The ante-chamber was full of police agents and gendarmes, in the midst of whom, carefully watched, but calm and smiling, stood the prisoner.

Villefort traversed the ante-chamber, cast a side glance at Dantes, and taking a packet which a gendarme offered him, disappeared, saying, "Bring in the prisoner." Rapid as had been Villefort's glance, it had served to give him an idea of the man he was about to interrogate.

He had recognized intelligence in the high forehead, courage in the dark eye and bent brow, and frankness in the thick lips that showed a set of pearly teeth.
Villefort's first impression was favorable; but he had been so often warned to mistrust first impulses, that he applied the maxim to the impression, forgetting the difference between the two words.

He stifled, therefore, the feelings of compassion that were rising, composed his features, and sat down, grim and sombre, at his desk.

An instant after Dantes entered.