"I want to know what crime I have committed, I want a public trial, in short, I want: if I am guilty, I should be shot, if I am innocent, I should be set free."
"When I came here, I heard from the jailer that there was one time when you wanted to kill them."
"That's true, but I was too angry at the time. Anyway, I'm very sorry. He was actually very nice to me. Maybe it was because he had been in there for too long that I couldn't control myself."
Hearing this, Moriarty frowned.
"How long have you been locked up?"
"February 28, 1815, at half-past two in the afternoon."
"Today is July 30, 1819."
"...It's been so long, so long, how could it be... " The gray-haired young man suddenly showed a sad expression, "Sir, please have mercy on me, I don't ask for a pardon, I just ask for a public trial. I just want to see the judge, they shouldn't refuse to interrogate a suspect, I am innocent."
Then he went on to say: "I know you have no right to release me, but you can make a request on my behalf and you can have me tried. That's all I ask."
“…”
Moriarty was silent for just a moment, and the gray-haired young man said loudly:
"Please, please give me some hope."
At this moment, from the expression and words of the gray-haired young man in front of him, Moriarty remembered what Faria had told him before, about the man who was imprisoned for five years for stealing a piece of bread for the seven children of his sister. This unfair treatment caused him to make four failed attempts to escape from prison, and he was finally released after serving eighteen years of hard labor. He had wasted eighteen years just for a piece of bread.
Originally, Moriarty thought it was just a story, but when he recalled Faria's expression, he felt that he might have really seen such a thing, so he couldn't do anything without caring...
"I'll go take a look."
"Oh, great! I am free at last! I am saved at last! Mercedes, wait for me..."
"Who ordered your arrest?"
“It is M. de Villefort; I beg you to see him.”
"Villefort...I think he is no longer in Marseilles, but in Toulouse."
"No wonder I haven't been released for so many years." The gray-haired young man murmured, "It turns out that my only protector has left. Villefort must be worried about me and must be trying hard to save me."
"Does he have any personal grudge against you?"
"Not at all; on the contrary, he was very kind to me."
"Then, in regard to you, I may rely on his records or his advice?"
“Villefort is absolutely trustworthy. You must trust him.”
The gray-haired young man answered with certainty.
"Is that so? All right." Moriarty nodded slightly, "Then wait patiently... By the way, what's your name?"
"Edmond Dantès."
217: Edmond Dantes - Sailor in the Port of Marseilles (5k5)
Years later, after completing his fierce revenge, the sailor in Marseilles will recall that distant night six years after he spent in the Chateau d'If -
The sailor will walk towards the distance alone in the gentle breeze. The priest is no longer there, but in the sailor's heart, the longing for him is still vivid. Even if the day comes when the world disappears, it will not be lost and will probably continue to shine.
Until forever——
Just like the stars.
In 1815, Edmond Dantès was only nineteen years old. He was an extremely good sailor and a likely candidate for captain.
In this year, an old captain whom he met during a Mediterranean trade transaction called Edmond before his death and asked him to help him deliver a letter to the Ebal Peninsula. At that time, Napoleon was stationed on the Ebal Peninsula to prepare forces to overthrow the restoration dynasty, and the old captain was a Republican.
When he asked Edmund to deliver a letter for Napoleon, Edmund did not hesitate at all. Although Edmund had no idea what kind of letter he was asked to deliver, he could not bear to refuse the request of a dying old man.
However, Danglars, who was also a sailor, accidentally learned about this. When Captain Morrel decided to promote Edmond to the position of first mate of the Pharaoh, the jealous Danglars seized the opportunity to jointly plan a conspiracy with Fernand, who had always been in love with Edmond's fiancée. Together, the two wrote anonymous letters falsely accusing Edmond of delivering letters for the former emperor Napoleon, and had him arrested and imprisoned by Villefort, the prosecutor of Marseille, at Dantes' engagement party.
But Captain Morrel attached great importance to Edmund. Apart from Edmund's fiancée Mercedes, he was the only one who worked tirelessly to plead for Edmund. At first, he found Prosecutor Villefort and pleaded with him. Then Villefort said that he could release Edmund, but after interrogating Edmund, he changed his mind.
Because Villefort's father, a royalist, was Napoleon's man and a backbone of the Republican uprising group. He participated in many activities to overthrow the Bourbon dynasty and was almost wanted several times.
