Chapter 27.

Caderousse, assured of secrecy by Abbé Busoni, begins his confession. He describes Edmond Dantès’s arrest at La Réserve and the despair of Dantès’s father, who refused to leave home, sold his belongings, and eventually died after days of fasting, effectively of hunger. Mercedes and M. Morrel tried to help, but the old man would not be moved.

Pressed by the abbé, Caderousse names the culprits: Danglars wrote the denunciation with his left hand and Fernand mailed it. Caderousse, drunk and fearful, failed to intervene and later stayed silent, haunted by remorse. He praises Morrel’s persistent intercessions and charity, noting Morrel’s purse paid the father’s debts and funeral.

Caderousse updates the fates of the principals. Morrel, once esteemed, is now near ruin after multiple maritime losses, hoping only in the Pharaon’s return. Danglars, promoted through finance and marriage, is now the wealthy Baron Danglars. Fernand rose through opportunism and wartime service to become the Comte de Morcerf. Mercedes, after prolonged grief and believing Edmond dead, married Fernand and later raised their son, Albert; she is now a great lady but, Caderousse suspects, not happy. Villefort married and left Marseilles.

Concluding, Abbé Busoni produces a large diamond, declaring it meant for Edmond’s sole true friend, and trades it to Caderousse in exchange for Morrel’s red silk purse kept from the elder Dantès’s mantel. Convinced of Caderousse’s sincerity, the abbé departs.

Afterward, La Carconte questions the diamond’s authenticity. Alarmed, Caderousse decides to test it at the Beaucaire fair, leaving at once to consult Parisian jewelers, while La Carconte broods over the windfall’s limits.