The Hundred Days

The Hundred Days is the historical interval between Napoleon Bonaparte's escape from exile on the Island of Elba on 26 February 1815 and his final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. In The Count of Monte Cristo, this period serves as the crucial temporal hinge that transforms a local act of betrayal into a state crime, determines the course of Dantes' fourteen-year imprisonment, and later reshapes the fortunes of every major character.

Historical Background and the Novel's Opening

The story begins on 24 February 1815, when the Pharaon arrives in Marseilles. The look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signals the three-master from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples. Edmond Dantes, the young mate, reports to his owner Morrel that Captain Leclere has died of brain-fever off Civita Vecchia. Before dying, Leclere charged Dantes with a commission: to deliver a packet to the grand-marshal at the Island of Elba. Dantes obeys, stopping at Porto-Ferrajo, where he delivers the packet and receives a letter addressed to Monsieur Noirtier in Paris. He also has a brief interview with Napoleon himself, who asks about the vessel, her course, and her cargo. This seemingly routine errand, performed during the final days of Napoleon's exile, becomes the foundation of the accusation that will destroy Dantes' life.

The Denunciation and Arrest

Danglars, the supercargo who envies Dantes' impending promotion to captain, and Fernand Mondego, who covets Dantes' betrothed Mercedes, conspire to denounce Dantes as a Bonapartist agent. Danglars writes an anonymous letter with his left hand, and Fernand posts it. The letter informs the king's attorney that Dantes, having touched at Naples and Porto-Ferrajo, has been entrusted by Murat with a packet for the usurper and by the usurper with a letter for the Bonapartist committee in Paris. Dantes is arrested at his wedding feast on the very day Napoleon lands at Golfe-Juan, 1 March 1815. The timing is catastrophic: the Bourbon monarchy, still in power, treats any contact with Elba as high treason.

Villefort's Dilemma and the Destruction of Evidence

Gerard de Villefort, the deputy procureur, examines Dantes and is initially inclined to release him. But when Dantes reveals that the letter he carries is addressed to Noirtier — Villefort's own father, a known Bonapartist — the magistrate faces a choice. To save his own career and his impending marriage into the ultra-royalist Saint-Meran family, Villefort destroys the letter by burning it in the fireplace, then orders Dantes imprisoned without trial in the Chateau d'If. He tells Dantes that the letter is destroyed and that he must never speak of Noirtier's name. This act of judicial murder, committed during the Hundred Days, condemns Dantes to fourteen years of solitary confinement.

The Hundred Days as a Turning Point for the Conspirators

Napoleon's return transforms the political landscape. Villefort, who had served Louis XVIII, retains his position thanks to his father Noirtier's influence at the imperial court. The king's procureur alone is deprived of his office, suspected of royalism. Danglars, fearing Dantes' release and vengeance, quits the sea and enters the service of a Spanish merchant, leaving Marseilles for Madrid. Fernand Mondego, drafted into the army, fights at Ligny, then deserts to the English with his general, an act that under the Bourbons becomes a reward rather than a court-martial offense. The Hundred Days thus accelerates the rise of Dantes' enemies while sealing his own fate.

The Aftermath and Dantes' Continued Imprisonment

After Waterloo, Louis XVIII is restored, and the political winds shift again. Villefort, now filled with remorseful memories of Marseilles, obtains a transfer to Toulouse and marries Mademoiselle de Saint-Meran. Danglars, having prospered during the war, becomes a wealthy banker. Fernand returns from Greece with a fortune and a new title, the Comte de Morcerf. Dantes, meanwhile, remains forgotten in his dungeon. Twice during the Hundred Days, Morrel renews his demand for Dantes' release, and twice Villefort soothes him with promises. After Waterloo, Morrel comes no more. Dantes' imprisonment, which began as a political expedient during the Hundred Days, becomes permanent through the subsequent Restoration's indifference. The period thus functions as the novel's originating trauma: a brief window of historical flux that, through a combination of personal malice and state necessity, produces a fourteen-year injustice that will eventually be avenged across a decade of calculated revenge.