Villefort’s Disavowal of His Father’s Politics
When the marquise accuses Villefort of revolutionary talk and reminds him that he is the son of a Girondin, Villefort’s face flushes crimson. He acknowledges that his father was a Girondin but insists he did not vote for the king’s death. The marquise counters that their families suffered persecution from opposite sides, noting that while the Saint-Mérans remained loyal to the exiled princes, the Citizen Noirtier had joined the new government and become Senator Count Noirtier. Villefort requests that the past be buried, declaring that he has himself discarded his father’s name and political principles. Renouncing his father the Bonapartist “Noirtier,” he asserts his identity as a staunch royalist named “de Villefort,” hoping the old revolutionary stock will die while the new royalist shoot flourishes apart from it.
Plan to Exile Napoleon to Saint Helena
The Marquise accepts the amnesty but demands that Villefort prove firm and inflexible in his royalism. She reminds him that the royal family has pledged itself to the king for his loyalty, and that the king has consented to forget the past at the marquis’s recommendation. The Comte de Salvieux mentions that the Holy Alliance intends to remove Napoleon from Elba, and when asked the destination, reveals it to be Saint Helena—an island on the other side of the equator, at least two thousand leagues away. The marquise approves, noting that Elba is dangerously close to Corsica and Italian territory.
Political Tensions in Post-Napoleonic Marseilles
Villefort expresses concern that Marseilles is filled with half-pay officers who daily provoke quarrels with royalists, leading to duels among the upper classes and assassinations among the lower. He notes that the strong arm of the law can only act after the fact and frequently cannot repair the damage done, only avenge it. The marquise urges Villefort to purify Marseilles of Napoleon’s partisans, insisting that the king must be upheld in peace and tranquillity through the most inflexible agents.
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