"Exactly," answered Peppino, coolly. "Old Solara, miserable miser as he is, had for a very large sum of the gold he so ardently coveted sold his own child, his beautiful daughter Annunziata, to the bandit chief Luigi Vampa!"
"The black-hearted demon!" exclaimed Monte-Cristo. "He is unworthy of the name of man! In Paris the indignant populace would crush him to death beneath their feet!"
"So, you see," resumed the Italian, "the arrival of Massetti was opportune, and Pasquale Solara, after having seen that the Viscount was safely housed beneath the roof of his cabin, hastened back to Luigi Vampa and together they laid the foul plot that succeeded but too well. A more shrewdly devised and thoroughly concealed piece of diabolical villainy has never stained the annals of the civilized world!"
CHAPTER XVIII.
MORE OF PEPPINO'S STORY.
Monte-Cristo was horrified by what he had heard. His whole soul revolted at the idea of a father who could deliberately and in cold blood sell his daughter, at the idea of a wretch who with equal deliberation could cast the blame of a villainy committed by himself upon an innocent man. It had seemed very strange to the Count, at the time Luigi Vampa had written to him, that the brigand chief should be so thoroughly posted in regard to the innocence of Espérance and the guilt of the Viscount Massetti, but in the light of the astounding revelations just made by Peppino it became abundantly clear that Vampa in the young Italian's case had been actuated by the strongest possible motive, namely, the desire to shield himself, and that in order to do so effectually he had not shrunk from the vilest and most complete falsehood. Of course, Vampa had not wished to inculpate Espérance because of the old-time compact, the relations that had subsisted between him and Monte-Cristo in the past; that was equally plain; besides one victim was sufficient, and in selecting Massetti as that victim the brigand chief had evidently acted at the instigation of old Pasquale Solara.
Peppino proceeded with his disclosures.