The Colosseum — The Count of Monte Cristo

Franz and Albert reach the Colosseum by moonlight. Guides with torches drag Albert through the ruins while Franz slips away to sit alone among the columns. He overhears two men talking in the dark. A bandit named Peppino is sentenced to die in two days. A cloaked stranger promises to buy him a reprieve with gold instead of a bloody rescue. If the plan works, white damask with a red cross will hang in the middle window at the Café Rospoli.

Franz recognizes the stranger's voice. It is the same deep tone he heard from Sinbad the Sailor in the grotto on Monte Cristo. He stays hidden until both men leave, then rejoins Albert without saying what he heard. That night he cannot sleep. He is sure the island host and the cloaked negotiator are one man.

The next evening they go to the opera. Franz introduces Albert to Countess G. Across the theater sits a beautiful woman in Greek dress beside a pale, motionless man. The countess whispers that he looks like a vampire from a Byron tale. When the music swells, the pale man stands and Franz sees his face clearly. It is Sinbad again. The countess begs Franz not to follow him and sends him home early.

Back at the hotel, Albert has given up on finding horses and plans a comic ox cart for Carnival. Pastrini bursts in with better news. The Count of Monte Cristo, their mysterious upstairs neighbour, offers carriage seats and windows at the Palazzo Rospoli. A servant brings formal cards. Franz accepts, already linking the invitation to the white-damask signal from the Colosseum.

The next morning Pastrini shows them the execution notice. Peppino and another man are to die in the Piazza del Popolo on Carnival's first day. Franz has heard this exact program whispered among the ruins. He and Albert go to thank the Count. When the tapestry door opens, Franz freezes. The rich noble who greets them is the same man from the island, the Colosseum, and the opera box.

The Colosseum does the work a salon cannot. Guides drag Albert through the ruins with torches. Franz sits alone among the columns and hears a death priced in gold. Peppino will die in two days unless a cloaked man can buy a reprieve. The signal, if it works, is white damask with a red cross in the middle window of the Café Rospoli. Franz knows the voice. It is Sinbad, speaking in the dark as if a scaffold were a bill to be paid. He tells Albert nothing.

The opera makes the same man visible. Across from Countess G, a woman in Greek dress sits beside a pale figure the countess calls a vampire out of Byron. When the music swells he stands, and Franz sees the island host in a Paris-bound face. The countess sends Franz home early and begs him not to follow. Albert, meanwhile, has given up on horses and is ready to enter Carnival in a comic ox cart, which is how a man looks when he has not heard the whisper in the ruins.

Pastrini's good news arrives as cards. The Count of Monte Cristo, the upstairs neighbour, offers carriage seats and windows at the Palazzo Rospoli. Franz accepts because the invitation and the damask signal are the same plan. Morning brings the execution notice: Peppino and another man, Piazza del Popolo, the first day of Carnival. When the tapestry door opens, the noble who greets them is the grotto, the cloak, and the opera box in one body. Franz has his proof and no sentence he is willing to say aloud.

The Count does not flinch at being seen. He offers breakfast, carriage, and a window on the square as if hospitality were the whole explanation. Albert is delighted to have found a neighbour who solves Carnival. Franz is counting identities: the man who fed him under Monte Cristo, the man who priced Peppino's life among the columns, the pale figure at the opera, and now a title on a card. Each meeting was arranged so Franz would arrive at this door already in debt to the mystery. Saying the name Sinbad in front of Albert would sound like the vampire story the countess already loves. Franz keeps quiet, and the quiet is how the Count enters Rome as a gentleman instead of as a rumour.

Albert's ox cart becomes a footnote. The Count's windows replace it. A man who could not find horses for Carnival is suddenly seated above the Corso because a neighbour he has never cultivated decided to be generous. Franz watches that generosity and sees the damask plan from the ruins sliding into place. Peppino's name is already on the morning notice. The breakfast invitation is how two tourists are walked to the square without being told they are there to watch a verdict the Count has already bought.