Contents
Chapter 4.
Overview
Danglars manipulates Fernand’s jealousy into a plot to separate Edmond and Mercedes without murder. He drafts an anonymous denunciation accusing Edmond of Bonapartist treason, then pretends it was a jest. Fernand pockets the letter, setting the conspiracy in motion and escalating the danger to Edmond’s freedom and future.
Summary
Danglars needles Fernand about Mercedes’s engagement to Edmond Dantès, prodding Fernand’s jealousy and despair. When Fernand suggests killing Edmond, Danglars argues that imprisonment would separate the lovers just as effectively, planting the idea of a safer, deniable revenge.
Caderousse, drunk yet intermittently lucid, defends Dantès and questions why he should be imprisoned. Danglars orders pen, ink, and paper and proposes an anonymous denunciation alleging Dantès carried Bonapartist letters from Elba, detailing where evidence might be found.
Danglars writes the letter with his left hand to disguise the script and addresses it to the king’s attorney. Caderousse calls the plot shameful, so Danglars theatrically crumples the letter and tosses it aside, claiming it was only a joke.
As Danglars steers the inebriated Caderousse away, Fernand secretly retrieves the discarded denunciation and heads toward the city. Observing this, Danglars is satisfied, certain the scheme will proceed without further involvement.
Who Appears
- undefinedSchemes to prevent Edmond’s captaincy and marriage; authors a disguised anonymous denunciation alleging Bonapartist treason.
- undefinedJealous suitor of Mercedes; swayed from murder to conspiracy; secretly takes the denunciation to carry it out.
- undefinedDrunk, intermittently defends Edmond; condemns the plot as shameful but is manipulated and led away.
- undefinedProvides pen, ink, and paper that enable Danglars to draft the denunciation.