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Count of Monte Cristo: Storm and Suspicion

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Brief overview

Bertuccio recounts how Caderousse murdered the jeweler for the diamond while he, innocent, was arrested.

  1. The hostess's kindness was the warning signLa Carconte, ordinarily careless and indifferent, became a smiling and attentive hostess the night the jeweler was killed.
  2. Circumstantial proof convicted the wrong manThe narrator, soaked in blood that had dripped through the floorboards, was taken by the officers for the assassin and could only stammer his innocence.
  3. Confession, not the trial, saved himBy confessing the Auteuil assassination to the Abbey Pozzoni under the seal, he proved he had not committed the crime he stood accused of.
Executive Summary AI
  • Chapter XLV opens at Caderousse's inn, where the jeweler who has just paid for the diamond returns through the storm and is offered a bed overhead, to Caderousse's visible astonishment at his wife's sudden hospitality.
  • La Carconte waits on the guest with an eagerness she never showed before, dries his clothes, serves his supper and sends him up to sleep on fresh white sheets, while Caderousse paces the room in gloomy silence and avoids looking at him.
  • The narrator, hidden and half asleep beneath the staircase, is woken by a pistol shot, cries and a deadly struggle overhead, and feels warm drops falling on his forehead which prove to be La Carconte's blood.
  • Caderousse escapes into the night with the diamond and the gold, and the narrator, finding La Carconte dead on the stairs and the jeweler expiring upstairs, is seized by five or six custom house officers and two or three gendarmes, handcuffed, tied to a horse's tail and taken to Nîmes as the assassin.
  • Caderousse is eventually caught abroad, brought back to France and sentenced to the galleys for life after a full confession, and the narrator, freed, later tells the whole story — including his sister Assunta's death at Benedetto's hands — to the Count of Monte Cristo in the garden where Villefort buried the child.
Key Quote
“supper is ready whenever you are.”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“I believe the storm is over, said he.”
— Narrator
Key Quote
“She was stone dead.”
— Narrator

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER XLV. DRAIN OF BLOOD as the jeweler returned to the, my good friends, to have had
0:48 some fears respecting the accuracy of your money, by counting it over so carefully directly as I
0:54 was gone. Oh no, answered Cadreus, that was not my reason, I can assure you, but circumstances by
1:02 which we have become possessed of this wealth are so unexpected as to make us scarcely credit our good fortune and so near the town that nobody would think of stopping here inconvenience you inconveniences not at all my dear sir said la carcone in her most gracious manner not at all i assure you but where will you manage to stow me in the chamber overhead Surely, that is where you yourself sleep. Never mind that.
2:05 We've had a second bed in the adjoining room.
2:09 Cadreux stared at his wife with most astonishment.
2:13 The chuler, meanwhile, was humming a song as he stood warming his bag at fire
2:19 like our count had kindled to dry the wet garments of her guest.
2:24 And this done, she next occupied herself in arranging his supper by spreading a napkin at the end of the table and placing on it the the cupboard he then began pacing the room with a pensive and gloomy air glancing from time to time at the jeweller
2:54 who stood drinking with steam from his wet clothes and merely changing his place on the warm earth to enable all of his garments to be dried there said la said Lacarconte, as she placed a bottle of wine on the table,
3:10 supper is ready whenever you are.
3:14 And you, asked Joanne's.
3:17 I don't want any supper, said Caderousse.
3:22 We dine so very late, hastily interposed Lacarconte.
3:28 "'Then it seems I am to eat alone,' remarked the jeweler.
3:33 "'Oh, we shall have the pleasure of waiting upon you,' answered Lacarconte,
3:39 with an eager attention she was not accustomed to manifest even to get to pay for what they took.
3:51 From time to time, Cadroux dotted on his wife keen, searching glances, but rapid as lightning flash.
3:53 The storm still continued.
3:55 There, there, said Lacarconte.
3:58 Do you hear that?
4:00 Upon my word, you did well to come back.
4:04 Nevertheless,
4:06 replied the jeweler,
4:08 if by the time I have finished my supper the tempest has
4:10 at all abated, I shall make
4:12 another start.
4:14 It's the mistral,
4:16 said Cadreus, and it will
4:18 be sure to last till tomorrow morning.
4:21 He sighed heavily.
4:23 Well,
4:24 said the jeweler, as he placed himself at table all i can say is so much the worse for those who are abroad yes chimed in la carcon they will have a wretched night of it began eating his supper, and the woman, who was ordinarily so careless and indifferent to all
4:45 who approached her, was suddenly transformed into the most smiling and attentive hostess.
4:51 At the unhappy man on whom she lavished her assiduities, being previously acquainted with her,
4:57 so sudden alteration might well have excited suspicion in his mind, or at least have greatly
5:02 astonished him. Caderousse, meanwhile, continued to place the room in gloomy silence,
5:09 tediously avoiding the sight of his guests.
5:12 But as soon as the stranger had completed his repast,
5:15 the agitated innkeeper went eagerly to the door and opened it.

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