The Count of Monte Cristo

Burning the Evidence

Beauchamp offers Albert a choice: he alone possesses these proofs, and no human power can force him to a duel that Albert’s own conscience would later reproach. He offers to destroy the attestations and keep this frightful secret forever. The papers are entrusted to their friendship alone. Albert throws himself on Beauchamp’s neck, calling him a noble fellow, and seizes the papers with trembling hands. He tears them to pieces, then burns every fragment at the wax-light kept for cigars, trembling lest any vestige escape to confront him someday. As the papers turn to blackened ash, Beauchamp wishes that all may be forgotten as a sorrowful dream. Albert burns the last sparks, hoping only that their eternal friendship may be transmitted to their children’s children, reminding him that he owes his life and honor to Beauchamp—for had this become public, Albert would have destroyed himself or fled the country to spare his mother.

The Broken Engagement

This factitious joy soon fades, replaced by deeper grief. Albert cannot in a moment relinquish the respect, confidence, and pride that a father’s untarnished name inspired. He wonders how he can face his father now—whether to draw back from his embrace or withhold his hand. He grieves for his mother, whose portrait hangs before him, wondering if she somehow already knows and suffers. Beauchamp takes his hands and urges him to take courage. When Albert asks who inserted that first note in the journal, Beauchamp suggests an unknown enemy, an invisible foe, may have orchestrated this. He advises Albert to fortify himself, show no trace of emotion, and bear his grief like a cloud that carries ruin within it—a fatal secret known only when the storm bursts. Albert asks if all is not yet over, and Beauchamp admits all things are possible. He then asks about the Danglars marriage, suggesting the rupture or fulfillment of that engagement may connect to the person they have been discussing. Albert reveals that the engagement is already broken off, and Beauchamp seems satisfied.