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Alexandre Dumas
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Villefort keeps his promise to Madame Danglars and writes to M. de Boville at the police for information about the Count of Monte Cristo. Two days later the answer arrives. The Count knows Lord Wilmore, a rich English traveler, and Abbé Busoni, a Sicilian priest respected in the East. Villefort orders deeper inquiries and then goes himself to question both men, disguised as a police agent.
At eight o'clock he visits Abbé Busoni in a plain house behind Saint-Sulpice. The abbé, played by Monte Cristo, says the Count is really Monsieur Zaccone, son of a Maltese shipbuilder, with modest yearly income and one enemy named Lord Wilmore. When asked about Auteuil, he calmly says Monte Cristo bought the house to open a lunatic asylum like one in Palermo.
The same evening Villefort calls on Lord Wilmore, who is also Monte Cristo in disguise. This Englishman tells a wilder tale: Indian wars, Greek silver mines, railway schemes, and a mineral spring under the Auteuil garden. He calls the Count a miser, shows a fresh duel scar, and says he practices shooting every day with Grisier.
When the visitor leaves, Wilmore pulls off his light hair, red whiskers, false jaw, and wound, and becomes the Count of Monte Cristo again. It was Villefort himself who conducted the whole inquiry, not a stranger from the prefect. He returns home feeling relieved and sleeps soundly for the first time since Auteuil, never knowing he interviewed the same man twice.
An inquiry is only as good as its sources. Villefort's agents interview Lord Wilmore and Abbé Busoni, then the Count removes his false jaw once they leave.
When every witness describes the same subject differently yet helpfully, ask who scheduled the appointments.
On the warmest Saturday in July, the Morcerf ballroom fills with music and lanterns while Mercédès watches the Count refuse every dish under her roof.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Distinguishing Justice from Revenge — Providence as a Costume.
The card below names the pattern this chapter proves — carry it with you into Dumas's feast at La Réserve, Faria's cell, the cave on Monte Cristo, the Opera glove, and the fifth of October.
Distinguishing Justice from Revenge
Villefort keeps his promise to Madame Danglars and writes to M. de Boville at the police for information about the Count of Monte Cristo. Two days later the answer arrives.
Key Insight
A person with multiple disguises can satisfy an official search by appearing as the character who confirms the story they want believed.
Chapter 69
M. de Villefort kept the promise he had made to Madame Danglars, to endeavor to find out how the Count of Monte Cristo had discovered the history of the house at Auteuil. He wrote the same day for the required information to M. de Boville, who, from having been an inspector of prisons, was promoted to a high office in the police; and the latter begged for two days time to ascertain exactly who would be most likely to give him full particulars. At the end of the second day M. de Villefort received the following note: “The person called…
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Think of a cause or goal you've been passionate about - protecting your family, fighting for fairness at work, or advocating for something important. Write down who you were when you started this mission, then who you are now while pursuing it. List three specific ways your approach or behavior has changed, and whether those changes moved you closer to or further from your original values.
Write about a time when you realized you'd become someone you didn't recognize while fighting for something you believed in. How did you find your way back to yourself?
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
The Face the Barber Finds
Follow Edmond into the Château d'If and watch the Count walk out, then ask what the mask still lets him feel.
The Last Reversible Order
Hear Mercédès at the Opera, then pardon Danglars, and leave on the fifth of October before the work eats you too.
Hours by a Sunbeam
Spend fourteen years in stone, escape in a winding-sheet, and pay Morrel on the fifth of September without taking credit.
Friends Who Stay Seated
Sit at the feast at La Réserve, then in Villefort's office, and learn what it costs to keep living after friends erase you.
Names Not on the List
Stand with Valentine at the gate and Albert in the Chamber, and count the people who never chose the fight.
Deep diving the literary elements.
Guides, life skills, and the full library.More ways to read The Count of Monte Cristo: guides, life skills, and the wider library.
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