The Count of Monte Cristo

第十八章 The Treasure

In this chapter, the Abbé Faria recounts the remarkable circumstances by which he came upon Cardinal Spada’s hidden will: while preparing to leave Rome in 1807, he had dozed off over his late patron’s papers and, upon waking in darkness, used an old yellowed marker from the famous breviary to light his candle—only to watch mysterious characters appear on the page in sympathetic ink as the flame climbed it. By fitting together the burned fragment with a second leaf he had preserved, Faria reconstructed the cardinal’s 1498 declaration, which bequeathed an immense fortune in gold, jewels, and Roman crowns to his nephew Guido Spada, concealed in the furthest angle of a cave on the small Island of Monte Cristo. Faria thereupon offers Edmond Dantès a partnership in the treasure—half if they escape together and the whole if Faria dies in captivity—assuring him that the Spada line is extinct and that his hesitation can be set aside. Touched by the old man’s faith, Dantès resists the offer on the grounds that he is no blood relation, but Faria, who regards him as the son of his captivity, embraces him with the one arm still at his command, and the two weep together over the bond that the promise of Monte Cristo has sealed between them.

Patron’s Bequest and Fulfilled Obligations

Faria explains that his patron left him family papers, a five-thousand-volume library, a famous breviary, and a thousand Roman crowns on the condition that he arrange anniversary masses and compile a genealogical history of the house. He carried out these duties faithfully, and as the palace was being sold, he prepared to relocate to Florence with his possessions before his arrest.