Stories to remember - Chapter 25

MONTE CRISTO ARRIVES IN PARIS

Exactly three months later, at half past ten in the morning on the 21st of May 1838, there was a knock on the door of the Paris home of the Count Morcerf. It was the Count of Monte Cristo, arrived to have breakfast with his friend Albert.

Albert was pleased to see his friend. After their breakfast was finished he introduced him to his father, Fernand, the Count Morcerf. Fernand did not realise that the Count of Monte Cristo was really Edmond Dante. He thought that his son had found a new and very interesting friend. They talked for some time happily. Then Mercedes, the Countess Morcerf, entered the room.

'Ah, here's my mother!' cried Albert.

When she saw the Count of Monte Cristo, Mercedes turned pale.

'Are you ill, mother?' asked her son, springing towards her.

'No, I just felt a little excited at seeing for the first time the man who has saved your life.'

She turned to Monte Cristo.

'I thank you,' she said, 'for rescuing Albert from those bandits in Rome.'

Monte Cristo bowed.

'It was nothing, Madame,' he said.

When the Count of Monte Cristo had left them, Mercedes asked Albert all kinds of questions about him. She seemed to be very interested in the rich and elegant stranger.

During his first days in Paris, Monte Cristo bought a magnificent house which he furnished in the most luxurious manner. Very soon he was comfortably settled with his servants, Ali and Bertuccio, to wait on him. Haydee also lived in the house. She had her own quarters and her own maid-servants to wait upon her.

True to his promise, Albert inroduced the Count of Monte Cristo to all his friends in Paris, one of whom was the State Prosecutor, Monsieur Villefort. When Bertuccio heard that Villefort was still alive, he nearly fainted.

'Then I didn't kill him!' he cried. 'You know that I confessed to your friend, Father Busoni, that I killed Villefort, and now you tell me that he is not dead.'

'No, you did not kill him,' said the Count. 'Instead of striking him in the heart, you must have struck too high or too low. So you see, you are not a murderer after all.'

'Thank God!' said Bertuccio.

Albert also introduced Monte Cristo to Baron Danglars, the banker, his wife, the Baroness Danglars, and to their daughter, Eugenie.

As we already know, Albert's father, Fernand, the Count Morcerf and Eugenie's father, the Baron Danglars, were old friends. They were both rich, and wanted their two families joined together so that their children would be even richer. So they arranged for Albert and Eugenie to be engaged to be married.

Albert told the Count of Monte Cristo about his engagement to Eugenie Danglars.

'But,' he said, 'I, myself, do not wish to marry her and she does not wish to marry me. It is our fathers who wish us to marry.'

'What about your mother?' asked Monte Cristo.

'Ah, she does not agree to the match. She dislikes the Danglars, although I cannot discover why. If we do not marry, she, at least, will be pleased.'

The Count and Countess Morcerf, Monsieur and Madame Villefort and the Danglars family all admired Albert's friend. They found him a wise and intelligent man. They often invited him to their homes and he invited them to his own large house in Paris. They came to know one another very well.

Monte Cristo, with his distinguished looks and his charming manners, seemed to cast a spell over them all.