The Count of Monte Cristo

Ship Speed Renders Dantès’ Vengeance Vow Feasible

The tartan is sailing at full speed before the wind toward Leghorn, moving so quickly that even the fastest sailor in the Mediterranean would be unable to catch it. This speed makes Dantès’ previously vague vow of vengeance feel like an achievable goal.

第二十二章 The Smugglers

On joining the crew of the Genoese tartan La Jeune Amélie, Dantès conceals his true identity while the captain gradually accepts him as a valuable sailor, first mistrusting he might be a customs officer but later reassured by his maritime skills and calm demeanor. At Leghorn, Dantès undergoes a physical transformation when a barber removes his long beard and hair, revealing how fourteen years of imprisonment have altered his appearance from that of a young, smiling man to someone with a hardened, thoughtful face marked by aristocratic beauty and a somber intensity. Over the course of two and a half months of smuggling voyages along the Mediterranean coast, Dantès becomes intimately acquainted with the illicit trade, forming a bond with the loyal crewman Jacopo while learning all the secret signs by which smugglers recognize each other, and repeatedly sailing past the Island of Monte Cristo that he so desperately wishes to explore. During a skirmish with customs officers at the Duchy of Lucca, Dantès is wounded in the shoulder but displays the endurance and sang-froid he has developed through suffering, and when the patron proposes using the deserted Island of Monte Cristo as a neutral ground for a major smuggling venture, Dantès must conceal his elation at what appears to be destiny finally bringing him to his promised treasure.