第六章 The Deputy Procureur du Roi
Chapter 6, “The Deputy Procureur du Roi,” contrasts two simultaneous marriage celebrations in Marseilles during the Bourbon Restoration: Dantès’s humble wedding feast and the aristocratic union of Villefort to Renée de Saint-Méran. The chapter uses the political atmosphere of the gathering—dominated by royalist nobles celebrating the downfall of Napoleon—to characterize Villefort, a young magistrate who distances himself from his Bonapartist father, Noirtier. Through his conversation with the Marquise de Saint-Méran, Villefort reveals his royalist convictions, his prosecutorial severity toward political conspirators, and his ambition, all of which are endorsed by the king himself.
Marseilles Aristocratic Marriage Feast
In a mansion on the Rue du Grand Cours, opposite the Medusa fountain, an aristocratic marriage feast is being held nearly simultaneously with Dantès’s wedding banquet. Unlike Dantès’s gathering of sailors, soldiers, and common folk, this assembly consists of the elite of Marseilles society: magistrates who resigned under Napoleon, officers who defected from the imperial army to join Condé, and young aristocrats raised to despise the exiled emperor.
Royalist Assembly’s Anti-Napoleonic Views
The guests remain at table as heated conversation reveals the vindictive passions agitating the South of France. Napoleon, now the diminished “king” of Elba with only five or six thousand subjects, is seen as forever severed from the French throne. Magistrates discuss their political views, military men reminisce about Moscow and Leipsic, and women comment on the divorce of Josephine. The company rejoices not merely over the man himself but over the defeat of the Napoleonic idea, anticipating a revived political existence under the Bourbons.
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