to Boulogne and Bethune; for "Monte-Cristo" I returned to the
Catalans and the Chateau d'If; for "Isaac Laquedem" I revisited
Rome; and I certainly spent more time studying Jerusalem and
Corinth from a distance than if I had gone there.

This gives such a character of veracity to all that I write, that
the personages whom I create become eventually such integral parts
of the places in which I planted them that, as a consequence,
many end by believing in their actual existence. There are even
some people who claim to have known them.

In this connection, dear readers, I am going to tell you something
in confidence--only do not repeat it. I do not wish to injure
honest fathers of families who live by this little industry,
but if you go to Marseilles you will be shown there the house
of Morel on the Cours, the house of Mercedes at the Catalans,
and the dungeons of Dantes and Faria at the Chateau d'If.

When I staged "Monte-Cristo" at the Theatre-Historique, I wrote
to Marseilles for a plan of the Chateau d'If, which was sent
to me. This drawing was for the use of the scene painter. The
artist to whom I had recourse forwarded me the desired plan.
He even did better than I would have dared ask of him; he wrote
beneath it: "View of the Chateau d'If, from the side where Dantes
was thrown into the sea."

I have learned since that a worthy man, a guide attached to the
Chateau d'If, sells pens made of fish-bone by the Abbe Faria
himself.