The Count of Monte Cristo

The Hidden Treasure Revealed

Monte Cristo explains he buried the treasure beneath a fig tree his father planted on the day of his birth, and when he recently visited Marseilles, he found the iron box still there untouched. He writes with emotion about offering millions to the woman he once loved but now able only to return “the piece of black bread forgotten under his poor roof.” He references his father’s death in poverty and despair, for which Albert’s father bore responsibility, and appeals to Albert to spare his mother the trial of poverty at the hands of this man whose family he ruined.

Mercédès Accepts

Albert stands pale and motionless as Mercédès finishes reading. She raises her eyes heavenward with an ineffable expression and declares, “I accept it—he has a right to pay the dowry, which I shall take with me to some convent!” She tucks the letter into her bodice, takes her son’s arm, and descends the stairs with a firmer step than even she expected, preparing to leave the house of Morcerf forever.

第九十二章 The Suicide

After a peaceful morning with Emmanuel and Maximilian Morrel, Monte Cristo arrives at the Champs-Élysées where the steward Bertuccio informs him that both Mercédès and the valet Florentin believe she is preparing to leave her house with her son. Monte Cristo sends Bertuccio with a letter while Haydée greets her master with transports of joy, yet this tender reunion is interrupted by the arrival of Count de Morcerf, who has come to challenge Monte Cristo and denounce him as the cause of his family’s ruin. Monte Cristo coolly reveals his true identity as Edmond Dantès, the young man Morcerf had once betrayed and condemned to life imprisonment in the Château d’If, and the general staggers from the house in horror. Upon returning home, Morcerf discovers his wife Mercédès and son Albert departing the mansion, abandoning him entirely, and in that moment of complete desolation, a gunshot echoes through the broken window as the coach carries his family away forever.