Peppino Seeks the Captain
A sentinel challenges Peppino’s approach, and Peppino identifies himself as a friend while asking for the captain. The sentinel points toward a spacious crypt hollowed out of the rock, its lights shining through large arched openings into the passage.
Peppino Brings Danglars to the Captain
Peppino announces “fine spoil” to the captain in Italian, then seizes Danglars by the collar of his coat and drags him through an opening resembling a door. They enter the apartment that the captain has made his dwelling-place.
Captain Verifies Danglars’ Identity
The captain, who is attentively reading Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, asks if this is the man. Peppino confirms it is Danglars himself. At the captain’s order, Peppino raises his torch to Danglars’ face, causing him to hastily withdraw to avoid burning his eyelashes. Danglars’ agitated features present a pale and hideous terror.
Bandits Awaken as Danglars is Led to His Cell
The captain remarks that the man is tired and orders him conducted to his bed. Danglars murmurs fear that the bed is a coffin hollowed in the wall and that sleep will mean death from a poniard. As the companions of the bandit chief rise from their beds of dried leaves or wolf-skins, the banker utters a groan and follows his guide without supplication, having lost all strength, will, power, and feeling. He mechanically climbs a staircase and enters a low door.
Danglars is Locked in a Rock Cell
Bending his head to avoid striking his forehead, Danglars enters a small room cut out of the rock—clean though empty, dry though situated at an immeasurable depth underground. A bed of dried grass covered with goat-skins in one corner raises his spirits, and he exclaims that it is a real bed, invoking God’s name for only the second time in over a decade. His guide shoves him into the cell, closes the door, and slides a bolt into place.
Danglars Calculates Ransom and Falls Asleep
Danglars recognizes the bandit as Luigi Vampa, whose existence he had previously refused to believe when Albert de Morcerf mentioned him in Paris. He also recognizes the very cell where Albert had been confined, preserved for accommodating strangers. These recollections restore some tranquillity: since they have not killed him outright, he concludes they will not kill him at all, and that they have arrested him for robbery. Recalling that Morcerf was taxed at 4,000 crowns, Danglars fixes his own ransom at 8,000 crowns (48,000 livres), reasoning he would still have roughly 5,050,000 francs remaining—safe provided he is not rated at his entire fortune. Satisfied with this calculation, he stretches out on his bed and soon falls asleep with the same tranquillity as the hero whose life Luigi Vampa is studying.
KAPITEL 115. Luigi Vampa’s Bill of Fare
Danglars awakens in a whitewashed bandit cell and discovers he has been captured by the brigands of whom Albert de Morcerf spoke. Despite his initial fears, he finds his money untouched: one hundred louis in his pocket and his letter of credit for 5,050,000 francs in his pocket-book. Realizing the bandits intend to hold him for ransom, he wisely decides to wait patiently for their demands.
Danglars Awakens in Captivity
The Parisian banker wakes to discover himself in a cell resembling an unpleasant dream. After checking that he is neither wounded nor robbed, he confirms his valuables remain intact. His Breguet watch shows half past five, the only indication of time in his dark cell. Following the advice he half-remembered from Don Quixote, he wisely chooses to wait for the bandits to make their terms known rather than demand explanations.
The Ogre-like Sentinel
A gigantic bandit with large eyes, thick lips, flat nose, and disheveled red hair replaces the first sentinel. Danglars jokes that the man resembles an ogre but jokes he is too old and tough to be good eating. The bandit proceeds to devour black bread, cheese, and onions, which initially disgusts the refined banker but gradually arouses his appetite as hunger sets in over the following hours.
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