The Count of Monte Cristo

Recognizing Personal Prison Marks

As the concierge recounts the tale of prisoner No. 34—a dangerous yet resourceful young man who tunneled into the cell of a mad priest, Abbé Faria, who offered millions for his liberty and whose name was given as No. 27—Monte Cristo is overcome. He raises his eyes but finds only a stone veil where the sky should be, just as Faria’s millions had been hidden from his fellow prisoners. He murmurs that the guards were blind fools. When the concierge reveals how the young prisoner hid in the burial sack and was thrown into the sea, Monte Cristo relives the cold dampness of the canvas on his face. He mutters that the doubt he felt was only the beginning of forgetfulness, and that his wound has now reopened, making his heart thirst for vengeance once more.

Discovering Abbé Faria’s Manuscript

After recounting the sailor’s fate and confirming that his name was known only as No. 34, the concierge leads Monte Cristo through a subterranean passage to Abbé Faria’s cell. There, the Count sees the meridian drawn on the wall and the bed on which the old priest died, and tears fall from his eyes. The concierge, who has sounded the walls and uncovered a hollow near the bed and hearth, offers him what remains: a manuscript written on strips of cloth. When the Count seizes it, he recognizes the great work of Abbé Faria on the kingdoms of Italy. He kneels by the bed, now an altar, and implores the spirit of his second father to grant him some sign that will dissolve his doubt before it hardens into remorse. The concierge returns with the manuscript, and the Count’s eyes immediately fall upon its epigraph.

KAPITEL 113. The Past

Chapter 113, titled “The Past,” follows the Count of Monte Cristo as he departs Marseilles for Italy after a profound encounter with the grief-stricken Maximilian Morrel. The chapter weaves together the Count’s own tragic history with his effort to console Morrel, ultimately arranging a future meeting on the Island of Monte Cristo and leaving the young man to face his sorrow alone.

The Count Receives a Prophecy and Departs for Marseilles

The Count receives what he interprets as a divine answer, exclaiming thanks and retrieving a pocket-book containing ten bank-notes of 1,000 francs each, which he gives to his informant on the condition that it not be opened until he is gone. He departs by boat for Marseilles, fixing his eyes on the gloomy prison that once held him and pronouncing a curse of woe upon those who confined him and those who forgot his imprisonment. As he passes the Catalans, he buries his head in his cloak and murmurs tenderly the name of Haydée, twice overcoming his doubts in complete victory.

The Count Meets Grieving Morrel at the Cemetery

Upon landing, the Count heads to the cemetery, certain of finding Morrel there. He reflects on his own fruitless search ten years earlier for his father’s grave—his father having died of hunger and left no trace—and notes that Morrel’s father was more fortunate, dying in his children’s arms and being buried beside his wife beneath two marble slabs shaded by four cypress-trees. Morrel leans against a tree, his grief so deep that he is nearly unconscious, mechanically staring at the graves.

The Count Shares His Tragic Past with Morrel

The Count tells Morrel to look upward rather than at the graves, and when Morrel confesses he has no wishes and only seeks to suffer less painfully in Marseilles, the Count secures his promise. The Count then narrates the life of a man far more wretched than Morrel: one who lost his betrothed through a stroke of fate, was imprisoned for fourteen years, emerged transformed and powerful, and discovered upon his return that his father had died in despair and his tomb had vanished. Worse still, the woman he loved had proven faithless and married one of his persecutors. Despite all this, the man found peace and hopes for happiness—a revelation that moves Morrel deeply.