The Rain of Blood — The Count of Monte Cristo

Bertuccio continues his story. The jeweller Joannes comes back to Caderousse's inn because of the storm. Caderousse and his wife La Carconte welcome him with smiles, but they plan murder. While Bertuccio hides in the loft, he hears a pistol shot. Blood drips through the floor onto his face.

He runs downstairs and finds La Carconte dead on the stairs and Joannes dying upstairs. Bertuccio tries to help, but customs officers arrive at that moment. They see his bloody clothes and think he is the killer. Caderousse escapes with the diamond and money. Bertuccio is arrested and sent to trial at Nîmes.

In prison he asks for Abbé Busoni. The priest appears, confirms the story of the diamond, and hears Bertuccio's full confession, including the stabbing at Auteuil. Bertuccio is freed when Caderousse is caught and confesses. Busoni then sends him to serve the Count of Monte Cristo.

Bertuccio hurries home to Corsica, but he is too late. His sister-in-law Assunta has been tortured and burned to death by Benedetto and his criminal friends while searching for hidden money. Benedetto runs away and is never seen again. Bertuccio tells the Count he believes the boy is dead, but the Count says wicked men are often kept alive to punish others.

The Count forgives Bertuccio for saving the baby but not returning it to its mother. He walks the Auteuil garden where the crime happened and studies every path and door. That night Haydée, the Greek woman from Italy, arrives at his house in Paris. Ali lights her way to her rooms, and by midnight the great mansion is quiet.