The Count of Monte Cristo: Chapter 33 Summary & Analysis

Franz and Albert rise the next morning, frustrated that they cannot order a carriage in Rome for the last three days of Carnival, the most important of the holiday. After a gentlemanly argument with Pastrini, they manage to secure a carriage for the next couple days (before the end of the festival), although the rate is very high, and Pastrini pockets the difference. Franz and Albert set off on a tour of St. Peter’s and they return that evening, vowing to take in the Colosseum “by moonlight,” the most romantic time in which to view it.

At this, Pastrini snorts and says they cannot possibly view the Colosseum then, because the Roman bandits will be out at night, trying to rob them, especially one 22-year-old bandit—the most famous in the city—named Luigi Vampa. Albert says that he would try to fight Vampa if he could, but Pastrini warns him not to joke about a man so dangerous. He promises he will tell both men Vampa’s life-story, if they will listen. At first Albert continues to joke, but Franz manages finally to quiet him, and both men listen to Pastrini.

First, Pastrini describes the education of the young Vampa, a shepherd in the countryside surrounding Rome. As a boy, Vampa develops talents for reading and writing, though he has only the occasional tutoring of a learned man in a village. He also becomes skilled at shooting and riding and hunting, which he practices on his own when he has time. Vampa is in love with a girl named Teresa, also a peasant and a shepherdess. Although they do not speak of this openly, they plan to spend their lives together and to raise themselves up out of poverty.

At this, Pastrini breaks the narrative of Vampa and introduces a new set of characters, brigands in the surrounding countryside, led by the master Cucumetto. Pastrini tells, by way of illustration, a story about Cucumetto, in which one of his band, a man named Carlini, discovers that the band has captured a woman, Rita, whom Carlini loves. Although Carlini begs that the woman be set free and not assaulted, Cucumetto assaults her and offers her to the rest of the band. But before they, too, can assault her, Carlini kills Rita, and when Rita’s father comes to rescue his daughter (with a ransom), Carlini reveals to him that he killed Rita to protect her from the savagery of the other brigands.

Rita’s father thanks Carlini for his “honor” in doing this, and, after burying his daughter in the woods, commits suicide. A few days later, Cucumetto kills Carlini during a battle and the fellow-brigands understand that Cucumetto has done this to keep Carlini, who has grown to hate Cucumetto, from killing him. Pastrini tells this story of the gang of Cucumetto to demonstrate the brutality of the bandits in the region where Vampa came of age.

Several more important events take place in Pastrini’s long story. Cucumetto, running from the authorities some time later, chances upon Vampa and Teresa in a field and asks them to hide him. They do so, and when he leaves he declares himself in their debt, though he continues to look back at Teresa as though he covets her. Later, as Pastrini explains, the Count who runs the land on which Vampa and Teresa work hosts a grand ball, and Vampa and Teresa request permission to go as house servants, dressed in costumes for the masque ball, as are the other attendants. Teresa is asked to dance by the beaux and belles of the ball, and Vampa, jealous, asks her if she wishes to have as many beautiful gowns as the daughter of the Count who has thrown the party.

Teresa replies that she would indeed like those gowns. That night, there is a fire in the Count’s mansion, and later, Vampa reveals that he has rescued the Count’s daughter from the fire (started by mysterious circumstances), and he shows to Teresa that he has also taken a bandit’s supply of gowns and jewels from the girl’s room. Teresa, for her part, pretends not to know where the goods come from, and she puts them on lovingly. At the same time, Vampa sees a man asking for directions, on horseback—a man dressed resplendently, and whom Vampa seems immediately to respect.

Vampa gives the man on horseback directions, while Teresa is still trying on her gowns. And when the man offers Vampa money for his pains, Vampa refuses, offering the man his hand-carved dagger instead. The man introduces himself as Sinbad the Sailor—at this, Franz, still listening to Pastrini’s story, jumps up, for he remembers the name from his night on the island of Monte Cristo some days before. Franz also remembers that a rich man is holding the rooms next to the theirs, in the same hotel for Carnival, who goes by the name of the Count of Monte Cristo, although neither he nor Albert have seen the man next door.

Pastrini continues in his story. When Vampa returns from having spoken to the man called Sinbad the Sailor, he sees that Teresa has been spirited away by Cucumetto, having returned to the spot where he first encountered her. Vampa, unafraid, takes out his gun and slays Cucumetto, missing Teresa and sparing her life. He fetches her, declares his love for her, and asks if she will follow him forever. To this she replies with an ecstatic yes, and after going back into his grotto to fetch further items he’s stolen from the Count’s house (clothes for himself), he takes Teresa into the woods to find the bandits of which Cucumetto used to be the head.

When Vampa and Teresa finally do encounter the band, Vampa declares that he wishes to be made their leader. The bandits laugh, wondering who this young shepherd could be who is asking for something so outlandish. But Vampa declares that he has killed their former leader Cucumetto, and that he burned down half the Count’s house to get “a wedding dress” for his fiancée Teresa; at this, the other bandits recognize Vampa’s power and authority and elect him their chief.

Pastrini thus concludes his story, and Franz and Albert respond with a mixture of astonishment and glee. The coachman enters the room to say that the cab is ready for their nine o’clock ride to the Colosseum, and though Pastrini is fearful, they embark—hoping to take in the sights of the city, and, perhaps, to catch a glimpse of the famed Vampa.