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Monte-Cristo's Daughter

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Title: Monte-Cristo's Daughter

Author: Edmund Flagg

 
Release date: October 24, 2007 [eBook #23184]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23184

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Produced by Sigal Alon, Fox in the Stars, Martin Pettit
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MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER.

SEQUEL TO

ALEXANDER DUMAS'

GREAT NOVEL, THE "COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO," AND CONCLUSION OF "EDMOND
DANTES."

BY

EDMUND FLAGG

 * * * * *

"MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER," a wonderfully brilliant, original,
exciting and absorbing novel, is the Sequel to "The Count of
Monte-Cristo," Alexander Dumas' masterwork, and the continuation
and conclusion of that great romance, "Edmond Dantes." It possesses
rare power, unflagging interest and an intricate plot that for
constructive skill and efficient development stands unrivalled.
Zuleika, the beautiful daughter of Monte-Cristo and Haydee, is the
heroine, and her suitor, the Viscount Giovanni Massetti, an ardent,
impetuous young Roman, the hero. The latter, through a flirtation
with a pretty flower-girl, Annunziata Solara, becomes involved in a
maze of suspicion that points to him as an abductor and an
assassin, causes his separation from Zuleika and converts him into
a maniac. The straightening out of these tangled complications
constitutes the main theme of the thrilling book. The novel abounds
in ardent love scenes and stirring adventures. The Count of
Monte-Cristo figures largely in it, and numerous Monte-Cristo
characters are introduced. "MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER" is the latest
addition to Petersons' famous series, consisting of "The Count of
Monte-Cristo," "Edmond Dantes," "The Countess of Monte-Cristo,"
"The Wife of Monte-Cristo," and "The Son of Monte-Cristo."

 * * * * *

NEW YORK:

WM. L. ALLISON COMPANY

PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS

Chapter. Page.
 I. MONTE-CRISTO AND THE PRIMA DONNA 21

 II. A STRANGELY SENT EPISTLE 33

 III. THE INTRUDER IN THE CONVENT GARDEN 45

 IV. A STORMY INTERVIEW 57

 V. ANNUNZIATA SOLARA 69

 VI. THE POWER OF A NAME 81

 VII. IN THE PEASANT'S HUT 91

 VIII. A SYLVAN IDYL 101

 IX. THE ABDUCTION 112

 X. THE COUNTESS OF MONTE-CRISTO 130

 XI. THE BEGGAR AND HIS MATES 142

 XII. FATHER AND DAUGHTER 156

 XIII. MORCERF'S ADVENTURE 166

 XIV. ZULEIKA AND MME. MORREL 183

 XV. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING 195

 XVI. AMID THE COLOSSEUM'S RUINS 206

 XVII. PEPPINO'S STORY 218

 XVIII. MORE OF PEPPINO'S STORY 228

 XIX. THE MANIAC OF THE COLOSSEUM 238

 XX. THE ISLE OF MONTE-CRISTO 248

 XXI. ZULEIKA LEARNS THE TRUTH 264

 XXII. THE WONDROUS PHYSICIAN 274

 XXIII. A MODERN MIRACLE 285

 XXIV. A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER 296

 XXV. A VISIT TO THE REFUGE 306

 XXVI. VAMPA AND MONTE-CRISTO 316

 XXVII. THE BANDITS' REPRISALS 326

XXVIII. THE RAID ON THE BANDITS 336

 XXIX. VAMPA'S TRIAL 346

 XXX. JOY UNBOUNDED 363

MONTE-CRISTO'S DAUGHTER.

_SEQUEL TO ALEXANDER DUMAS' GREAT NOVEL, "THE COUNT OF
MONTE-CRISTO," AND CONTINUATION AND CONCLUSION OF "EDMOND DANTES."_

CHAPTER I.

MONTE-CRISTO AND THE PRIMA DONNA.

The Count of Monte-Cristo was in Rome. He had hired one of the numerous
private palaces, the Palazzo Costi, situated on a broad thoroughfare
near the point where the Ponte St. Angelo connects Rome proper with that
transtiberine suburb known as the Leonine City or Trastavere. The
impecunious Roman nobility were ever ready to let their palaces to
titled foreigners of wealth, and Ali, acting for the Count, had
experienced no difficulty in procuring for his master an abode that even
a potentate might have envied him. It was a lofty, commodious edifice,
built of white marble in antique architectural design, and commanded
from its ample balconies a fine view of the Tiber and its western shore,
upon which loomed up that vast prison and citadel, the Castle of St.
Angelo, and the largest palace in the world, the Vatican.

The Count of Monte-Cristo had always liked Rome because of its
picturesque, mysterious antiquity, but his present mission there had
nothing whatever to do with his individual tastes. He had fixed himself
for a time in the Eternal City that his daughter Zuleika, Haydee's[1]
child, might finish her education at a famous convent school conducted
under the auspices of the Sisterhood of the Sacred Heart.

Zuleika was fifteen years of age, but looked much older, having the
early maturity of the Greeks, whose ardent blood, on her dead mother's
side, flowed in her youthful veins. She had attained her full height,
and was tall and well-developed. She strongly resembled her mother,
possessing brilliant beauty of the dreamy, voluptuous oriental type. Her
hair was abundant and black as night. She had dark, flashing eyes,
pearly teeth, full ruby lips and feet and hands that were of fairylike
diminutiveness, as well as miracles of grace and dainty shapeliness. In
temperament she was more like Haydee than the Count, though she
possessed her father's quick decision and firmness, with the addition of
much of his enthusiasm.

The Palazzo Costi was magnificently furnished, so the Count had made no
alterations in that respect, bringing with him only the family wardrobe
and a portion of his library, consisting mainly of oriental manuscripts
written in weird, cabalistic characters and intelligible to no one but
himself.

The household was made up solely of the Count, his son Esperance,[2] his
daughter Zuleika, the faithful Nubian mute Ali and five or six male and
female domestics. Having no other object than his daughter's education,
the Count wished to live in as thorough retirement as he could, but it
was impossible for him to keep his presence a secret, and no sooner had
it become known that he was in Rome than he was besieged by hosts of
callers belonging to the highest nobility, mingled with whom came
numerous patriots, disciples of the unfortunate Savonarola,
distinguished for their firm devotion to the cause of Italian liberty.

At an early hour of the morning upon which this narrative opens the
Count of Monte-Cristo sat alone in a small apartment of the Palazzo
Costi, which had been arranged as his study and in which his precious
manuscripts were stored in closely locked cabinets. The Count had a copy
of a Roman newspaper before him, and his eyes were fixed on a paragraph
that seemed to have fascinated hi

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