All these recollections came thronging upon the Count as he stood gazing about him. The thought of Haydée almost melted him to tears, but he forced back the briny drops, and, taking Zuleika tenderly in his arms, cried out, in a voice full of emotion: "Oh! Haydée, Haydée, I have lost you, but you live for me again in this blessed treasure you have bequeathed to me--our darling daughter!"
Zuleika flung her arms about her father's neck and kissed him fervently.
"I know not," she said, effusively, "what memories, what associations, this room recalls, but it has made you think of my mother and I bless it!"
When they both had grown calmer, Monte-Cristo said to his daughter: "There is yet another apartment for us to see. Let us go to it."
They entered the adjoining chamber. It was a strangely furnished apartment. Circular in shape it was surrounded by a large divan, which, as well as the walls, ceiling and floor, was covered with what had been magnificent skins of the large-maned lions of Atlas, striped Bengal tigers, spotted panthers of the Cape, bears of Siberia and foxes of Norway, but all these elegant furs that were strewn in profusion, one over another, had been eaten by moths and worms and rotted by the dampness until they scarcely held together. The divan was that upon which the Baron d' Epinay had reclined, and the chibougues, with jasmine tubes and amber mouthpieces, that he had seen, prepared so that there was no need to smoke the same pipe twice, were still in their places and were the only things in the whole room that had escaped from the clutch of years unscathed. This chamber was brilliantly illuminated by the blaze of several large lamps of tarnished silver and gold suspended from the ceiling and protruding from the walls, and the salle-à-manger was lighted in the same fashion.
Zuleika stood in the midst of all this decayed grandeur, lost in wonder, utterly bewildered by what she beheld. She spoke not a single syllable, for words were inadequate to express her deep amazement.
Monte-Cristo threw himself upon the divan from which a cloud of stifling dust arose. Taking one of the chibouques in which a supply of Turkish tobacco yet remained, he lighted it and began to smoke.
Zuleika now saw that the heavy, delicious perfume with which the grotto palace was filled came from frankincense smouldering in a huge malachite vase placed in the centre of this bewildering chamber.
After he had puffed a few whiffs of smoke from the chibouque, Monte-Cristo removed the amber mouthpiece from his lips and rising said: "You have now seen my subterranean abode, Zuleika, the abode where in the past I sought refuge from the world and solace for my woes. It seems to you like the product of some potent magician's spell and, in truth, it was so, but that magician was good fortune and the spell was colossal wealth, to the vast and subtle influence of which all nations and all lands yield slavish submission and implicit obedience! You do not know the romantic, incredible history of this abode, my daughter, and it is not my intention to relate it to you, for your youthful brain could scarcely comprehend it. Be satisfied then with what you have beheld. Treasure it in your memory if you will either as a reality or merely as a passing vision, but do not, I conjure you, ever mention this adventure to me or any other living soul! I have had confidence in you, my child; repay that confidence by strictly obeying this wish, nay, this command, of mine! These grottoes belong to the past and to oblivion; to the past and to oblivion, therefore, let them be consigned! Promise me to do as I desire!"