The Count of Monte Cristo

The Feigned Accident

Dantès sends Jacopo back to camp with a killed kid and instructions to have the comrades prepare a meal and signal when ready. While alone, Dantès’s foot slips and he appears to stagger and disappear from view over a rock’s edge. His companions find him lying prone, bleeding, and almost senseless after rolling down a twelve-to-fifteen-foot declivity. They pour rum down his throat, and he recovers consciousness but complains of great pain in his knee, heaviness in his head, and severe pains in his loins. When they wish to carry him to shore, he declares with heavy groans that he cannot bear to be moved. The sailors prepare the meal while Dantès insists he only needs rest.

Demanding to Be Left Alone

Despite the patron’s urgency to depart to deliver cargo, Dantès declares he would rather die where he is than undergo the agony movement causes him. He insists his comrades should have their meal while he rests. The old patron suggests they will not leave him, but Dantès refuses to allow any breach of proper rules in his favor. He requests only a small supply of biscuit, a gun with powder and balls, and a pickaxe to build shelter. When Jacopo offers to stay and care for him, giving up his share of the venture, Dantès warmly squeezes his hand but firmly insists he does not wish anyone to stay. The patron agrees to leave him with the requested supplies.

Searching for the Entrance

Once the smugglers have disappeared from view, Dantès rises with agility and lightness, far more spry than the kid among the myrtles and shrubs of these wild rocks. Taking his gun in one hand and pickaxe in the other, he hastens toward the rock where the guide-marks terminate. Recalling the tale of the Arabian fisherman that Faria had related to him, he stands before the large round rock and speaks the magical words: “Open Sesame!”