This time, Villefort's father participated in an important secret activity. The Republicans were preparing to act secretly to welcome Napoleon's landing in France to overthrow Louis XIV. Villefort's father wrote a letter asking the Republicans to help deliver the letter. This Republican was the old captain who was about to die. The old captain then passed the letter to Edmond.
When Villefort learned of this, he was afraid that if his father was arrested, he would be implicated as he had just been favored by Louis XIV. For the sake of his own status, he had no choice but to sacrifice the unfortunate Edmund. Villefort lied to Edmund and said that he would definitely let him out. At the same time, he secretly ordered his men to imprison Edmund in the Chateau d'If.
Everything ended here. For Edmond Dantes, his previous days were smooth sailing, but overnight, he was thrown into prison, and his life turned into a shadow.
Later, when Napoleon returned to France, Morel went to Villefort to plead for him. He said that Edmond sent the letter for Napoleon. Now that Napoleon had ascended the throne, Dantes's identity had completely changed, from a prisoner to a meritorious man. However, Villefort deceived Morel with sweet words. Until the end of the "Hundred Days", Morel, who had tried so hard for Edmond, never came again. He had done everything he could.
The young man who trusted others got such a disappointing ending, which makes people feel that his sincerity is a bit naive, and his integrity is a bit ignorant...
However, this was not his fault, but the fault of the times. Among the countless prisoners, Edmund was not the only one who was imprisoned for such reasons. There were tens of thousands of honest and kind people who were falsely accused and imprisoned due to the darkness of society and the dominance of villains, and were forever forgotten and cruelly deprived of their precious lives.
Yes, countless people like this died in the Chateau d'If with grief and indignation, and were forever lost and buried. No one will talk about or remember them anymore...
If there were no other opportunities and variables, it would be a foreseeable result that Edmond Dantès would eventually die of old age in the isolated island prison of the Chateau d'If.
In 1819, when Moriarty was serving as a prison inspector again and was ready to see Faria in person after a long time, he also took a look at Edmond. However, when he returned, he fulfilled his promise to Edmond and did look through the files about him and saw the records:
Edmond Dantès is a member of the Napoleonic party who was responsible for helping the rebels return from the island of Elba. He should be strictly guarded and be on guard. - Gerard de Villefort.
The handwriting of this record is different from the others, proving that it was added after Edmond was imprisoned, that is, it was added by Prosecutor Villefort, whom Edmond trusted to rescue him.
Moriarty naturally saw the truth about this, but he couldn't interfere too much. After all, he was British. He could only comment:
"It's groundless."
But this inspection rekindled hope in Edmund's heart.
He had forgotten how to calculate the date since his unfortunate imprisonment, but Moriarty gave him a new date, which he did not forget and dared not forget.
He wrote on the wall with a piece of plaster that had fallen from the roof - 'July 30, 1819'.
From that time on, he marked each day so that he would not forget it again, and the days went by, the weeks, and then the months, and still Edmund was in expectation.
He had originally expected to be released within two weeks, but when the two weeks had passed he realized that the inspector might not take any action until he returned to Paris, and he could not return there until after his inspection, so he set the limit for three months.
But three months passed, and then six months, and during this long period of time, no favorable changes occurred.
So the man began to fantasize, thinking that it was just a dream, a fantasy in his mind.
Edmund experienced all the sufferings that the prisoners endured in the dungeon.
After all, it was the prison from which no one could escape alive—the Chateau d’If.
The Tower of If exists in the world but is called 'hell'.
A death row for those who have committed unforgivable crimes.
People say - all the suffering in this world is concentrated here.
People say - the sounds of anger, lamentation and sorrow are endless.
People say - once you are imprisoned, you will never be able to escape.
Edmund was confident at first because he had hope and knew he was innocent, but then he began to doubt whether he was really innocent.
Later, Edmund begged the jailer to move him to a single room, allow him to take walks, and give him some books and handicrafts.
The result was naturally that nothing was satisfied, but even so he still asked for it.
Edmund also tried to talk to himself, but he was frightened by the sound of his own voice.
Before he went to prison, he would naturally feel disgusted when he thought of such a group of prisoners gathered together, among whom were thieves, vagrants, and murderers.
