The Count of Monte Cristo

Faria’s Fatal Seizure and Parting Words

While the hours pass tolerably, Faria regains his mental clarity even as his body remains paralyzed. He teaches Dantès the sublime duty of a prisoner who learns to make something from nothing, keeping himself busy so as not to feel himself growing old, while Dantès works to keep the nearly extinct past at bay. Beneath this superficial calm, however, many repressed desires and stifled sighs lie hidden in both hearts. One night Edmond wakes suddenly, hearing a plaintive voice calling his name from Faria’s dungeon. Rushing through the secret passage, he finds the old man pale but erect, clinging to his bedstead, his features writhing with the horrible symptoms of a seizure. Faria, in a resigned tone, explains that Dantès must not call for help, for their communication would be discovered and Dantès would be lost. The dungeon will soon be occupied by another prisoner who may be young, strong, and better able to help Dantès escape; Faria was only a hindrance, a half-dead body tied to him as a drag. Dantès insists he will save Faria as he did before and retrieves the phial, still a third full of the red liquor. Faria warns that he feels the chills of death approaching, his teeth chattering, his bones seeming to dislocate; in five minutes the malady will reach its height, and in a quarter of an hour there will be nothing left of him but a corpse. He instructs Dantès to give him twelve drops this time, and if he does not recover, to pour the rest down his throat. After blessing Dantès as a priceless gift and wishing him all the happiness and prosperity he deserves, Faria is struck by a violent convulsion. His eyes become injected with blood as if a torrent had rushed from his chest to his head. With his final effort, he cries out, “Monte Cristo, forget not Monte Cristo!” and falls back on the bed, a rigid, distorted corpse with twisted limbs, swollen eyelids, and lips flecked with bloody foam.