The Diamond and Caderousse's Confession

The Count of Monte Cristo, in the guise of the Abbe Busoni, arrives at the desolate Pont du Gard inn on a scorching day in late spring, 1829. He finds the innkeeper Gaspard Caderousse, now a ruined and embittered man, standing at his door in the heat, wearing a red handkerchief twisted around his head. The abbe, speaking with a strong Italian accent, identifies Caderousse as the former tailor of the Allees de Meillan and begins to question him about the young sailor Edmond Dantes. Caderousse, at first wary, is drawn into the conversation by the abbe's claim that Dantes died a wretched prisoner, and by the revelation that Dantes left a diamond worth fifty thousand francs to be divided among his five dearest friends: his father, his betrothed Mercedes, and the three men he believed to be his faithful companions — Caderousse, Danglars, and Fernand. The abbe produces the diamond, a brilliant stone set in a ring of admirable workmanship, and Caderousse's eyes are dazzled. His wife, La Carconte, sickly and suspicious, warns him from the stairs, but the lure of the treasure proves irresistible. Caderousse, after a tense internal struggle, agrees to tell the abbe everything he knows about the conspiracy that destroyed Dantes.

The Story of the Conspiracy

Caderousse, his face flushed with cupidity, recounts the events of the day before Dantes' betrothal feast. He describes how Danglars, the supercargo of the Pharaon, and Fernand, the Catalan fisherman who loved Mercedes, sat together under the arbor at La Reserve. Danglars, writing with his left hand to disguise his script, composed a letter denouncing Dantes as a Bonapartist agent, and Fernand posted it. Caderousse admits he was present, drunk, and did nothing to stop them, a cowardice he now claims to regret. He reveals that Danglars was motivated by jealousy of Dantes' impending captaincy, and Fernand by his hopeless love for Mercedes. The abbe listens with a face of stone, but inwardly he is confirming what the Abbe Faria had long ago deduced: that the conspiracy was the work of these two men, and that Caderousse was a passive accomplice. Caderousse also tells the abbe of the fate of old Dantes, who died of starvation after his son's imprisonment, and of the ruin of the honest shipowner Morrel, who had tried to help the old man and was now himself on the brink of bankruptcy. He describes the rise of Danglars, who became a millionaire banker and a baron, and of Fernand, who became the Count of Morcerf, a peer of France, after betraying Ali Pasha in Greece. He also speaks of Mercedes, who married Fernand and became a countess, but who, Caderousse believes, is not happy.

The Reward and Its Consequences

Having heard the full confession, the Abbe Busoni declares that Edmond Dantes had only one true friend — Caderousse himself — and therefore the diamond cannot be divided. He gives the entire stone to Caderousse, saying it is worth fifty thousand francs and should release him from his wretchedness. In exchange, the abbe asks only for the red silk purse that Morrel had left on old Dantes' chimney-piece, which Caderousse still possesses. Caderousse, overwhelmed with joy and disbelief, hands over the purse and receives the diamond. The abbe departs, leaving Caderousse to his newfound wealth. But La Carconte, ever suspicious, mutters that the diamond might be false, and Caderousse, seized by doubt, rushes off to the Beaucaire fair to have it appraised by a jeweller. This event, though it rewards a guilty man, is the first step in the count's plan to expose the truth: the diamond will lead to Caderousse's murder by Benedetto, and the red silk purse will become a cherished relic in the Morrel household, linking the count to the family he saved.