The Count of Monte Cristo

Franz Has Confused Dreams About the Mysterious Figure

Franz spends a restless night beset by confused dreams relating to his two prior encounters with his mysterious tormentor, and by waking speculations about what the following day might bring. He reasons that unless the Count of Monte Cristo possesses the ring of Gyges and can render himself invisible, he cannot possibly escape identification this time.

Franz Inquires About Scheduled Executions

Rising early at eight o’clock while Albert still sleeps, Franz summons his landlord, Signor Pastrini, and asks whether an execution is scheduled for the day. Pastrini explains that the window-viewing opportunities are already taken and notes that one could view the spectacle from Monte Pincio, though that hill is generally claimed by common rabble. Franz requests particulars about the executions—the number, names, and manner of death of those condemned—and Pastrini explains the tavolettas, wooden tablets posted the evening before an execution listing the names, crimes, and modes of punishment so that the faithful may offer prayers for the condemned.

Franz Confirms Execution Details Match Colosseum Information

Pastrini produces a tavoletta from the landing outside Franz’s apartment, and Franz reads that on Wednesday, February 23rd, the first day of Carnival, two men—Andrea Rondolo and Peppino, called Rocca Priori—will be executed in the Piazza del Popolo, the former for murdering a priest and the latter as an accomplice of the bandit Luigi Vampa, by mazzolato and decapitato respectively. Franz recognizes this as precisely the information he overheard in the Colosseum, and concludes that the Transteverin was likely Luigi Vampa himself while the cloaked stranger was the same person he had known as “Sinbad the Sailor,” still pursuing his philanthropic mission in Rome as he had at Porto-Vecchio and Tunis.