, addressing M. Morrel, "what is the Viscount's

present condition. Is he recovering?"

Maximilian looked hastily in the direction of Zuleika; the poor girl was

intently watching him, eagerly waiting for his answer. His voice was

somewhat unsteady as he replied:

"Ever since he was placed in the institution of which I told you he has

received the closest and most skilful care, but his progress is very

slow, almost imperceptible, though the physician who is ministering to

him has never ceased to assure us that he will ultimately regain the

full possession of his health and senses."

"Oh! take me to him, take me to him at once!" cried Zuleika, starting to

her feet. "My place is by his side! I will nurse him, I will cure him!"

Monte-Cristo glanced at Maximilian, who shook his head negatively and

whispered in the Count's ear:

"It will never do to take her to him now; the shock of seeing him would

be too great! He would not even recognize her--he recognizes no one!"

Zuleika divined enough of what was passing to realize that Maximilian

opposed her wishes, was striving to prevent her from going to her lover,

from ministering to his wants. She sprang to her father, clasped her

arms about his neck, and, looking pitifully and pleadingly into his

face, exclaimed:

"Oh! take me to Giovanni, take me to him! Do not deny your loving,

dutiful daughter's most earnest prayer! Do not deny it, oh! my beloved

father, do not deny it!"

Monte-Cristo was touched to the very depths of his soul; M. and Mme.

Morrel were equally affected. The Count, however, instantly decided what

was to be done. Tenderly, compassionately, embracing his daughter, he

said to her, in a soothing voice:

"My child, for the present it is best that you do not go to Giovanni. I

will see him for you and without delay put a plan in operation that I do

not doubt will result in his speedy cure. I know a wondrous physician

whose skill is so great that he can almost restore the dead to life. He

belongs to the despised race of Jews, but is a good as well as a

marvellous man. His name is Dr. Israel Absalom and he resides here in

Rome, within the walls of the shunned and execrated Ghetto, near the

Capitoline Mount. I will go to him at once and take him to young

Massetti. My daughter, rest assumed that this learned Hebrew will work

another miracle and give your lover back to you and in all the glory of

his mind and manhood! Be content, therefore, to remain where you are for

a brief period, with our devoted friend Valentine as your companion and

comforter."

"Yes, Zuleika," said Mme. Morrel, persuasively, "be content to remain

with me. I will not quit you even for an instant. We will talk of

Giovanni, of the happiness and joy the future has in store for both of

you, and, believe me, the hours will pass on rapid wings!"

As Valentine spoke she gently disengaged the girl from her father's neck

and passed her arm lovingly around her slender waist. Zuleika's head

sank upon her friend's shoulder.

"I yield to my father's solicitations and to your own, Valentine," she

said, submissively. "You are older and wiser than I am and what you say

is without doubt for the best. I will remain and trust to the wondrous

physician."

"I have heard a great deal of this Dr. Absalom since I have been in

Rome," said M. Morrel, addressing Monte-Cristo. "The common people

regard him as a magician and the higher classes as a cunning charlatan,

but, if his legitimate scientific skill is generally denied, his

brilliant and marvellous success, even in cases that the best Roman

physicians have abandoned as hopeless, is universally admitted."

"Dr. Absalom is neither a magician nor a charlatan," answered

Monte-Cristo, warmly, "but a physician of the utmost experience and of

the highest possible attainments. He is bent beneath the weight of years

and arduous study, yet his eye is as keen and his perception as acute as

if he were a youth of twenty. No man knows either his age or his

history. I met him long ago in Athens, where I had the good fortune to

rescue him from the clutches of a howling mob of ruffians who had seized

upon him and were about to slay him as a sorcerer because he had taken

into his hut and cured of the plague a wretched Greek who had been cast

into the streets to die! For my sake he will save Giovanni!"

"But," said Maximilian, as a sudden thought occurred to him and filled

him with dismay, "Dr. Absalom can practise outside of the Ghetto only by

stealth and at the risk of being thrown into prison! He will not be

allowed to visit the Viscount Massetti!"

The Count of Monte-Cristo drew himself up proudly and his peculiar smile

passed over his countenance.

"I will take care of that!" he said, impressively.

Zuleika was left with Mme. Morrel, and, accompanied by Maximilian,

Monte-Cristo at once started for the Ghetto.