The iron made no impression, but met with a smooth surface; Dantes touched it, and found that it was a beam.

This beam crossed, or rather blocked up, the hole Dantes had made; it was necessary, therefore, to dig above or under it.

The unhappy young man had not thought of this.

"O my God, my God!" murmured he, "I have so earnestly prayed to you, that I hoped my prayers had been heard.

After having deprived me of my liberty, after having deprived me of death, after having recalled me to existence, my God, have pity on me, and do not let me die in despair!" "Who talks of God and despair at the same time ?" said a voice that seemed to come from beneath the earth, and, deadened by the distance, sounded hollow and sepulchral in the young man's ears.