Albert's friends keep joking while they wait for breakfast. Beauchamp wants to leave for the Chamber. Debray drinks sherry and complains about politics. Albert says even a great nobleman would wait until half past ten for his guest. They talk about his planned marriage to Eugénie Danglars and laugh about her father's money and speeches.
Château-Renaud arrives with Captain Maximilian Morrel, a soldier in a fine uniform. Château-Renaud tells how Morrel saved his life in Africa. Six Arab horsemen had caught him, and Morrel killed them and shared his horse so they could eat. Morrel quietly adds that he tries to do something brave every year on September 5, the day his father was saved long ago in Marseilles.
Albert then tells his own adventure. In Rome, bandits carried him to the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian and demanded ransom. Franz brought help, but the real rescue came from a stranger with no weapon who spoke two words to Luigi Vampa. Albert describes the Count's grotto, his Greek singer Haydée, and the cold way he watched an execution. His friends refuse to believe any of it. Debray says there are no bandits. Beauchamp says there are no vampires. They call it a fairy tale until the clock strikes half past ten.
The Count walks in exactly on time. No one heard his carriage. He is polite, well dressed, and calm. He eats almost nothing and says he slept in his coach after stopping near Nîmes. He shows an emerald box filled with opium and hashish pills he mixes himself. He mentions Franz's night in the grotto as if it were a small joke. When Albert begs him not to talk about bandits, the Count smiles and tells the whole story anyway.
The table grows stranger. The Count says he helps only people he chooses and does not owe loyalty to society. Morrel asks why he saved Albert then. Albert calls him a secret philanthropist. When the Count names his bankers, Thomson and French, Morrel turns pale. The name links back to his family in Marseilles. The Count already knows Baron Danglars and offers to help Morrel with old debts the bank denies.
Albert's friends argue about where the Count should live. Morrel offers his sister's quiet house. The Count refuses. He says Ali, his mute servant from Rome, has already bought and furnished a house on the Champs-Élysées. He also has theater boxes, a Greek slave who speaks only Romaic, and a steward named Bertuccio who used to be a smuggler. Debray leaves to investigate him with police money. Beauchamp leaves to write an article. Morrel leaves with a calling card and unanswered questions.
At last Albert and the Count are alone. Breakfast is over. The mysterious guest has turned every joke into proof, and Paris is only beginning to learn who he really is.
