The Count of Monte Cristo

Noirtier Requests a Visit from Valentine

Noirtier Requests a Visit from Valentine On her way from Madame de Saint-Méran, Valentine ascends to Noirtier. The old man greets her with such tenderness that her tears, which he had thought exhausted, flow afresh. He gazes at her with unwavering love, and she reassures him that she still has a kind grandfather, without whom she scarcely knows what would become of her. Though Barrois urges rest at one in the morning, Noirtier wishes her goodnight, grieved by her pallor.

Madame de Saint-Méran Demands a Hastened Marriage

Madame de Saint-Méran Demands a Hastened Marriage The next morning, Valentine finds her grandmother’s fever unabated, her eyes glistening with violent nervous agitation. The marchioness has been waiting to speak with Villefort, whom she summons without preamble. She demands that Valentine’s marriage to Franz d’Épinay—son of a general assassinated before Napoleon’s return, and one who may not relish wedding a Jacobin’s granddaughter—be hastened, for she has but a short time to live and wishes a grandmother, not a stepmother, to bless the union. Dismissing Valentine’s objections about decorum and the recent death, the marchioness insists that she was herself married at her mother’s deathbed without suffering for it, and declares she must see her future son-in-law, read his intentions in his eyes, and know him well enough to rise from her grave should he fail in his duty.

Madame de Saint-Méran’s Ominous Vision of a White Figure

Madame de Saint-Méran’s Ominous Vision of a White Figure Villefort attempts to dismiss the marchioness’s frenzied words as the beginnings of delirium, asserting that the dead never rise. But she insists that during a fearful sleep her soul hovered above her body and her eyes closed against her will, and that from the corner near the dressing-room door she saw, with eyes shut, a white figure silently enter. She heard her glass removed from the very table where it now stands, and though her maid found no one when she entered with a light, the marchioness is certain of what she witnessed. She believes it was her husband’s soul and declares that if his spirit can visit her, hers can surely return to guard her granddaughter. Deeply affected in spite of himself, Villefort implores her to resist these gloomy thoughts.

CHAPITRE 72. Madame de Saint-Méran

Chapter 72. Madame de Saint-Méran In the wake of M. de Saint-Méran’s death, the elderly marchioness arrives at the Villefort household in a state of feverish agitation. Obsessed with securing the family inheritance for her granddaughter Valentine, she demands the immediate summoning of a notary. Valentine, who is herself unwell and emotionally torn, fears how her beloved Maximilian will react when he discovers that the grandmother he hoped might champion their union is instead an unconscious enemy. While the notary attends the marquise, Valentine fetches Doctor d’Avrigny, who proceeds to examine the delirious old woman. After the consultation, Valentine retreats to the garden to recover her composure and, at the close of the chapter, hears Maximilian’s voice calling her name from beyond the gate.

Madame de Saint-Méran Demands the Notary

Madame de Saint-Méran Demands the Notary Arriving at the house following her husband’s apoplectic death, the marchioness is gripped by a single burning imperative: to see a notary without delay so that the family property is guaranteed to pass to Valentine. Despite her feverish state and her granddaughter’s entreaties to send for a doctor instead, she insists on the notary and waves away all concerns about her health. When Valentine hesitantly offers her a glass of orangeade—the same glass the old woman believes was touched by a phantom spectre—the marchioness drains it at a single draught and sinks back onto her pillow, still repeating her demand. M. de Villefort leaves the room to arrange matters, and shortly afterward the notary is announced and admitted to the bedside.

Valentine Fears Maximilian’s Despair

Valentine Fears Maximilian’s Despair Left alone with her sleeping grandmother, Valentine is consumed by the thought of how Maximilian will take the news. She had hoped that Madame de Saint-Méran might be persuaded to favor their union, but instead the marchioness is unconsciously working against them. More than once Valentine nearly reveals the secret of her engagement, but she always checks herself: Morrel is of plebeian origin, and she knows that the haughty marquise despises all who are not noble. The conviction that disclosure would be useless—because her parents, were they to learn of it, would destroy everything—forces her silence each time.