Contents
Chapter 18.
Overview
Faria proves his sanity by unveiling Cardinal Spada’s hidden will, revealing a colossal treasure buried on the Island of Monte Cristo. He details the Borgia-era plot and how he deciphered the document. Faria bequeaths the treasure to Edmond Dantès if they escape—or entirely if Faria dies—shifting Edmond’s future and resolve.
Summary
Edmond Dantès returns to Abbé Faria, who calmly presents a charred document, calling it his treasure and promising half to Edmond. Edmond fears a relapse into madness and tries to postpone the discussion, but Faria insists the matter is urgent given his health. A governor’s visit briefly interrupts; Faria conceals his paralysis to avoid being moved away from Edmond.
That evening, Faria forces the conversation. He recounts serving the Spada family and explains the Borgia-era scheme: Pope Alexander VI and Caesar Borgia exploited wealthy nobles, inviting Cardinal Spada and another to a fatal dinner. Anticipating danger, Spada concealed his fortune and left a cryptic note.
Faria describes how the famed Spada breviary contained a page written in sympathetic ink, revealed by fire centuries later. He shows Edmond two partially burned fragments and, by combining them, demonstrates Cardinal Spada’s declaration: an immense treasure—ingots, gold, jewels—hidden in caves on the Island of Monte Cristo, located by raising the twentieth rock from an eastern creek and seeking the furthest angle in the second cave.
Faria explains he reconstructed the text by measurement and inference, then was arrested as he tried to depart for Monte Cristo. He assures Edmond the Spada line is extinct and that the last count made Faria heir to the breviary and its contents, clearing any moral claim.
Overwhelmed, Edmond wavers between disbelief and wonder at the fortune’s scale. Faria, treating Edmond as a son, declares the treasure half Edmond’s if they escape together—or all his if Faria dies—sealing their bond and giving Edmond a new, concrete hope beyond the prison walls.
Who Appears
- undefinedReveals Cardinal Spada’s will, proves a vast treasure on Monte Cristo, and bequeaths it to Edmond.
- undefinedSkeptical then convinced by Faria’s evidence; receives promise of the Monte Cristo treasure.
- undefinedRenaissance cardinal who hid a colossal fortune on Monte Cristo and documented it in a secret will.
- undefinedCardinal Spada’s nephew and heir named in the will; dies before recovering the treasure.
- undefinedSchemes with Caesar Borgia; invites cardinals to a fatal dinner precipitating the treasure’s concealment.
- undefinedAids Alexander VI’s plot; his menace prompts Spada to hide his wealth.
- undefinedBriefly visits Faria after his illness; leaves him in the same cell, unknowingly preserving their link.