Ali having retired, the Deputy calmly broke the seal and hurriedly ran his eyes over the missive. Espérance and Zuleika eagerly and breathlessly watched his countenance while he read, but it was as impassable as a countenance chiseled from marble; when he had finished he turned to Espérance and without a word handed him the letter. For a moment the young man trembled so he could not read; cold perspiration stood in heavy beads upon his forehead, and vivid flashes of red passed before his eyes like sheets of lurid lightning. What thoughts, what suspicions, what dread shot through his tortured mind in that brief moment, making it seem an eternity of suffering! At last, steadying and controlling himself by a supreme effort, he read the missive from which he had feared such terrible consequences. It was in Italian, and ran as follows: HIS EXCELLENCY, THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO: You ask me to answer your questions, and I comply. Pasquale Solara's daughter, Annunziata, was abducted, from her father's peasant-home by Giovanni Massetti, known as the Viscount Massetti, who is, no doubt, the person to whom you allude as now in Paris, for he has disappeared from Rome. You are right in assuming that he had aid. He was assisted by a young Frenchman, and that young Frenchman was your son, Espérance. Annunziata suffered the usual fate of abducted peasant girls, and was deserted by her dastardly abductor in a fastness controlled by my band. When the abduction took place, Annunziata's brother strove to rescue her, but was attacked and killed by Massetti. Through my means the girl was returned to her home, but she was miserable there and fled; she is now in an asylum for unfortunate women founded at Civita Vecchia by the Order of Sisters of Refuge, and superintended by a French lady, a Madame Helena de Rancogne, who, as is said, was formerly called the Countess of Monte-Cristo.[1] It is due to your son to say that he was entirely misled in regard to the abduction of Annunziata Solara, and is altogether innocent of crime or intention to commit it. The whole burden of guilt rests upon the shoulders of the Viscount Massetti, who, I believe, compelled your son at the pistol's mouth to take a fearful oath of silence. LUIGI VAMPA.
When Espérance had read this letter that so effectually cleared him, and was such a fearful arraignment of the Viscount Massetti, he restored it to his father and sank into his chair utterly overcome by the terrible excitement and mental strain through which he had passed. M. Dantès forced him to swallow a glass of wine that partially restored him; then, turning to M. Lamartine, who had been an astonished spectator of this strange and to him incomprehensible family scene, he said: "My dear friend, you are amazed, and you have a right to be. This letter that has caused my son and daughter so much emotion comes from a Roman brigand chief, no other than Luigi Vampa, whose name is notorious throughout Europe. You will understand its importance when I inform you that it conclusively clears my son of an exceedingly grave charge."