When he came to he lay on the deck, and sympathizing sailors bent over him. They administered rum, they rubbed his benumbed body, and he who had first seen the unfortunate man put his own woollen jacket around the man's shivering shoulders. This sympathizing sailor was called Jacopo; he was a powerful young fellow, with laughing blue eyes. When Edmond Dantes had recourse to stratagem, and, in order to remain alone at Monte-Cristo, leaped from the rock, it was Jacopo who picked him up, and only against his will left him again.
"Who knows whether you will not one time become a captain? Has not your countryman Bonaparte become emperor?"
Hereupon Jacopo almost went into hysterics; how could he become captain? no, so high he never climbed even in his boldest dreams; he felt satisfied if he only continued to have a place on the deck of a ship; then the ocean was his home, his family, his all!
Edmond Dantes has the name Jacopo fixed in his memory. He will, no doubt, have an after opportunity to reward the brave fellow.
Years had passed when the Count of Monte-Cristo began to recollect the brave Corsican. He searched for him and said:
"Do you remember a sailor whose life you once saved, and who prophesied that you would become a captain?"
Jacopo blushed; no, he has not yet forgotten this prophecy.
"I knew this sailor," continued the count, "and received of him the commission to cancel his debt to you."
"His debt?" exclaimed Jacopo, not knowing the meaning thereof.
"Yes, your dream points to a captaincy, and I have the order to realize this dream."