Chapter 54: Robert Le Diable
Monte Cristo and Haydée cause quite a stir when they appear
in their box at the opera. Monte Cristo visits Madame Danglars’s
box, in which Eugénie, Albert, and Fernand are all sitting. While
Monte Cristo leans over the balcony with Fernand, Haydée catches
sight of the box and nearly faints. Monte Cristo takes leave
of the Danglars and Morcerf families and returns to Haydée, who
is beside herself with emotion. She tells Monte Cristo that Morcerf
is the man who betrayed her father, Ali Pacha, to the Turks and
then sold her into slavery.
Chapter 55: A Talk about Stocks
Albert de Morcerf and Lucien Debray visit Monte Cristo.
They discuss Albert’s engagement to Eugénie Danglars. Albert is
reluctant to marry Eugénie, despite her extreme beauty and wealth,
as she seems “too erudite and masculine.” In addition, Mercédès
is very upset at the prospect of having Eugénie as a daughter-in-law,
and Albert cannot imagine doing anything to cause his mother pain.
Debray then reveals that Madame Danglars, his lover, gambles large
sums of her husband’s money in stocks. Albert jokingly suggests
teaching Madame Danglars a lesson by manipulating her stocks with
a false news report. Monte Cristo notices that Debray appears unsettled
by this line of conversation. It is clear that Debray does, in fact,
regularly abuse his government position by giving privileged information
to Madame Danglars.
Chapter 56: Major Cavalcanti
Monte Cristo plans to meet with two men and instructs
them to play the roles he has outlined for them in return for significant
monetary compensation. The older man must pretend to be Marquis
Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, a retired Italian major and nobleman who
has been searching in vain for his kidnapped son for fifteen years.
Chapter 57: Andrea Cavalcanti
Monte Cristo continues that the younger man must play
the part of Bartolomeo Cavalcanti’s son, Andrea Cavalcanti, reunited
with his father by Monte Cristo. After giving the two men false
identity documents, new wardrobes, and other necessities for their
disguise, Monte Cristo invites them to a dinner party he is throwing
the following Saturday.
Chapter 58: At the Gate
Maximilian and Valentine meet again in the garden of the
Villefort home. Maximilian reveals that Franz is returning to Paris
soon, and Valentine swears that she is unable to oppose her father’s
will that she marry Franz. Valentine mentions that her stepmother
wants her to remain unmarried and join a convent so that all of
her inheritance will go to Edward, who will otherwise receive almost
no inheritance at all. In the course of the conversation, it becomes
clear that Eugénie is just as reluctant to marry Albert de Morcerf
as he is to marry her. Eugénie has confided in Valentine that she
never wants to marry but wants instead to lead a free and independent
life as an artist.
