The Count of Monte Cristo

Vampa’s Adolescence and Relationship with Teresa

Vampa’s adolescence is marked by his bond with Teresa, an orphaned girl from Valmontone who tended sheep nearby. As they grew older—Vampa at twelve and Teresa at eleven—their contrasting natures emerged: his moody, sarcastic, and domineering temperament balanced by her lively but coquettish character. Teresa alone could soften his fierce will, and he lavished his earnings from the Count and his wood carvings on her jewelry and adornments, making her the best-dressed peasant in the region.

第三十三章 Roman Bandits

Luigi Vampa and Teresa, two young orphans of the Sabine hills, grew up together, filling their days with grand dreams of future greatness—he as a captain or general, she as a lady attended by liveried servants—before descending at night to the humble reality of their shepherd’s life. A turning point came when Vampa repaired a broken gun discarded by the count, carving it a beautiful new stock, and devoted himself to mastering its use on every available mark until he became renowned throughout the region as the most adroit, strong, and courageous contadino for leagues around, his reputation earning him the unspoken but universally acknowledged devotion of the beautiful Teresa. Their quiet pastoral courtship was shadowed by tales of the brigand Cucumetto, who had gathered a fierce band in the Lepini mountains, and the chapter dwells on a particularly tragic episode in which Cucumetto abducted a young girl named Rita, only for her lover Carlini, a trusted brigand, to discover his chief had violated her; Carlini thereupon drew lots for her share, calmly waited, and then plunged a knife into Rita’s breast before the assembled band, declaring her rightfully his, and was later found weeping at her grave beside her father, who had hanged himself from the same oak. These stories of blood and vengeance were a frequent subject between Luigi and Teresa, and the chapter closes as the two young lovers, now pledged to marry when they came of age, were startled from their plans for the future by the sound of firearms and the sudden appearance of a man fleeing from the nearby wood.