Chapter 7.

Leaving the Saint-Mérans’ salon, Villefort adopts a severe judicial air despite his private happiness and ambitions. On the street, shipowner Morrel pleads for Edmond Dantès, but Villefort, wary of Bonapartism, promises only impartial duty. At the Palais de Justice, Villefort gives Dantès a swift, assessing glance and prepares to examine him.

Edmond Dantès, arrested during his wedding feast, answers calmly about his age, service, and lack of political opinions. Seeking the source of the denunciation, Villefort shows him the anonymous letter. Dantès denies any conspiracy and recounts how, obeying the dying Captain Leclère, he diverted to Elba, used a ring to reach the grand marshal, and received a letter to deliver in Paris.

Initially satisfied that any fault was mere imprudence, Villefort asks the addressee’s name. When Dantès states “Monsieur Noirtier, Rue Coq-Héron,” Villefort is shaken, recognizing his own father. Terrified that this link could ruin him, he repeatedly rereads the seized letter and gauges whether Dantès knows Noirtier’s identity. Dantès insists he is ignorant of its contents.

Reasserting control, Villefort announces he cannot immediately free Dantès. To erase the principal charge, he throws the letter into the fire and watches it burn. He advises Dantès to repeat his account to any examiner but to deny the letter’s existence entirely, extracting an oath that it was the only one.

After having Dantès escorted away for temporary detention, Villefort nearly faints, realizing how close the discovery came to destroying his prospects. Recovering, he decides to convert the peril into opportunity, resolving to use what he knows to secure his future, and hastens to his betrothed’s house.