Chapter 82.

Spurred by Bertuccio’s report that his Auteuil house and sloop are ready, Monte Cristo arranges rapid–travel horses and orders his Paris staff to Auteuil, leaving only the distant porter at the Champs–Elysées house. An anonymous warning predicts a nocturnal intruder seeking papers in his dressing-room.

Monte Cristo secretly returns to the Paris house with Ali, arms himself, and waits in concealment. Near midnight, a thief cuts the dressing-room windowpane, slips inside, and begins forcing the secretary. Monte Cristo notes a lookout in the street, then disguises himself as the Abbe Busoni and suddenly reveals himself to the intruder—Caderousse.

Feigning priestly calm, Monte Cristo corners Caderousse, rejects his excuses, and coerces a confession: with English help, Caderousse escaped Toulon alongside Benedetto, who now lives as “Andrea Cavalcanti,” supported by the Count of Monte Cristo and set to wed Mademoiselle Danglars. Monte Cristo compels Caderousse to write a letter to Danglars exposing Andrea as Benedetto.

When Monte Cristo vows to warn Danglars, Caderousse stabs him; the blow is harmless against the count’s mail shirt. Monte Cristo disarms and subdues him, then offers conditional mercy: escape safely, leave France, and he will grant an annuity. Caderousse exits by the garden and scales the wall to the street.

As Caderousse descends, the waiting accomplice ambushes him, stabbing him three times. Dying, Caderousse cries for help; Monte Cristo and Ali rush out with lights, finding him grievously wounded as the murderer vanishes into the night.