The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 81. The Room of the Retired Baker

That evening, Andrea Cavalcanti—really the escaped convict Benedetto—proposed to Eugénie Danglars, negotiating a 500,000-franc dowry from Danglars, plus a promised 150,000 livres a year from his fake father and a two-million-franc inheritance from his mother. Danglars had expected this for days; he made objections about Andrea’s youth and insisted the negotiation be settled by the respective fathers. He gave conditional approval and handed Andrea 80,000 francs on the spot. As Andrea left, the porter handed him a sealed letter: “You know where I live; I expect you tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.” Andrea burnt the note at once.

The next day, Andrea borrowed his groom Pierre’s new livery to pose as a servant, left the Hôtel des Princes unrecognized, and walked from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine via the Cheval Rouge at Picpus to Rue Ménilmontant, where he asked for Monsieur Pailletin, a retired baker, at the third house on the left. Caderousse showed him up to a squalid third-floor room in the Allées de Meilhan, complained his 200-franc monthly allowance was too small, then revealed he knew Andrea’s true identity as Benedetto and that Monte Cristo had taken him in as his son, leaving him 500,000 francs. He threatened exposure unless paid more, and forced Andrea to draw a detailed floor plan of Monte Cristo’s Champs-Élysées house—including the first-floor dressing room with the secretaire—noting Monte Cristo would be at Auteuil the next day, leaving the house empty. Andrea confessed a deeper belief: Monte Cristo was his real father, hidden behind the Cavalcanti fiction, pointing to the count’s 500,000-franc legacy, the codicil, and the lavish sums the count received. After Andrea left, Caderousse studied the plan greedily, plotting to rob the count.

Chapter 82. The Burglary

The day after Andrea’s visit, the Count of Monte Cristo set out for Auteuil with Ali and several attendants, also taking horses whose qualities he wished to test. Bertuccio’s arrival from Normandy with news that his house and sloop were ready had prompted the journey. The count praised Bertuccio’s zeal, ordered preparations for speedy departure, and dismissed his household to Auteuil. While dining quietly, Baptistin arrived covered in dust with a letter. The count read an anonymous warning: that very night a man would break into his Champs-Élysées house intending to carry off papers from the secretaire in the dressing-room, and his courage made police help unnecessary. Deciding the warning was no robbery but an attempt on his life, Monte Cristo returned secretly with Ali that night, armed with pistols and a carbine. At midnight he heard a diamond cutting the dressing-room window, and a man climbed in: Caderousse.

Disguised as the Abbé Busoni, Monte Cristo blocked Caderousse’s escape and interrogated him. Caderousse admitted he had been freed from the galleys by an Englishman named Lord Wilmore, who had helped him and Benedetto escape Saint-Mandrier by filing off their fetters and swimming away. He admitted Benedetto was now Andrea Cavalcanti, Monte Cristo’s “son.” Monte Cristo forced Caderousse to write a letter to Danglars exposing Andrea as a felon, then told him to leave through the window. As Caderousse climbed down, a masked man attacked him, stabbing him three times. Caderousse cried out for the “abbé” to help, but the assassin vanished before Monte Cristo and Ali could reach him.

Chapter 83. The Hand of God

Monte Cristo and Ali carried the mortally wounded Caderousse inside, where he begged to make a statement against his killer. Monte Cristo wrote his deposition: Caderousse named Benedetto (Andrea Cavalcanti) as his murderer, gave his address at the Hôtel des Princes, and signed it. Caderousse begged Monte Cristo to swear Benedetto would be guillotined, but Monte Cristo told him he had left him to God’s justice and had not warned him because he was unrepentant. Caderousse howled that there was no God, but Monte Cristo removed his abbé’s wig, revealing his true identity as Edmond Dantès. Caderousse recognized him at once and fell into a desperate prayer for forgiveness before dying. Monte Cristo murmured “One!” over his body—the first of his enemies to pay for his suffering—before Villefort arrived with a surgeon to find the Abbé Busoni praying by the corpse.