Paris cannot stop discussing the sudden catastrophes of Morcerf, Danglars, and Villefort while Julie Morrel, in the Rue Meslay apartment with Emmanuel, compares their ruin to guests who forgot an evil genius hovering at the feast. Maximilian listens in apathy until Monte Cristo arrives to collect him for Marseilles. Julie pleads for her brother's melancholy; the count promises diversion while Morrel answers with grief masked as obedience. Their farewell turns tearful when the count says they will probably never see him again, presses Julie's hand as he did eleven years before, and Julie still confides in Sinbad the Sailor before Ali confirms Noirtier accepts the letter.
At Villejuif the count stops the carriage alone above Paris and murmurs Adieu, Paris, adieu, calling himself a patient miner who rooted out evil and insisting God alone read his heart. He claims no pride or hatred, only regret, as the city that made him a count can now give neither pain nor pleasure. Ten leagues pass in silence until steamer and paddle-wheels carry them to Marseilles, where childhood quays restore memory and Morrel stands where his father once embraced him after the Pharaon's return, saying I was there while pointing to the corner where Mercédès waved farewell to a departing ship.
On the Canebière Albert de Morcerf waves from a lieutenant's uniform aboard a vessel for Algiers while Mercédès, veiled in black, vanishes toward the Allées de Meilhan. Monte Cristo enters the old Dantès house and finds her weeping under the jessamine arbor. She hates herself, not Edmond, confesses cowardice and complicity in Fernand's fall, and calls him a divine instrument; he claims God needed him and describes the exterminating angel he became. She asks only Albert's happiness, lives between two graves, and refuses fortune; his kiss feels like marble on a saint's hand.
When he asks if they will meet again, she points to heaven and says we shall meet again, then rushes upstairs while he turns to the quay. She watches Albert's ship sail away, not the count's departure, murmuring Edmond, Edmond, Edmond as the past outlives the title he wears.
Coming Up in Chapter 113
After Mercédès murmurs Edmond at the window, the count will leave her house with a sad heart, doubt whether his vengeance was error, and take Morrel to the Château d'If.
