BERTUCCIO'S CONFESSION
Father Busoni, meanwhile, had returned to Marseilles. There, he took off his wig, his beard and his priest's dress, and he changed once again into the fine clothes of Lord Wilmore. Going aboard his yacht, he sailed out of the harbour, past the Chateau d'If. Lord Wilmore smiled faintly as he looked at the grim fortress.
He sailed to Italy and landed in Naples. From there, he took a carriage to Rome. In Rome, he arranged to purchase the island of Monte Cristo. He also bought from the government the right to call himself the Count of Monte Cristo.
When he had done this, Edmonnd, who was now the Count of Monte Cristo, took many workmen to the island. They were ordered to build a wonderful secret palace under the ground, in the spot where the cave was.
Edmond stayed on the island of Monte Cristo for some time, watching the progress of the work. At the beginning of September he sailed back to Marseilles. There he heard the story of a smuggler, named Bertuccio, who had been arrested at the Inn of Pont du Gard near Beaucaire. It seemed that this smuggler was accused of murdering two people at the inn, but he claimed to be innocent. The smuggler said that if a certain Father Busoni, who had stopped at the inn on the morning before the murders, could be found, everything could be explained. Enquiries had been made, for the past three months, for Father Busoni. He could not be found. The smuggler was to be tried by a court in a few days. He would probably be condemned to death for the murders.
The day after this story was told to Lord Wilmore, the good Father Busoni called at Bertuccio's prison, saying that he believed one of the prisoners wished to speak to him. Bertuccio, who by this time had given up hope of ever finding Father Busoni, was overjoyed. He told the priest his story and Father Busoni appeared to believe him. He also asked the 'priest' to hear a confession. Father Busoni agreed and he now heard a strange story.
'At the time of the Hundred Days, in 1815,' said Bertuccio, 'I had a brother who was a soldier in Napoleon's army. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, my brother retreated with the army. He came to the South. I arranged to meet him at Nimes. From there, we were to go back to our home in Corsica. At this time, the Royalists in France were taking revenge on the Bonapartists. When my brother came to Nimes, still in the uniform of Napoleon's army, he was murdered by some Royalists.
'I immediately went to the State Prosecutor to report the murder. The State Prosecutor was a young man, named Villefort, who had just come to Nimes from Marseilles. He had been the Assistant State Prosecutor there. I asked him to find the murderers of my brother and bring them to trial.
'But this Villefort was a royalist himself and did not care about my brother. He said that if my brother had been a soldier in Napoleon's army, he probably deserved to die. He told me to go away.
'I then determined to take revenge on this heartless man. Because he was a Royalist, he thought it a good deed to kill my brother who was a Bonapartist. So I told him that I would kill him the next time I met him.'
From then on Villefort knew that, wherever he went, I was following him. He became alarmed. He asked to be moved from Nimes. They made him a State Prosecutor in Paris. I followed him there.'
'On the night of the 27th September, 1816, I was waiting in the garden of his house at Auteuil, just outside Paris, when I saw him come out with a small bundle under his arm. He went to the bottom of the garden and put the bundle on the ground. Then he took a spade and started to dig. He dug a hole and put the bundle in it. I saw that this was my chance. As he was bending over the spade, I rushed up to him and plunged my dagger into his back.'
'Then I picked up the bundle out of the hole, thinking it must be some treasure he was burying. As Villefort lay on the ground, gasping his last breath, I told him that this was my revenge for my brother's death. I said I would give his treasure to my brother's widow.'
'Did he die?' asked the priest.
'I am sure he did,' replied Bertuccio.
'Well,' said Father Busoni, 'since you are willing to confess to that murder, I must believe you when you say you are innocent of the other two.'
Father Busoni managed to persuade the prison authorities to postpone Bertuccio's trial. As good luck would have it, Caderousse was caught soon afterwards in a foreign country and brought back to France. He confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life-imprisonment. Bertuccio was set free.
Bertuccio went to thank Father Busoni for what he had done for him.
'I was interested in your story,' said Father Busoni. 'What happened to the treasure you took from M. Villefort? Did you give it to your brother's wife?'
'There was no treasure in the bundle,' said Bertuccio. 'I ran away with it and when I had gone some distance I sat down by the bank of a river. I opened the bundle. Inside, was a new-born child, wrapped in a cloth embroidered with the letters H. and N. His purple face and hands showed that he had been suffocated. But he was not yet dead. I felt a slight beating in the child's heart. I have worked in a hospital and I knew what to do. I blew air into his lungs. After a quarter of an hour, I saw him breathe and heard a feeble cry.'
'And what did you do with this child?' asked the priest.
'I took him with me to my brother's wife in Corsica. She brought him up as her own child. We called him Benedetto. But I think God punished us with him. Although he was a very good-looking boy, he grew up to be bad. Before he was very old, he was stealing from our neighbours. Now he is only thirteen, but he has robbed everything from our house and has run away. I do not know where he is.'
'Well, Bertuccio, I hope all this has been a lesson to you,' said the priest. 'I think you should give up smuggling.'
'But what else can I do?' asked Bertuccio.
'I'll give you a letter to a friend of mine,' said Father Busoni.
He sat down at a table and wrote a short note addressed to the Count of Monte Cristo. 'This gentleman lives in Italy,' he said to Bertuccio. 'Take this note to him. Here's some money for your journey. I'm sure he will be able to find work for you.'
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