The Count of Monte Cristo

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.

第七十二章 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.