Contents
Chapter 44.
Overview
Bertuccio recounts his vendetta against Villefort: after his brother’s murder at Nimes, he tracked Villefort to Auteuil, stabbed him as Villefort buried a box, then rescued the newborn inside and later raised the child as Benedetto, who became depraved.
Years later, while fleeing a customs raid, Bertuccio hides at Caderousse’s inn and overhears Caderousse and La Carconte sell a diamond from the Abbe Busoni to a Paris jeweller during a storm; the jeweller returns to sleep there, foreshadowing tragedy.
Summary
At Monte Cristo’s prompting, Bertuccio begins in 1815: his soldier brother is murdered amid the southern massacres at Nimes. Seeking justice, Bertuccio appeals to the king’s attorney, Villefort, who dismisses him. Bertuccio swears a Corsican vendetta.
He shadows Villefort to Versailles and then to a secret rendezvous in Auteuil. One stormy night, Bertuccio sees Villefort enter the garden with a spade and bury a small box. Bertuccio attacks, stabbing Villefort, then exhumes the box and flees with it.
At the river, Bertuccio forces the lock and finds a newborn, seemingly suffocated. Drawing on hospital experience, he revives the child and deposits it at a Paris foundling asylum, keeping half the marked linen (initials H and N under a baron’s coronet) as proof. Back in Rogliano, Assunta later reclaims the infant and names him Benedetto.
Despite care, Benedetto shows early malice, theft, and defiance. Bertuccio, unable to punish the child he saved from Villefort’s burial, plans to steer him into disciplined work, but Benedetto refuses and grows worse.
In 1829, during a smuggling run near Beaucaire, a raid scatters the crew. Bertuccio escapes and hides at the Pont du Gard inn run by Caderousse and La Carconte. From a shed, he overhears them negotiating with a Paris jeweller to sell a large diamond said to come from the Abbe Busoni on behalf of the late Edmond Dantes.
They settle on 45,000 francs. As a violent storm breaks, the jeweller departs but soon returns, drenched, to sleep at the inn. Caderousse and La Carconte’s avid greed and ominous whispers foreshadow danger as the door is double-locked behind their guest.
Who Appears
- undefinedMonte Cristo’s steward; narrates his vendetta, stabbing Villefort, rescuing a buried newborn, and later overhearing Caderousse’s diamond sale.
- undefinedListener and prompter; draws out Bertuccio’s confession linking Auteuil, Villefort, and Benedetto.
- undefinedKing’s attorney who dismisses justice for Bertuccio’s brother; secretly buries a box; is stabbed in Auteuil’s garden.
- undefinedBertuccio’s sister-in-law; reclaims the foundling and raises him as Benedetto.
- undefinedThe revived foundling; grows into a vicious, deceitful boy despite indulgent upbringing.
- Gaspard CaderousseInnkeeper; with his wife sells a diamond, revealing greed and sinister intent.
- La CarconteCaderousse’s ailing wife; urges keeping or waylaying the jeweller; counts the money avidly.
- undefinedParis jeweller; offers 45,000 francs for the diamond; returns to the inn during the storm.
- undefinedNamed as the intermediary who delivered the diamond; mentioned in Bertuccio’s past.