Chapter 103: Valentine
The next morning, Valentine appears to be dead. Madame
de Villefort is the first one to enter Valentine’s room. She throws
the remaining liquid from the cup into the fire, then cleans out
the cup. Yet when she returns later, once the rest of the household
has been notified of Valentine’s death, the glass is mysteriously
filled again. The doctor immediately detects the poison in it. Madame
de Villefort faints.
Chapter 104: Maximilian
Maximilian, unable to control himself in his grief, enters
Valentine’s room, disturbing Villefort as he kneels by his daughter’s
bed. Villefort, not knowing who Maximilian is, orders him to leave.
Maximilian leaves, but then returns, carrying Noirtier in his wheelchair. Maximilian
declares his love for Valentine, and Villefort extends his sympathy
to him, bound by their common grief. Maximilian demands that Valentine’s
murder be avenged. Noirtier signals that he knows who the murderer
is and asks to be left alone with his son. When the others are called
back in, Villefort and Noirtier ask them to keep the crime secret
for the time being. The priest from next door, Abbé Busoni, is then
called in to pray over the body. Alone with Noirtier, Monte Cristo
explains what is really taking place.
Chapter 105: Danglars’s Signature
Monte Cristo visits Danglars and sees that Danglars is
making out five checks, each worth one million francs. Monte Cristo
asks to have the checks. Though the money is intended for the hospital, Danglars
reluctantly agrees, refusing to admit that he no longer has enough
capital to make such large loans. As Monte Cristo leaves, the Commissioner
of Hospitals arrives. He is astounded to learn that his five million
francs have just been given to a single individual. Danglars promises
that he will have the money for the hospital tomorrow. He has no
real intention of paying, however, and plans to run away that very
night in an attempt to escape his creditors.
Chapter 106: The Cemetery of Père-la-Chaise
At Valentine’s funeral, Monte Cristo keeps careful watch
over Maximilian. He follows Maximilian back to Julie and Emmanuel’s house.
There, Maximilian confesses that he is planning to kill himself.
In an attempt to stop him, Monte Cristo reveals that he is really Edmond
Dantès, the man who saved Monsieur Morrel from ruin. Overcome, Maximilian
calls out to Julie and Emmanuel and tells them Monte Cristo’s role
in their lives. Monte Cristo stops Maximilian, however, before he
can reveal Monte Cristo’s true identity. Alone with Maximilian again,
Monte Cristo plays upon his gratitude to extract a promise: for
one month Maximilian will remain alive and never stray from Monte
Cristo’s side. If Maximilian is still unhappy at the end of this
month, Monte Cristo will help him to commit suicide.
Chapter 107: The Division
The day after Danglars leaves, Madame Danglars rushes
to Lucien Debray in a panic. She shows him the letter Danglars has
left explaining his reason for running away. He has written that
a series of strange events has left him bankrupt and unable to repay
the debt to the hospital. Madame Danglars waits expectantly for
some kind word from her lover, but he speaks to her merely as a
business partner, handing over half the profits that they have made
together using their illegal tricks to speculate with Danglars’s
fortune. It is clear that Debray wants no more to do with Madame
Danglars now that she cannot provide him with access to Danglars’s
unlimited capital.
In another room in the same hotel where this
scene is taking place, Albert and Mercédès plan out their future.
Albert tells his mother that he has enlisted in the army. He gives
her the check he has received upon joining and tells her to use
part of it to travel to Marseilles, where the rest of her small
savings is located. On their way out of the hotel they encounter
Lucien Debray, who is struck by the contrast between Mercédès’s
and Madame Danglars’s reactions to misfortune. Later the next day,
Monte Cristo secretly watches as Albert puts his mother into a coach
bound for Marseilles. He swears that he will restore these two innocent
people to happiness.
