House of Peers Reacts to Morcerf Allegations
The House of Peers is described as deeply agitated, with members arriving early to discuss the impending scandal against one of their most illustrious colleagues. Count Morcerf is revealed to be widely disliked—true nobles laughed at him, the talented repelled him, and the honorable instinctively despised him. As an upstart who relied on haughtiness to maintain his position, he stood marked for sacrifice, with everyone ready to raise the hue and cry once God’s finger pointed at him.
Unaware Morcerf Enters the Peers Assembly
Morcerf alone remains ignorant of the news. Not subscribing to the paper carrying the defamatory article, he has spent the morning writing letters and trying a horse. He arrives at the Chamber at his usual hour with a proud look and insolent demeanor, passing through the corridors and entering the house without noticing the hesitation of the door-keepers or the coolness of his colleagues.
Committee Votes to Investigate Morcerf
After the article is read during a painful hush, an honorable peer—Morcerf’s acknowledged enemy—rises in the tribune, speaking with solemnity. He calls for an investigation that might dispose of the calumnious report before it spreads and restore Morcerf to his position. The president puts it to a vote, and the assembly decides the investigation should take place immediately. A committee of twelve members is formed, with proceedings to begin at eight o’clock that evening in the committee-room.
Morcerf Gives His Initial Defence
Morcerf delivers a calm, eloquent, and skillful defense, producing documents proving that Ali Pasha had honored him with complete confidence, entrusting him with a vital life-and-death negotiation with the emperor. He displays the Vizier’s ring—a token of authority allowing access even to the harem—and explains the negotiation failed and Ali Pasha was dead upon his return. He further asserts that on his deathbed, Ali Pasha confided his favorite mistress Vasiliki and her daughter to his care, though they later disappeared. With no surviving witnesses against him, his defense rests on Ali’s letters, the ring, and his unblemished military record—arguments that begin to win the committee over.
Haydée Arrives as Surprise Witness
Just as the committee appears ready to vote in Morcerf’s favor, the president announces a letter from someone claiming to be an important witness to events in Yanina. The committee agrees to hear the testimony. A woman enveloped in a large veil enters, accompanied by a servant. When the president asks her to unveil, she is revealed to be dressed in the Grecian costume and remarkably beautiful. Morcerf stares in terror, recognizing the fate about to befall him.
Haydée Reveals Her Identity as Ali Pasha’s Daughter
The young woman speaks with sweet melancholy and the sonorous voice peculiar to the East. Although only four years old at the time, she asserts that every detail remains vivid in her memory because her father’s life had depended on those events. Asked who she is, she replies that her father was Ali Tepelini, Pasha of Yanina, and her mother Vasiliki, his beloved wife. She declares: “I am Haydée, the daughter of Ali Tepelini, pasha of Yanina, and of Vasiliki, his beloved wife.”
Haydée Presents Evidence of Morcerf’s Betrayal
Asked to substantiate her claims, Haydée produces a perfumed satin satchel containing her birth register signed by her father and his principal officers, her baptismal record sealed by the grand primate of Macedonia and Epirus, and—most damning—the record of the sale of herself and her mother to the Armenian merchant El-Kobbir. She accuses the French officer, in an infamous bargain with the Porte, of reserving the wife and daughter of his benefactor as his share of the booty, selling them for four hundred thousand francs. A greenish pallor spreads over Morcerf’s cheeks, his eyes become bloodshot, and the assembly listens to these terrible imputations in ominous silence.
Chapter 86. The Trial
In this climactic courtroom scene, Haydée calmly presents a written record from the slave-merchant El-Kobbir detailing how the French colonel Fernand Mondego sold her and her mother to the Sublime Porte after betraying her father, Ali Tepelini, pasha of Yanina. Confronting Morcerf directly, she identifies him as the officer who surrendered the castle, forged the pardon, murdered Selim the fire-keeper, and trafficked her family for gold, exposing the telltale wound on his right hand where the merchant’s coins fell. Overwhelmed by her accusations and unable to mount a defense, Morcerf flees the chamber like a madman, and the committee of inquiry unanimously convicts him of felony, treason, and conduct unbecoming a member of the House, while Haydée withdraws with majestic composure to veil her face and bow to the councillors.
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