Abbé Faria’s Sudden Violent Fit
Dantès is alarmed to find Abbé Faria in a state of sudden collapse, his face livid, eyes sunken, and lips white. The abbé, recognizing the onset of a violent paroxysmal attack he had previously experienced before his imprisonment, urgently tells Dantès to help him back to his chamber before the fit overtakes him.
Abbé’s Emergency Remedy Instructions
Once in his chamber, the shivering abbé instructs Dantès about a remedy concealed in a hollowed bed-post: a small phial of red liquid. He warns that the fit may either leave him rigid and corpse-like or throw him into violent convulsions with loud cries that must be muffled, and that Dantès should force open his teeth and administer eight to ten drops only when he is fully motionless and cold.
Dantès Administers the Cure to the Unconscious Abbé
The abbé’s attack is sudden and violent, with convulsions lasting two hours, which Dantès muffles beneath a blanket. After the abbé becomes rigid as a corpse, Dantès forces open his jaws and administers the drops, then waits anxiously for an hour until color returns and consciousness is regained. Dantès barely escapes detection by the approaching jailer, returning to his own cell in time to appear as usual before hurrying back to the abbé’s side.
Abbé Reveals Permanent Paralysis
The abbé reveals that this second attack has permanently paralyzed his right arm and leg, and that a third attack—predicted by the physician Cabanis, as the malady is hereditary—will either kill him or leave him completely paralyzed. He informs Dantès that flight is now impossible for him and releases the young man from his promise to escape together.
Dantès Vows to Remain with the Abbé
Dantès refuses to abandon the abbé, swearing by the blood of Christ never to leave him while he lives. He rejects the abbé’s suggestion that he escape alone and insists on remaining in the prison alongside his friend, a devotion the abbé accepts with gratitude.
Abbé Orders Filling of the Secret Excavation
Recognizing the practical danger of the unfinished tunnel, the abbé orders Dantès to fill in the excavation beneath the soldier’s gallery to prevent the hollow sound from being discovered, which would lead to their separation. Dantès obediently returns to his task of concealing their work.
CAPÍTULO 18. The Treasure
Chapter 18, titled “The Treasure,” continues the narrative of Edmond Dantès and Abbé Faria in their prison setting. The chapter begins with Faria revealing a half-burnt document to Dantès, claiming it relates to a vast hidden treasure. Despite Dantès’ concern that this represents a return of Faria’s supposed madness, the abbé insists on sharing the full history behind the paper, recounting the story of Cardinal Spada, the Borgia conspiracy, and a fortune that was never found. The chapter weaves together themes of imprisonment, loyalty, mental instability, historical intrigue, and the enduring mystery of lost wealth. In this chapter, the Abbé Faria recounts the remarkable circumstances by which he came upon Cardinal Spada’s hidden will: while preparing to leave Rome in 1807, he had dozed off over his late patron’s papers and, upon waking in darkness, used an old yellowed marker from the famous breviary to light his candle—only to watch mysterious characters appear on the page in sympathetic ink as the flame climbed it. By fitting together the burned fragment with a second leaf he had preserved, Faria reconstructed the cardinal’s 1498 declaration, which bequeathed an immense fortune in gold, jewels, and Roman crowns to his nephew Guido Spada, concealed in the furthest angle of a cave on the small Island of Monte Cristo. Faria thereupon offers Edmond Dantès a partnership in the treasure—half if they escape together and the whole if Faria dies in captivity—assuring him that the Spada line is extinct and that his hesitation can be set aside. Touched by the old man’s faith, Dantès resists the offer on the grounds that he is no blood relation, but Faria, who regards him as the son of his captivity, embraces him with the one arm still at his command, and the two weep together over the bond that the promise of Monte Cristo has sealed between them.
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