Chapter 3. The Catalans (3) Kapitel 3. Die Katalanen (3) Capítulo 3. Los catalanes Los catalanes (3) 3 skyrius. Katalonai (3)

Fernand made no reply, nor did he attempt to check the tears which flowed down the cheeks of Mercedes, although for each of these tears he would have shed his heart's blood; but these tears flowed for another. Fernand ne répondit pas et n'essaya pas non plus d'arrêter les larmes qui coulaient sur les joues de Mercedes, bien que pour chacune de ces larmes il eût versé le sang de son cœur ; mais ces larmes coulaient pour une autre. He arose, paced a while up and down the hut, and then, suddenly stopping before Mercedes, with his eyes glowing and his hands clinched,--"Say, Mercedes," he said, "once for all, is this your final determination?" Il se leva, fit les cent pas dans la hutte, puis, s'arrêtant soudainement devant Mercedes, les yeux brillants et les mains jointes : « Dis, Mercedes, dit-il, une fois pour toutes, est-ce votre détermination finale ?" "I love Edmond Dantes," the young girl calmly replied, "and none but Edmond shall ever be my husband." "And you will always love him?" "As long as I live." Fernand let fall his head like a defeated man, heaved a sigh that was like a groan, and then suddenly looking her full in the face, with clinched teeth and expanded nostrils, said,--"But if he is dead"-- Fernand laissa retomber sa tête comme un vaincu, poussa un soupir qui ressemblait à un gémissement, puis, la regardant tout à coup en face, les dents serrées et les narines dilatées, dit : - "Mais s'il est mort"-- "If he is dead, I shall die too." "If he has forgotten you"-- "Mercedes!" called a joyous voice from without,--"Mercedes!" "Ah," exclaimed the young girl, blushing with delight, and fairly leaping in excess of love, "you see he has not forgotten me, for here he is!" And rushing towards the door, she opened it, saying, "Here, Edmond, here I am!" Fernand, pale and trembling, drew back, like a traveller at the sight of a serpent, and fell into a chair beside him. Fernand, pâle et tremblant, recula comme un voyageur à la vue d'un serpent, et tomba sur une chaise à côté de lui. Edmond and Mercedes were clasped in each other's arms. The burning Marseilles sun, which shot into the room through the open door, covered them with a flood of light. Le soleil brûlant de Marseille, qui entrait dans la chambre par la porte ouverte, les couvrait d'un flot de lumière. At first they saw nothing around them. Their intense happiness isolated them from all the rest of the world, and they only spoke in broken words, which are the tokens of a joy so extreme that they seem rather the expression of sorrow. Suddenly Edmond saw the gloomy, pale, and threatening countenance of Fernand, as it was defined in the shadow. Tout à coup, Edmond vit le visage sombre, pâle et menaçant de Fernand, tel qu'il se dessinait dans l'ombre. By a movement for which he could scarcely account to himself, the young Catalan placed his hand on the knife at his belt. Par un mouvement dont il ne se rendait guère compte, le jeune Catalan posa la main sur le couteau à sa ceinture.

"Ah, your pardon," said Dantes, frowning in his turn; "I did not perceive that there were three of us." — Ah, pardon, dit Dantès en fronçant les sourcils à son tour ; « Je n'ai pas perçu que nous étions trois. Then, turning to Mercedes, he inquired, "Who is this gentleman?" "One who will be your best friend, Dantes, for he is my friend, my cousin, my brother; it is Fernand--the man whom, after you, Edmond, I love the best in the world. Do you not remember him?" "Yes!" said Dantes, and without relinquishing Mercedes hand clasped in one of his own, he extended the other to the Catalan with a cordial air. dit Dantès, et sans lâcher la main de Mercedes dans l'une des siennes, il tendit l'autre au Catalan d'un air cordial. But Fernand, instead of responding to this amiable gesture, remained mute and trembling. Edmond then cast his eyes scrutinizingly at the agitated and embarrassed Mercedes, and then again on the gloomy and menacing Fernand. This look told him all, and his anger waxed hot.

"I did not know, when I came with such haste to you, that I was to meet an enemy here." "An enemy!" cried Mercedes, with an angry look at her cousin. "An enemy in my house, do you say, Edmond! If I believed that, I would place my arm under yours and go with you to Marseilles, leaving the house to return to it no more." Si je le croyais, je mettrais mon bras sous le tien et j'irais avec toi à Marseille, quittant la maison pour ne plus y retourner. Fernand's eye darted lightning. L'œil de Fernand darda la foudre. "And should any misfortune occur to you, dear Edmond," she continued with the same calmness which proved to Fernand that the young girl had read the very innermost depths of his sinister thought, "if misfortune should occur to you, I would ascend the highest point of the Cape de Morgion and cast myself headlong from it." « Et s'il t'arrivait un malheur, mon cher Edmond, reprit-elle avec le même calme qui prouvait à Fernand que la jeune fille avait lu au plus profond de sa sinistre pensée, si le malheur t'arrivait, je remonterais le point culminant du cap de Morgion et m'en jette tête baissée." Fernand became deadly pale. "But you are deceived, Edmond," she continued. — Mais vous vous trompez, Edmond, reprit-elle. "You have no enemy here--there is no one but Fernand, my brother, who will grasp your hand as a devoted friend."