"I am ashamed to confess to you that I feared to accept," said Dantès after a pause. "My own selfishness, not, alas! my disinterestedness, has kept me from the post of peril. Perhaps, indeed, I can do far more for the cause of my race as I am than I could by sacrificing myself for office and position; at least, I hope so."
"Is the position of your friends then so perilous?" asked Mercédès.
"Dearest, they stand upon a volcano!" said Dantès, solemnly.
"Ha!" cried the lady in alarm.
"Mercédès--Mercédès!" continued Dantès with enthusiasm, "I sometimes am startled with the idea that to me have been entrusted the awful powers of foreknowledge, of prophecy, so fearfully true have some of my predictions proved! The events of the past week I foresaw and foretold, even to minute circumstances and the hours of their occurrence. And now--glorious as is the triumph that France and the cause of man have achieved--I perceive in the dim future a sea of commotion! All is not yet settled. Within one month, revolution will succeed revolution throughout Europe! Berlin, Vienna, and Madrid, perhaps also St. Petersburg, London, and all the cities of Italy, will be in revolt. All Europe must and will feel the events of the past week in Paris. Europe must be free!"
"And our friends--Lamartine--Louis Blanc?"
"Within six months Louis Blanc will be an exile, and Lamartine--he may be in a dungeon or on a scaffold!"
"Ah!" exclaimed Mercédès, clinging yet more closely to her husband.
"But the cause of human happiness, human right and human freedom will live forever! That must be, will be eternal--as eternal, my adored Mercédès, as is our own deathless love!"