midnight
He was entirely satisfied that the sole aim of the wretches had been robbery , and , as that aim had been defeated , he did not desire to court further publicity by putting the matter in the hands of the authorities . One thing , however , gave the Count considerable uneasiness , namely , the fact that Danglars had been one of the robbers . He did not doubt that the former banker , whom he had financially wrecked and forced to fly ignominiously from Paris in the past in pursuit of his scheme of wholesale vengeance against the enemies of his youth , had planned the robbery in order to gratify his burning thirst for revenge ; he also felt equally certain that Danglars meant further mischief , if he could accomplish it , and that his presence in the city would be a constant menace to his tranquillity and prosperity , nay , even to his domestic happiness ; but his feelings had undergone a radical change since the old days of restless , inexorable retribution , and he now pitied the man he had so ruthlessly overthrown as much as he had formerly hated him . Danglars had fallen very low , indeed , to be the companion and accomplice of midnight marauders , and the Count 's very soul ached as he thought to what depths of poverty and ignominy he had been the means of reducing him . He would have sought him out amid the dangerous criminal population of Paris , traced him to his den of depravity and wretchedness , and offered him money and the means of social rehabilitation had there been the slightest reason to hope that he could thereby rescue the miserable man from the slough of iniquity into which he was plunged , but he knew too well Danglars ' implacable character and deep-seated hatred against himself to attempt anything of the kind . Should he penetrate into his haunts and meet him the result could only be disastrous , for Danglars would take a fiendish delight in betraying him to his desperate associates , who would not hesitate even to murder him at his bidding , and the former banker was fully capable of compassing his assassination in the most horrible fashion as a crowning stroke of diabolical revenge . There was a time when Monte-Cristo valued life very little , when he would gladly have accepted death as a welcome avenue to endless rest and peace , but that time had passed ; since then he had contracted ties that bound him to existence with insurmountable strength ; he had now a family , was surrounded by beings he tenderly loved and cherished , beings for whom he must live and over whose destinies he must closely watch .