The Count of Monte Cristo

Police Arrive to Arrest Andrea Cavalcanti

Before the notary can locate Andrea, the guests are driven back into the principal salon in terror as an officer posts two soldiers at the door of each drawing-room and a commissary of police, girt with his scarf, advances toward Danglars. Madame Danglars screams and faints, while Danglars, his guilty conscience betraying him, wears a look of abject terror before his assembled guests. Monte Cristo steps forward to meet the commissioner, and the room erupts in a general cry of astonishment as the magistrate demands to know which guest answers to the name of Andrea Cavalcanti.

The Commissary Charges Andrea with Caderousse’s Murder

The commissary, unmoved by the chaos, identifies Andrea Cavalcanti as an escaped galley-slave from Toulon and formally accuses him of having assassinated Caderousse—his former prison companion—at the moment of his escape from the Count of Monte Cristo’s house. When Danglars asks in amazement who Andrea really is, the magistrate delivers the verdict; Monte Cristo casts a swift glance around the room and sees that Andrea has already disappeared, sealing the collapse of the contract signing and the ruin of the arranged marriage.

第九十七章 The Departure for Belgium

After the scandal that exposed Andrea Cavalcanti as an escaped convict, Eugénie seizes the opportunity to escape the gilded cage of her father’s house, already having made secret preparations to flee with her devoted companion Louise d’Armilly; the two have arranged a post-chaise, obtained a passport through the Count of Monte Cristo identifying Eugénie as the young artist Léon d’Armilly traveling with his sister, and accumulated some forty-five thousand francs in cash and jewels. Upon retiring to her room with Louise, Eugénie cuts off her magnificent hair without hesitation, dons a complete male disguise with practiced ease, and in the dead of night the two fugitives descend a side staircase to the yard, where Eugénie deceives the sleeping porter with her contralto voice and confident demeanor before slipping out into the street; they instruct the postilion to drive toward Fontainebleau but plan to alter their route toward Belgium, thus accomplishing their escape as the carriage rattles toward the barrier of Saint-Martin, leaving the banker without a daughter.