The Judge — The Count of Monte Cristo

Abbé Busoni has calmed Noirtier beside Valentine's body while Villefort avoids his father and works through the night on the Benedetto indictment, hoping the Caderousse murder will open the assizes and flatter the only pride left in his frozen heart. In the garden he sees Noirtier's savage stare fixed on Madame de Villefort playing ball with Edward beneath the linden trees. The old man's glare shifts to Villefort himself, who answers from below that he will keep his oath with patience one day longer, then retreats to ink an accusation so energetic his dawn fingers look dipped in blood.

Monday brings assize gray and a cup of chocolate his wife sends so he will have strength to speak in the murder case. When the valet says she is dressed and wishes to attend the trial at the Palais, Villefort's nails dent his cheeks. He orders her to wait in her room, dresses in black, and enters with papers under his arm to find her ready in bonnet and gloves while Edward tears pamphlets at her feet.

Villefort sends the child away, bolts the door, and asks without prelude where she keeps the poison she generally uses. He names Saint-Méran, Barrois, and Valentine, tells her she speaks now to the judge not the husband, and refuses every plea in the name of heaven, love, or their child. He will not put her on the scaffold but demands she keep deadly drops for herself, vows to denounce her if justice is unsatisfied on his return, and says she will sleep in the conciergerie if she is alive when he comes back from pronouncing sentence of death on another murderer below. He bows farewell, madame, and double-locks the door on her faint.