The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 44. The Vendetta

Chapter 44, titled “The Vendetta,” continues Bertuccio’s narrative to Monte Cristo, recounting the fate of the abandoned child, his return to smuggling after his brother’s assassination, the reclamation of the child Benedetto by Assunta, Benedetto’s corrupt upbringing and rejection of smuggling life, a 1829 smuggling raid on the Rhône, and Bertuccio’s overhearing of a crucial conversation between the Caderousses and a Parisian jeweller about a diamond supposedly bequeathed by Edmond Dantès. Monte Cristo periodically interrupts to ask precise questions that guide Bertuccio’s recollections.

Bertuccio Narrates the Child’s Return and Linen Markings

Bertuccio narrates his sister Assunta’s response upon learning that he avenged their brother Israel’s death. Assunta laments that Giovanni should have brought the abandoned child back, suggesting they would have raised him as “Benedetto” and earned Heaven’s blessing. Bertuccio explains that he kept half of the linen on which the child was marked in order to reclaim him if they became rich.

Monte Cristo’s Questions About the Child and Bertuccio’s Past

Monte Cristo questions Bertuccio about the letters marked on the linen, learning they were “an H and an N, surmounted by a baron’s coronet.” After a brief exchange in which Bertuccio credits his knowledge of heraldry to the count’s service, Monte Cristo declares his curiosity about two things: what became of the child (whom Bertuccio confirms was a boy), and the crime for which Bertuccio requested a confessor—the Abbé Busoni—in prison at Nîmes. Bertuccio prepares to tell the longer story, noting that the count takes little sleep.

Bertuccio Returns to Smuggling After Brother’s Assassination

To drown haunting memories and support the widow Assunta, Bertuccio eagerly resumed smuggling, exploiting the lax law enforcement following revolution in the southern districts of Avignon, Nîmes, and Uzès. Having vowed never to return to Nîmes after his brother’s assassination, he arranged that the connected innkeeper come to him instead, establishing a branch inn at the Pont du Gard on the road from Bellegarde to Beaucaire. With roughly a dozen safe-houses at Aigues-Mortes, Martigues, and Bouc, Bertuccio reflected philosophically that those who devote their lives to dangerous enterprises find their strength doubled, prompting Monte Cristo to wryly observe that philosophy at half-past ten is somewhat late.

Assunta Reclaims the Child Benedetto

After a successful six-week expedition to Lucca and Leghorn, Bertuccio returned home to find a sumptuous cradle in Assunta’s chamber holding a sleeping baby seven or eight months old. Overjoyed—since abandoning the child had been his only sadness since the procureur’s assassination—Bertuccio learned that Assunta had used the half of the linen, along with a record of the day and hour of deposit, to travel to Paris and reclaim the infant. The asylum raised no objection. Monte Cristo comments that this is faith rather than philosophy, and Bertuccio concedes that Heaven used the infant as their instrument of punishment.

Benedetto’s Corrupt Childhood and Rejection of Smuggling

The child Benedetto manifested a perverse nature early despite Assunta’s indulgent upbringing. Lovely with deep blue eyes, fair complexion, and light hair, he preferred stolen chestnuts and dried apples to the delicacies Assunta procured for him, and at five or six he stole a louis from the neighbor Wasilio and lied about acquiring a monkey chained to a tree. When Bertuccio threatened to strike him, Benedetto defiantly declared, “You cannot beat me; you have no right, for you are not my father”—a revelation that left Bertuccio too shaken to punish the child whose father he had killed. By eleven, Benedetto consorted with the worst young men in Bastia, and when Bertuccio tried to recruit him into the smuggling life at twelve, Benedetto laughed off the offer as madness, preferring his indolence supported by Assunta’s money.

1829 Rhône Smuggling Raid and Bertuccio’s Escape

Bertuccio resolved to apprentice Benedetto as a clerk on a ship to redirect his corruption, and departed for France in 1829, when restored tranquillity and the Beaucaire fair had redoubled customs vigilance. Their expedition began well, anchoring a vessel with a double hold along the Rhône between Beaucaire and Arles, but on the evening of 3rd June, a cabin-boy reported a detachment of customs officers and gendarmes approaching stealthily. With the vessel already surrounded, the terrified Bertuccio dropped through a port into the Rhône, dived, and swam through a newly dug ditch to the canal running from Beaucaire to Aigues-Mortes, making his way toward the tailor-turned-innkeeper from Nîmes on the road from Bellegarde to Beaucaire.