The Count of Monte Cristo

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Prior to a long voyage, Edmond Dantes, a young sailor in the service of the Pharaoh, takes leave of his invalid father and his sweetheart Mercedes. The tender farewell with Mercedes arouses the jealous hatred of Fernand, a Catalan fisherman, secretly in love with her. Dantes gives Mercedes a brooch and sails away. In mid-sea the captain of the Pharaoh suddenly dies and entrusts Dantes with a private letter from General Murat to the exiled emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, at Elba. Danglars, the supercargo, overhears the captain's dying request, and keeps the knowledge in the event of future need. When the vessel reaches Elba, Dantes delivers the letter to the deposed emperor, and promises to deliver Napoleon's reply to Noirtier, of the Bonaparte Committee. In Dantes' absence Fernand urges his hopeless suit of Mercedes. On the return of the Pharaoh, Morell, its owner, makes Dantes captain of the vessel, a post which Danglars had hoped to secure. After an attempt to murder Dantes is frustrated by Mercedes, Fernand and Danglars discover their common enmity of Dantes and plot his ruin. Fernand and Danglars write an anonymous letter to Villefort, King's Attorney, accusing Dantes of delivering contraband communications between Napoleon and his lieutenants, insinuating that such a dispatch may he found in the office of the Pharaoh. Villefort examines Dantes and releases him pending the discovery of the letter. The marriage of Dantes and Mercedes is performed simultaneously with the discovery of the guilty communication. To save his half-brother Noirtier, of the Bonaparte Committee, to whom the letter from the exiled emperor is addressed, Villefort causes Dantes to be apprehended at his wedding feast and imprisoned in the Chateau d'If. Deprived of his son's support, Dantes' father dies of starvation. Mercedes, believing Dantes dead, promises to marry Fernand on his return from the war, for the sake of her fatherless son Albert. Meanwhile, with a lone but supreme hope, with marvelous patience and persistence, Dantes works to cut a tunnel through the stone wall to liberty. While Dantes struggles on in his cell, with his single but omniscient hope of freedom as the only spark of cheer in the surrounding despair, with a bitter suggestion of irony, the picture flashes a glimpse of Mercedes, her son Albert, and Fernand, now a colonel. The Abbe Fraria, another prisoner in the Chateau who in spite of the frailty of age, had for years been cutting a path to possible liberty, struggles on unremittingly, while Dantes from the opposite side continues his similar labor. After years of weary toil they meet in the tunnel, finding instead of liberty only each other and hopelessness. In France Danglars is now a wealthy banker, and the creditor of his former employer, Morell. At last the years of confinement and denial claim the spent body of the Abbe and he dies, giving to Dantes the half-burnt letter to Cardinal Spada, describing the location of treasures secreted on the isle of Monte Cristo. In a gamble with death, Dantes takes the Abbe's place in the burial sack, which is cast into the sea. Dantes comes to the surface and attains the refuge of a huge rock, from the summit of which he drinks in his liberty, and exclaims from an unleashed soul, "The World is Mine." He is rescued by the smuggler ship La Amelia, and turns his eyes and hopes toward Monte Cristo, the grave of the buried treasure. At the isle of Monte Cristo, Dantes escapes from the smuggler ship and finds the hidden treasures of the Spadas. Fabulously wealthy, with all the world before him, he determines to find his friends and detect his enemies, to punish the evil and reward the good. Disguised as the Abbe Busoni he returns to France and learns of his father's death and the plot of Fernand and Danglars. He arranges a meeting with Noirtier at the inn, who comes disguised as a peddler. Villefort, obtaining a suggestion of the Abbe's identity, follows Noirtier, and after a futile attempt to murder his half-brother, driven to despair at the threatened exposure of his villainy, commits suicide. It is then that Dantes, in the knowledge of his power and the thrill of retribution, exclaims "One," signifying that one of his enemies had met the fate his criminality deserved. Dantes, in the guise of the Count of Monte Cristo, presents a letter of credit to Danglars, and meets his old benefactor, Morell, who is facing financial ruin and seeks monetary aid from Danglars. He assists Morell anonymously and quietly passes on to his other rewards and penalties. Dantes instigates the publication of a newspaper article to the effect that information given by Haydee, daughter of Fernand's late benefactor, now the ward of Monte Cristo, proves that Comte de Mercerf, formerly Fernand, was guilty of treachery to and the murder of his benefactor. Identified as the Count of Monte Cristo, a ball is given in Dantes' honor by Mercedes and Fernand. Monte Cristo recognizes Mercedes by the brooch he had given her in the long ago. Albert accuses Danglars, whose daughter is his fiancée, of responsibility for the article condemning Fernand, whom he believes to be his father. When later he ascertains the truth he challenges Monte Cristo to a duel. Mercedes, who becomes aware of the challenge informs Dantes that Albert is his son. On the dueling ground Dantes proclaims his identity, and Fernand, overwhelmed by the recognition, and fearful of the avenging Nemesis, withdraws into the woods, whence a moment later comes the report of a shot. Dantes announces "Two," and challenges Danglars, thrusting his rapier into the heart of his last surviving enemy. With the relentless fury of vengeance incarnate, Dantes pronounces "Three," wiping out the year's debt of treachery and torture. Turning to Mercedes he takes her in his arms; and Mercedes explains all the sad happy mystery to the wondering boy when she says, "Albert, embrace your father."