The Count of Monte Cristo

Daughter of Ali Pasha

Monte Cristo reveals Haydée is the daughter of Ali Pasha (Ali Tepelini) of Yanina, and her mother was the renowned beauty Vasiliki. Albert is shocked to learn the count owns the daughter of the famous Ottoman pasha as an enslaved person, and Monte Cristo explains he purchased her at a slave market in Constantinople during his travels. Albert is awestruck by the count’s seemingly magical influence over all aspects of his life, and confirms his desire to be formally introduced to Haydée, which Monte Cristo affirms he will arrange now that the oaths have been sworn.

Haydée’s Childhood in Greece

Monte Cristo summons Ali to inform Haydée he will join her for coffee, and that he wishes to present a friend to her. When Albert and Monte Cristo enter Haydée’s private apartments, they find her seated on a silk sofa in traditional Eastern style, surrounded by her guzla and luxurious decor. Haydée greets Monte Cristo with a mix of deep, devoted love and implicit obedience, then asks in modern Greek (Romaic) who Albert is. Monte Cristo explains Albert is a friend, the same man he rescued from bandits in Rome. When Haydée learns Albert does not speak Greek, she offers to converse in either French or Italian; Monte Cristo chooses Italian. Haydée greets Albert in fluent Tuscan with a soft Roman accent, then orders Ali to bring coffee and pipes for the guests. Albert is overwhelmed by the immersive, Eastern atmosphere of the room, and asks Haydée about her memories of Greece. She reveals she left Greece at age five, and her earliest memory is from age three, when she and her mother Vasiliki (whose name means “royal”) went out veiled to solicit alms for prisoners, then donated the collected money to a convent to distribute to the incarcerated. The chapter ends as Albert asks if she holds more memories of her early childhood in Greece.