Distinguishing Justice from Revenge
Providence as a Costume
Villefort walks from a royalist betrothal to the Palais still counting his advantages. Morrel stops him on the pavement to vouch for Edmond. Inside, the sailor's answers are too honest: Elba, a packet, a name that is Villefort's father's. The deputy attorney does not send the case to a court. He burns the evidence that would ruin him and keeps the prisoner who would tell it.
Key Insight
The first injustice in this book is not a mob. It is a professional who cannot afford a public record. When the person judging you has a private stake in the file, the hearing is already a sentence. Accountability that cannot survive daylight is not law. It is disposal.
