The Count of Monte Cristo: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

Caderousse begins by begging the Abbe never to speak a word of Caderousse’s story to anyone, and if he does, not to link the former tailor to the tale, since the men he describes are so “wealthy and powerful” they could destroy him and La Carconte. The Abbe agrees. Caderousse begins by describing what happened to Dantes’ father: after Dantes’ arrest, his father returned to his apartment and refused to leave it, wanting to be there in case Dantes were to return from jail. Old Dantes refused to eat, partially out of grief and partially to save money, and wound up pawning most of his goods. Mercedes came over many times to help him and offer to take care of him, and Morrel offered money. But Old Dantes insisted that he wanted to wait for Dantes on his own, until, at the very end, he allowed Mercedes to nurse him when he was in bed with gastroenteritis. Old Dantes died a week later, Caderousse reports, of starvation.

The story visibly affects the Abbe, who claims he is moved by it because it is, broadly speaking, moving and affecting. Caderousse goes on to describe the fortunes of Fernand and Danglars, who defrauded and imprisoned Dantes out of jealousy, for his fiancee and for his position as captain, respectively. The Abbe announces to himself that it’s just as Faria told him—Danglars and Fernand were responsible for his false indictment. Caderousse wonders at this declaration, but the Abbe recovers himself, before blurting out again that Caderousse, too, was present at the signing of the false document with Danglars’ left hand. Caderousse is amazed to hear that the Abbe knows this, and the Abbe again quickly recovers himself, saying that Caderousse could only know the story of the two other men if he had been there himself. Caderousse admits to everything. He says that he was present during this terrible plot, but that he was too drunk to do anything to stop it (which is true). Furthermore, the next day, when he wished to put an end to it, Danglars told him that anyone appearing to sympathize with a man accused of Bonapartism could himself be thrown in jail.

Thus, Caderousse admits to the Abbe to being a coward in the face of false accusations against Dantes—to standing “idly by,” as the Abbe eventually puts it—but he claims that he has felt guilty for this cowardice for 15 years, and that he believes his current poverty, and his wife’s persistent fever and illness, are heavenly repayment for this sin of not stopping cruelty. The Abbe appears to sense that Caderousse is serious in his self-pity and recrimination for this misdeed, and tells him that, though he behaved without honor in the past, he is not as guilty as Fernand and Danglars are.

The Abbe asks after Morrel, and Caderousse informs him that Morrel’s business has been faltering, that he has lost in storms all his ships save for the Pharaon, and that he has a son and daughter, both of whose lives are on hold owing to the family’s misfortunes. Morrel’s son has gone into the army to seek money for the family, and his daughter’s marriage is in jeopardy, because her fiancé’s family worries she will not be able to provide a substantial enough dowry.

Caderousse reports that Danglars went swiftly to Spain after Dantes’ imprisonment, invested money in companies supplying the French army, and, through shrewd handling of those investments, made a giant fortune as a banker. He married a wealthy woman and then, after her death, another wealthy woman, and eventually installed himself, now elevated to the position of Baron, as one of the most influential bankers in Paris.

Fernand made a career as a soldier, first called into duty with Napoleon’s army, and then, seeing that Napoleon was to lose at Waterloo, defecting to the English side, which enabled him to claim a higher position in the ensuing Royalist army after the Second Restoration. Being a Spaniard by blood, and able to speak the language, Fernand then fought for the French against the Spanish in a later war in 1823, only to meet up with Danglars, whose banking career in Spain was just beginning. After some shrewd investing, Fernand too made a small fortune, owing to his connections to Danglars.

At this, Fernand found yet another fighting post, for the Ali Pasha in Greece, a man to whom Fernand ingratiated himself. When the Ali Pasha died, he left Fernand an enormous sum of money, which he used to return to Paris and establish himself, as Danglars did, in a giant home and with a royal title for himself: the Count de Morcerf.

Caderousse goes on to say that Mercedes was eventually won over by Fernand, who continually returned to her in Les Catalans. As his position grew in the Spanish and then foreign armies, he began wooing her all the more concertedly, telling her that Dantes was dead and never to return. After the death of Old Dantes, Mercedes finally did marry the now-Count de Morcerf, and he took her away from Marseille, installing her in a home in Spain and then eventually in Paris, with their son Albert. Caderousse says that Mercedes, now the Countess de Morcerf, has become one of the great educated and cultured ladies of Paris, having learned to draw and read and speak many languages, and that her son Albert, too, is a gentleman.

The Abbe closes his line of questioning by asking about Villefort, if Caderousse has any news of the man. Caderousse replies that he does not, that he and Villefort were never friends, but that he expects Villefort, like Danglars and Fernand, has found fortune from Dantes’ misfortune. Having heard enough, the Abbe hands over the entire diamond to Caderousse, who can hardly believe his luck. The Abbe says that he is now going to “retire” from the world of men “who do so much harm to one another.” Caderousse replies that the Abbe could simply have kept Dantes’ diamond for himself, rather than carrying out the dying man’s wishes. The Abbe mutters to himself that such cowardice is “exactly what the tailor would have done.”

The Abbe leaves on his horse, and Caderousse reports to his wife, who has been half-eavesdropping, all that has transpired with the Abbe. La Carconte immediately distrusts the Abbe, wondering if the diamond is in fact real, and she goes off to find a jeweler at the fair who can appraise it for them. La Carconte seems already to be laying some evil plot, saying to herself that a 50,000-franc diamond is a large sum of money, but it is, as yet, “no fortune.”