But now he wished he could be with them, so that he could see other faces besides the jailer who didn't speak to him, and he envied the laborers in prison clothes, chains, and marks on their shoulders.
Because prisoners doing hard labor could breathe fresh air outside and see each other.
But gradually, Edmund's heart was filled with darkness.
Almost four years had passed since he had been in prison, and at some point he had forgotten to count the dates because he felt that the world had abandoned him.
After all, he is a very simple person and has not received much education.
So, in that lonely dungeon, he couldn't fantasize about the past or understand anything. He couldn't do that.
As time passed, the unbearable emptiness made Edmund furious. He banged his body against the prison wall, cursing loudly at God.
In this way, Edmund transferred his anger to everything around him. He took out his anger on himself and on the most insignificant things that annoyed him... Soon, he thought about committing suicide.
Once this thought comes into mind, men become calmer and gentler.
He made his bed as well as he could, ate very little, slept very little, and found that this was all right, for he felt that he could throw existence aside cheerfully as he would a worn-out piece of clothing.
Imprisoned in the dungeon of the Chateau d'If, he had two options for death: one was to hang himself with his handkerchief on the window bars, and the other was to die by starvation, but the former plan disgusted him.
As a sailor, Edmund always hated pirates, and after being captured, pirates were hanged on the sailboat. He was unwilling to adopt such an ignominious way of death.
He decided to adopt the second method and implemented it that day.
"I want to die."
The man murmured and chose a way to die. Fearing that he would change his mind, he swore to die.
"When breakfast and dinner are brought," he thought, "I will just pour it out of the window and think I have eaten it."
So Edmund did what he was supposed to do, and poured out through the barred window the two daily deliveries of food which the jailer brought him, at first with joy, then with some hesitation, and finally with remorse.
When he first came in, he felt sick at the sight of the food, but now because he was so hungry, he felt that the food was very delicious.
Sometimes he held the plate in his hands for hours, staring at half a mouthful of rotten meat, stinky fish, and moldy black bread.
The instinct of survival fought against him within him and shook his resolution from time to time, and at that moment, his dungeon did not seem as gloomy as before, and he was not as desperate as before.
In the first ten years, I was very happy. In the second ten years, I gained a lot of things and things were getting better and better without me realizing it.
Thinking of this, he raised the food to his lips; but Edmund remembered his resolution, and he was afraid that it would be detrimental to his character to break his promise.
In the third decade, I fell to the lowest point in my life. I lost everything and everyone abandoned me. Is there anyone who can save me?
Hahahaha, no one, no one will come to save me! No one......
So he persisted in this relentless and relentless way until finally he had no more strength left to pour his dinner out the window.
The next morning, the man's vision and hearing were gone, which made the jailer think he was seriously ill, but in fact Edmond just wanted to die quickly.
The day passed like this, and Edmund felt dazed because he saw moldy black bread and water appear out of nowhere at the door.
Although in fact he did see an illusory and petite figure walking around sometimes over the years, he just regarded it as his own hallucination or illusion.
Perhaps he had really gone crazy, Edmund couldn't help but laugh out loud.
At about nine o'clock in the evening, Edmund suddenly heard a hollow sound coming from the wall against which he slept.
There were many nasty little animals living in the cell, and they often made some noises, and the mentally broken man had long been accustomed to them.
But now, whether it was because the fast had sharpened his senses, or because the sound was indeed louder than usual, or perhaps it was because in those last moments, everything had a new meaning.
Anyway Edmund raised his head and listened for a moment. It was a constant sound, like a huge claw, or a powerful tooth, or some iron tool gnawing at stone.
Although the young man was very weak, the thought that all prisoners would never forget flashed through his mind:
free!
He thought that perhaps God had finally taken pity on his misfortune and sent this voice to warn him to stop immediately and not commit suicide.
Or perhaps one of those people whom he loved deeply and whom he could never forget was also thinking of him and trying to shorten the distance that separated them.
Is it Mercedes? Sometimes, Edmund also thought so.
What if I was just having a nightmare this whole time?
What if everything I've been through was just a nightmare that I haven't woken up from?
All these years of suffering were illusions...the real Mercedes was always by his side.
One day, this dream will end, and Edmund will wake up from his sleep... and wake up with his beloved Mercedes...
How wonderful that would be.
Of course, it is also possible that this is just a fantasy floating at the door of death.
