Villefort’s Domestic Afflictions
The conversation turned to M. de Villefort, who had secluded himself for the past week due to a strange chain of domestic afflictions, including the deaths of several household members. The prosecutor’s residence had been draped in mourning for three months, and the minister’s wife had made inquiries about the house’s dark reputation.
The Arrival of Madame Danglars
Beauchamp spotted Madame Danglars in the courtroom, a surprising appearance given her daughter’s recent flight and her husband’s bankruptcy mere days before. Debray attempted to deflect attention from the obvious connection to his own relationship with Eugénie Danglars.
The Mysterious Deaths
Beauchamp revealed a disturbing theory: there was an assassin within Villefort’s household. The deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Saint-Méran, old Barrois, and finally Valentine were not natural occurrences but the result of systematic poisoning by a young family member.
The Infant Phenomenon
According to Beauchamp’s source—his newly hired servant recently departed from Villefort’s household—young Edward had discovered poisons in his mother’s laboratory and used them against those who displeased him. The child administered three drops of an elixir to the Saint-Mérans, to Barrois who sometimes rebuffed him, and to Valentine whom he envied. Beauchamp defended this extraordinary claim by noting Edward’s earlier tendency to harm siblings by sticking pins in their ears while they slept, suggesting the younger generation was disturbingly precocious.
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