Chapter 63: Shadows
The guests arrive at the house in Auteuil for Monte Cristo’s
dinner party. The entire house has been decorated magnificently.
Only two parts of the home have been left unchanged: the garden
in the back and a small bedroom. Maximilian Morrel arrives first,
followed by the Danglars, accompanied, as always, by Lucien Debray.
Next, Monte Cristo introduces the two impostors as Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti
and his son, Andrea. Much as Monte Cristo predicts, the fabulously
wealthy Italian prince and his son pique Danglars’s curiosity, especially
when Monte Cristo casually mentions to Danglars that Andrea is determined
to find a wife in Paris. Finally, Villefort and his wife arrive.
Bertuccio, peeking out at the scene through a partly open
door, is shocked when he sees Madame Danglars among the guests.
He tells Monte Cristo that she is the widowed baroness who used
to meet Villefort in this very house. Bertuccio is even more surprised
to see Villefort himself, whom he thought he had killed years before. Monte
Cristo explains that Villefort was only injured, not killed, when
Bertuccio stabbed him. Bertuccio’s greatest surprise, though, comes
when he lays eyes on the man pretending to be Andrea Cavalcanti,
as this man is actually his wayward son, Benedetto.
Chapter 64: The Dinner
After dinner, Monte Cristo leads the party to the one
bedroom he has left unchanged. He announces to his guests that he
has felt, from the first moment he stepped inside, that some horrible
crime was committed in this room. He begins to describe the scene
he imagines took place here, which is, of course, the scene he knows
actually did take place here. He imagines that a mother (Madame
Danglars), who has just given birth, and a father (Villefort) take
a child down the staircase. Monte Cristo then takes his guests,
who include both Villefort and Madame Danglars, down into the garden
and shows them the spot where, he claims, while working on his trees,
he dug up the skeleton of a newborn baby. Deciding that he has pushed
the murderous couple as far as he wants, Monte Cristo redirects
the party back to the lawn for coffee. Villefort whispers to Madame Danglars
that he must see her the next day in his office.
Chapter 65: The Beggar
After the party, as Benedetto climbs into his carriage,
he is stopped by an old acquaintance from his former life, Caderousse.
Caderousse, who has escaped from the prison where he was serving
a life sentence for the murders he committed, demands that Benedetto give
him an allowance of 200 francs
each month. Benedetto, worried that Caderousse might jeopardize
his newfound position, reluctantly agrees.
Chapter 66: A Conjugal Scene
Back home from the party, Madame Danglars retires to her
room with Debray in tow. Unexpectedly, her husband bursts into the room
and asks Debray to leave. Debray and Madame Danglars are shocked,
since Danglars has never before opposed his wife’s wishes. With
Debray gone, Danglars confronts his wife. He knows that Debray supplies
her with inside information, which she then leaks to him.
He also knows that Debray pockets Madame Danglars’s share of the
investment earnings. Danglars does not mind this arrangement so long
as Debray’s information consistently wins him money, but now that
he has lost a considerable sum on the Spanish bonds, he resents that
Debray is not helping to defray the costs he incurred. Danglars
also reveals that he knows about all of his wife’s previous lovers,
including the lovers she had during her first marriage. Most important,
he knows that she bore Villefort’s child and that her first husband
killed himself as a result.
Chapter 67: Matrimonial Plans
The following day Danglars visits Monte Cristo
and presses for more information about Andrea Cavalcanti. He admits
that he would very much like his daughter to marry this young man,
who is far richer than Albert de Morcerf. Danglars confides in Monte
Cristo that the Count de Morcerf was not originally a nobleman but
used to be a poor fisherman named Fernand Mondego, who suddenly
gained considerable wealth under mysterious circumstances. Monte
Cristo pretends to recall that he has once heard of a Fernand Mondego
in connection with the Ali Pacha affair in Greece. Danglars admits
that he too has heard vague stirrings about this connection. Monte
Cristo encourages Danglars to get in touch with his contacts in
Yanina, the site of the Ali Pacha affair, and to make inquiries
into the nature of Mondego’s involvement.
