The Count of Monte Cristo

Bertuccio Overhears the Caderousses Discuss the Dantès Diamond

Climbing over the garden-hedge and slipping through the olive and wild fig trees, Bertuccio hid in a shed used for smuggling, separated from the inn only by a partition with peepholes. Caderousse entered with a stranger—evidently a Parisian jeweller at the Beaucaire fair—and announced that the priest had not deceived them: the diamond was real. The jeweller offered 50,000 francs but wished to hear from Caderousse’s wife, pale and feverish Carconte, the story of the diamond’s miraculous acquisition. Carconte explained that her husband had been a great friend of a sailor named Edmond Dantès in 1814 or 1815, whom Caderousse had forgotten but who, at his death, had bequeathed this diamond to him.

第四十四章 The Vendetta

Chapter 44, “The Vendetta,” unfolds through the retrospective narration of Bertuccio to Monte Cristo, recounting events at Caderousse and La Carconte’s inn during a Beaucaire fair. A jeweller named Joannes comes to purchase a large diamond allegedly left to the couple by the deceased Edmond Dantès through the Abbé Busoni. After lengthy negotiation, the stone is sold for 45,000 francs. As a violent thunderstorm breaks, the jeweller departs, but the couple’s whispered plotting—hinting at murder and robbery along the road—gives way to terror when the jeweller unexpectedly returns. The chapter closes with the ominous image of La Carconte double-locking the door behind the unsuspecting guest, foreshadowing the violent “vendetta” to come.

Diamond Origin Inquiry

Diamond Origin Inquiry The jeweller Joannes interrogates Caderousse and La Carconte about the provenance of the diamond. They repeat the story that Edmond Dantès received it from a wealthy Englishman he befriended and cared for in prison, and that the Abbé Busoni delivered it to them after Dantès’s death. The jeweller murmurs that although the tale seemed improbable, it may be true—their disagreement now centers only on the price.