"Edmond gazed most earnestly at the mass of rocks which gave out all the variety of twilight colours, from the brightest pink to the deepest blue; and from time to time his cheeks flushed, his brow became purple, and a mist passed over his eyes.... In spite of his usual command over himself, Dantès could not restrain his impetuosity. He was the first who jumped on shore; and had he dared, he would, like Lucius Brutus, have 'kissed his mother earth.' It was dark, but at eleven o'clock the moon rose in the midst of the ocean, whose every wave she silvered, and then, 'ascending high,' played in floods of pale light on the rocky hills of this second Pelion. "The island was familiar to the crew of _La Jeune Amélie_--it was one of her halting-places. As to Dantès, he had passed it on his voyages to and from the Levant, but never touched at it." It is unquestionable that "The Count of Monte Cristo" is the most popular and the best known of all Dumas' works. There is a deal of action, of personality and characterization, and, above all, an ever-shifting panorama, which extends from the boulevards of Marseilles to the faubourgs of Paris, and from the island Château d'If to the equally melancholy _allées_ of Père la Chaise, which M. de Villefort, a true Parisian, considered alone worthy of receiving the remains of a Parisian family, as it was there only that they would be surrounded by worthy associates. All travellers for the East, _via_ the Mediterranean, know well the ancient Phoenician port of Marseilles. One does not need even the words of Dumas to recall its picturesqueness and importance--to-day as in ages past. Still, the opening lines of "The Count of Monte Cristo" do form a word-picture which few have equalled in the pages of romance; and there is not a word too much; nothing superfluous or extraneous. "On the 28th of February, 1815, the watchtower of Notre Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the _Pharaon_, from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples. "As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and, rounding the Château d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and the isle of Rion. "Immediately, and according to custom, the platform of Fort Saint-Jean was covered with lookers-on; it is always an event at Marseilles for a ship to come into port, especially when this ship, like the _Pharaon_, had been built, rigged, and laden on the stocks of the old Phocée, and belonged to an owner of the city.