The Count of Monte Cristo

Noirtier’s Disguise, Departure, and Villefort’s Aftermath

When Villefort shares the detailed physical description the police have of the man who lured Quesnel—dark hair and complexion, blue frock-coat, Legion of Honor rosette, wide-brimmed hat—Noirtier immediately alters his appearance to evade capture: he shaves off his black whiskers, swaps his blue frock-coat and black cravat for a brown coat and colored neckerchief belonging to Villefort, and exchanges his cane for one of Villefort’s narrow-brimmed hats and a small bamboo switch, rendering himself unrecognizable to the police waiting nearby. He gives Villefort strict orders to keep his visit and their conversation completely secret, return to Marseilles at night via his home’s back entrance, and remain quiet, submissive, and inoffensive, promising that if the political tides shift again in the Bonapartists’ favor, Villefort’s obedience will secure his own career and status. After Noirtier departs, a shaken Villefort destroys all traces of his father’s visit, then travels back to Marseilles, learning along the way that Napoleon has already entered Grenoble.

第十三章 The Hundred Days

This section opens the narrative of the Hundred Days period, framing Napoleon’s unprecedented return from Elba as an event that renders Louis XVIII’s fragile restored monarchy immediately untenable. Villefort is spared removal from office only through the influence of his father Noirtier, a powerful Bonapartist figure at court, and is granted the Legion of Honor (which he prudently declines to wear), while the sitting king’s procureur is dismissed for suspected royalist leanings. Shortly after Napoleon re-enters the Tuileries (finding Louis XVIII’s half-filled snuff box left on his desk), Marseilles erupts in unrest despite official suppression efforts, as long-simmering pro-Bonapartist sentiment in southern France reignites into low-grade civil conflict, with crowds assaulting visible royalists.