The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
Chapter 5: The Betrothal Feast
In the middle of Dantès and Mercédès’s betrothal feast, royal guards burst in
and arrest Dantès. Everyone is confused, especially Dantès, who has done
nothing wrong, as far as he knows. Danglars offers to take over duties as captain
of the Pharaon until Dantès is released, and Morrel gratefully accepts this offer.
Vocabulary
o Betrothal Feast: celebration given at the wedding after the wedding
vows.
o burst: to break open or apart suddenly, or to make something do this
o duties: something that you have to do because it is part of your job
o vessel: a curved container that is used to hold liquid
o tumultuous: very loud, or full of confusion, change, or uncertainty
Chapter 6: The Deputy Procureur
In another part of town, a very different betrothal feast is taking place. This
feast is in honor of an aristocratic couple: the young daughter of the Marquis
of Saint-Méran and her fiancé, Gérard de Villefort, the deputy public prosecutor
of Marseilles. Villefort, we learn during the course of the lunch conversation, is
the son of a prominent Bonapartist. In the wake of Napoleon’s defeat and the
subsequent reinstatement of King Louis XVIII, Villefort, an ambitious young
man, has decided to ally himself with the royalists. He renounces his father and
his father’s politics, and swears to the assembled guests that he will brutally
punish any Bonapartist sympathizer who falls into his hands. The betrothal
feast is interrupted when Villefort is called away to deal with a Bonapartist plot
that has just been uncovered.
Vocabulary
o reinstatement: the act of giving someone back their job or making
something exist again.
o assembled: to come together in a single place or bring parts together
in a single group.
o mournful: very sad.