Ideology — The Count of Monte Cristo

In Paris it meant a great deal when a king's attorney left his own house to visit a stranger. M. de Villefort almost never paid calls himself; his wife did that work for him. Yet the night after Ali saved Edward, Villefort dressed in his best black suit and drove to the Count's house on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées to thank him in person.

The Count was kneeling over a map when Villefort entered and did not trouble himself to rise. He made the proud magistrate move his own chair forward. Thanks for saving Edward quickly turned into a debate about law, pride, and who really holds power in the world.

Villefort spoke as a servant of French justice. The Count answered as a man who had studied every legal code on earth and found them small. He said officeholders are not the only forces that move human lives. Hidden agents appointed by God work in secret, and he claimed to be one of them.

The talk grew stranger. The Count told Villefort that Satan once offered him all the kingdoms of the world. He said he asked instead to reward the good and punish the guilty, and accepted the role of Providence's agent. Villefort could not tell whether he was hearing philosophy, blasphemy, or a confession.

Villefort tried to bring the Count back to earth by describing his own family. His father Noirtier had been a fierce revolutionary who moved kings like chess pieces until a stroke turned him into a helpless old man who could only blink. Villefort believed God had punished his father's sins in that one second. He pointed to Valentine and Edward as proof that innocent children can balance an old crime.

The Count heard all of this with a cold smile. When Villefort said only the father was punished while the children remained, the Count almost groaned aloud. He agreed to visit Noirtier someday but gave nothing away.

Villefort left believing he had tested a dangerous man and won his respect. He promised that Madame de Villefort would always be the Count's friend. After the door closed, the Count called the interview poison and told Ali to prepare the carriage. At one o'clock he would go to Haydée and wash the taste of Villefort's ideology away with tenderness.