The Count of Monte Cristo CXV Summary

Summary

Danglars awakens in a whitewashed cell and quickly realizes he is captive of the brigands Albert de Morcerf had mentioned; he checks his pockets and finds his watch, purse, and the large notecase intact, concluding the bandits intend ransom rather than murder. He waits, observes the sentinels at his door, and notes their odd habits and appetites. Over the morning he endures a parade of guards — a bottle-drinking man, a giant who eats coarse food, and finally Peppino, who proves both an epicure and a shrewd extortioner.

Hunger drives Danglars to call for food; Peppino offers a full brigand "service" but demands payment before eating. Danglars first tries to curry favor and then to resist absurd charges, but Peppino calmly insists on a fixed, astronomical price list for provisions in the cave. After a farcical exchange in which a fowl and even a loaf are quoted at 100,000 francs, Peppino instructs Danglars to draw a draft on his Paris/Rome bankers — Messrs. Thomson & French — for 4,998 louis remaining; Danglars signs the draft to secure the fowl and Peppino pockets the paper while continuing to eat.

Key events

1. Danglars wakes in a brigand cell and confirms he has been captured, not robbed of valuables
2. He inspects the guards through the door and notices their coarse meals and behavior
3. Peppino, a guard, appears and reveals brigand culinary provisions and prices
4. Peppino presents a fowl served by a young bandit but insists on prepayment
5. Absurd price demands escalate to 100,000 francs per item; Danglars realizes the brigands aim to extort drafts on his bankers
6. Danglars writes and signs a draft for 4,998 louis; Peppino pockets it and resumes eating

Analysis

This chapter serves as a comic yet menacing interlude that illuminates Danglars' temperament and the brigands' mixture of cruelty and practical opportunism. The scene contrasts Danglars' Parisian refinement and reliance on money and credit with the brigands' coarse, transactional world where every need is monetized to absurd extremes. Danglars' reactions — nervous attention to his possessions, attempts at charm, and finally anger — reveal his pride, vanity, and belief that money can command any situation. The brigands' fixed price list and Peppino's calm enforcement foreshadow how Danglars' wealth and credit will be manipulated against him.

Dumas uses farce and irony — a banker reduced to bargaining for bread and forced to draw a draft to pay for a fowl — to critique social assumptions about value and power. The episode also advances plot mechanics: the signed draft creates a tangible leverage point the captors can exploit. Narratively, the confined scene tightens focus on Danglars and Peppino, employing close third-person observation and direct dialogue to heighten tension and comic cruelty. The banal details of food, the repeated ritual of eating, and the grotesque pricing function as symbols of inversion: civilized norms (kitchen, fork, credit) exist but are perverted into tools of captivity and humiliation.

Important quotes

““Yes, yes,” he murmured, “I am in the hands of the brigands of whom Albert de Morcerf spoke.””

NarratorDanglars realizes, on waking in the cell and checking his possessions, that brigands have captured him and intend ransom rather than murder.

““Your excellency has 5,050,000 francs in your pocket; that will be fifty fowls at 100,000 francs apiece, and half a fowl for the 50,000.””

PeppinoPeppino reveals the brigands' absurdly fixed price scheme and instructs Danglars that his funds will be used to pay the inflated charges, prompting Danglars to write a draft.

Characters in CXV

• Danglars
• Albert de Morcerf
• Don Quixote
• Peppino
• Signor Pastrini
• Messrs. Thomson & French