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The Beggar's Revelation

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Brief overview

A ragged ex-convict, Caderousset, corners Andrea Cavalcanti and buys silence at two hundred francs a month.

  1. One name ends the argumentAndrea resists until the stranger says "Do you understand, Master Benedetto?", then sends his groom away at once.
  2. Blackmail priced at two hundred francs monthlyCaderousset asks for a hundred, then a hundred and fifty, and Andrea hands him ten gold louis.
  3. Danglar buys a fortune he never checkedA diamond, a remark about lampreys and promised payments convince him the Cavalcanti are worth six hundred thousand livres.
Executive Summary AI
  • The dinner party breaks up: Madame de Villefort asks to return to Paris, Villefort gives Madame d'Anglard his seat, and Monte Cristo, who had guessed the low-voiced exchange between Villefort and Madame d'Anglard, lets everyone leave without objection.
  • Danglar, knowing he is to pay out forty-eight thousand francs to the father and fifty thousand livres a year to the son, admires the Major's large diamond and his talk of lampreys, and concludes he is dealing with a nabob worth five or six hundred thousand livres.
  • As Andrea rests his boot on the step of his tilbury, a sunburnt man in torn clothes and a red handkerchief touches his shoulder, refuses the groom's charge of begging, and settles the matter by calling him Master Benedetto.
  • Sent away from Paris on the road out of Otoy, Caderousset accuses Andrea of deceiving him at the Pont du Var, demands a hundred and fifty francs a month, and is given two hundred in ten gold louis, to be collected from Andrea himself rather than a steward.
  • Told to jump down, Caderousset answers that a red handkerchief and gold in his pocket would get him arrested and sent back as No. 106, so he takes the groom's greatcoat and Cavalcanti's hat, rides through the barrier as a servant, and vanishes into a court keeping both.
Key Quote
“I wish, I wish you to spare me the walk back to Paris.”
— Caderousset
Key Quote
“Do you understand, Master Benedetto?”
— Caderousset
Key Quote
“Let me ask you why you deceived me.”
— Caderousset

Transcript

0:00 CHAPTER 64. September 2006. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.
0:29 Chapter 64. The Beggar.
0:32 The evening passed on. Madame de Villefort expressed a desire to return to Paris,
0:38 which Madame d'Anglard had not dared to do, notwithstanding the uneasiness she experienced.
0:44 On his wife's request, M. de Villefort was the first to give the signal of departure.
0:51 He offered his seat in his land-out to Madame d'Anglard, that she might be under the care
0:55 of his wife.
0:57 As for M. d'Anglard, absorbed in an interesting conversation with M. Cavalcanti, he paid no
1:02 attention to anything that was passing. While Monte Cristo
1:07 had begged the smelling-bottle from Madame de Villefort, he had noticed the approach of
1:11 Villefort to Madame d'Anglard, and he soon guessed all that had passed between them,
1:16 though the words had been uttered in so low a voice as to hardly be heard by Madame d'Anglard.
1:23 Without opposing their arrangements, he allowed Morel, Chateau
1:27 Renaud, and Debray to leave on horseback, and the ladies in M. de Villefort's carriage.
1:33 Danglare, more and more delighted with Major Cavalcanti, had offered him a seat in his
1:39 carriage. Andrea Cavalcanti found his Tilbury waiting at the door the groom in every respect a caricature of the english fashion was standing on tiptoe to hold a large iron-gray horse
1:54 andrea had spoken very little during dinner he was an intelligent lad and he feared to utter some absurdity before so many grand people, amongst whom, with dilating eyes,
2:07 he saw the king's attorney. Then he had been seized upon by Danglar, who, with a rapid glance
2:14 at the stiff-necked old major and his modest son, and taking into consideration the hospitality of
2:20 the count, made up his mind that he was in the society of some nabob come to Paris
2:26 to finish the worldly education of his heir.
2:30 He contemplated with unspeakable delight the large diamond which shone on the Major's little
2:36 finger, for the Major, like a prudent man, in case of any accident happening to his bank-notes,
2:42 had immediately converted them into an available asset.
2:47 Then, after dinner, on the pretext of business, he questioned the father and son upon their mode
2:53 of living, and the father and son, previously informed that it was through Danglar the one
2:59 was to receive his forty-eight thousand francs, and the other fifty thousand livres annually, were so full
3:05 of affability that they would have shaken hands even with the banker's servants.
3:11 So much did their gratitude need an object to expend itself upon.
3:16 One thing above all the rest heightened the respect, nay, almost the veneration, of Danglar
3:22 for Cavalcanti. The latter, faithful to the principle of Horace
3:27 nil admirari, had contented himself with showing his knowledge by declaring in what lake the best
3:35 lampreys were caught. Then he had eaten some without saying a word more. Danglar, therefore,
3:42 concluded that such luxuries were common at the table of the illustrious
3:47 descendant of the Cavalcanti, who, most likely in Lucca, fed upon trout brought from Switzerland,
3:54 and lobsters sent from England, by the same means used by the Count to bring the lampreys
4:01 from Lake Fusaro and the sterlet from the Volga.
4:11 Thus it was with much politeness of manner that he heard Cavalcanti pronounce these words,
4:16 Tomorrow, sir, I shall have the honor of waiting upon you on business.
4:22 And I, sir, said Danglar, shall be most happy to receive you.

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