A Signed Statement — The Count of Monte Cristo

Noirtier waited in black, seated in his armchair, when Franz, Villefort, and Valentine entered his room. Villefort whispered to Valentine that if her grandfather tried to delay the marriage, she must pretend not to understand him, even though joy showed plainly on her face. Noirtier gave Villefort a look so cold that even the prosecutor fell silent. Then, using only his eyes, he guided Valentine to a key, an old secretaire, and the dictionary until she found the word secret. Barrois opened a hidden spring and handed Franz a packet tied with black string.

Franz read aloud a report from a Bonapartist club meeting on February 5, 1815, the very day his father died. The document told how General de Quesnel was invited blindfolded to a secret meeting, questioned about loyalty to Napoleon, and answered that he was a royalist who had sworn allegiance to Louis XVIII. The club members grew angry when he refused to join their plot and called silence about what he had heard an act of complicity.

The general was told he must die or swear never to reveal the meeting. He took the oath, but in the carriage afterward he insulted the president and said four men were still against one. The carriage stopped by the icy steps of the Quai des Ormes. There, by lantern light, the general fought a duel with a man whose sword was hidden in a cane. Though he was a fine swordsman, he fell three times and died from wounds. The witnesses signed a paper saying he died honorably, then threw his body into the river.

When Franz finished reading, he begged Noirtier to name the president of the club. Villefort said proper names were not in the dictionary and tried to end the scene. Franz and Valentine spelled through the dictionary together until Noirtier stopped them at the word myself. Franz cried out in horror that Noirtier had killed his father, and the old man answered yes with a steady look. Franz fell into a chair, and Villefort fled the room, terrified of the man he had tried to silence.