Contents
Chapter 63.
Overview
Monte Cristo uses a dazzling dinner and an eerie house tour to unsettle his guests, especially Villefort and Madame Danglars. He reveals a newborn’s skeleton was found in the garden, implying infanticide tied to the house’s past. Shocked into panic, they plan a secret meeting, tightening the count’s trap.
Summary
The guests arrive uneasy yet compelled by curiosity. Monte Cristo stages an extravagant, “impossible” Oriental feast, displaying live sterlet and lamprey brought from distant waters, and boasts of transforming the old Auteuil house within days. The company marvels; Villefort and Madame Danglars show visible discomfort as the house’s past is evoked.
After dinner, Monte Cristo leads everyone through the redecorated rooms to one left deliberately old and gloomy. He dwells on its blood–red hangings, faded portraits, and a hidden narrow staircase, conjuring scenes of secret crimes. Madame Danglars, increasingly agitated, half faints; Madame de Villefort’s red restorative revives her.
In the garden, Monte Cristo formally declares—before Villefort—that a gardener unearthed the ironwork of a box containing the skeleton of a newborn at the foot of a plane tree. The notion of infanticide chills the group; Villefort’s voice falters, and Madame Danglars stiffens and then faints again.
Monte Cristo defuses the moment by returning everyone to coffee. In the aftermath, Villefort hastily arranges a private meeting with Madame Danglars for the next day to discuss the alarming revelation. She agrees, masking her distress as the gathering resumes its veneer of civility.
Who Appears
- undefinedHost; stages an opulent dinner and reveals a newborn’s skeleton found in his garden to unsettle guests.
- undefinedAgitated by the room and revelation; faints twice; secretly arranges a meeting with Villefort.
- Gérard de VillefortKing’s attorney; visibly shaken by the crime insinuation; sets a clandestine appointment with Madame Danglars.
- Madame Héloïse de VillefortProduces the red restorative; downplays fear; observes and comments on the count’s frightening tales.
- Baron DanglarsSkeptical about the fish; retreats to discuss railways; reacts coolly to talk of infanticide.
- Lucien DebrayNotices Madame Danglars’s distress; suggests air; engages in the investigative banter.
- undefinedIdentifies the sterlet; remarks that the house’s gloom reflects concealed crime.
- undefinedGrows silent at mention of Valentine’s dowry; witnesses the revelations.
- undefinedComments on infamous sites; innocently asks penalties for infanticide.
- Andrea CavalcantiPresent at dinner; silent observer amid rising tension.
- undefinedServant who produces the living fish on Monte Cristo’s order.