The Count of Monte Cristo XCVIII Summary

Summary

Andrea Cavalcanti, alarmed by the spreading telegraphic news that the murderer of Caderousse is being pursued, slips away from Paris after helping himself to items from a bride’s trousseau. He hires a cab and then a slow horse, trying to put distance between himself and the authorities. He makes various hurried calculations about passports, post-horses, and crossing frontiers; by night he reaches Compiègne and takes lodging at the Bell and Bottle tavern, hoping to rest and then disguise himself as a woodcutter to flee across the frontier.

Andrea sleeps deeply despite his guilty plans. At dawn he sees gendarmes in the courtyard and realizes he is surrounded; he composes a contrite note and a pin to leave as pledge, then climbs the chimney to escape when the door is opened. The brigadier and commissary, tipped off by telegraph and sentinel reports, search his room and set the chimney on fire to force him out. Andrea reaches another chimney and drops into a guest room, where he startles and is recognized by Eugénie Danglars and her companion Mademoiselle d’Armilly. Their screams summon the brigadier, who bursts in and arrests Andrea. He taunts Eugénie on the way out; she and her friend endure the public shame of being implicated by his presence. The chapter ends with Andrea being taken to the Conciergerie while the two girls continue to Brussels in embarrassment.

Key events

1. Andrea flees Paris after stealing items from a trousseau and hires transport toward the north.
2. He arrives at Compiègne and registers at the Bell and Bottle tavern to rest and plan a disguise.
3. Dawn reveals gendarmes in the courtyard; Andrea attempts to escape through the chimney.
4. The brigadier searches the room, fills and fires the chimney; Andrea slips onto the roof and into another chimney.
5. Andrea falls into a guest room and is recognized by Eugénie Danglars and Mademoiselle d’Armilly, who scream.
6. The brigadier bursts in and arrests Andrea; he is later imprisoned in the Conciergerie.

Analysis

This chapter heightens the novel’s tension by putting a secondary character’s flight under the same widespread, mechanical reach of telegraph and gendarmes that drives the plot’s momentum. Andrea’s mixture of bravado, calculation, and theatrical cowardice exposes him as a social opportunist whose surface polish cannot conceal criminal instincts. The contrast between his self-fashioning (borrowing a card, fine clothes, plans for disguise) and the humiliating, primitive reality of being forced through chimneys and arrested underlines Dumas’s interest in appearances versus true identity. The episode also shows the expansion of modern surveillance—the telegraph, sentinels, and coordinated police work make escape increasingly difficult and create a public, almost theatrical, trial even before legal process begins.

Narratively, the chapter returns the focus from other characters (Danglars’ daughters on their journey) to an immediate, action-driven crisis, advancing the plot by removing Andrea from the field (incarceration) and by producing public scandal for Eugénie. The rooftop and chimney sequence provide suspense and a comic grotesquerie—the thief hiding in theatrical props then falling into a bed—while the public reaction to Eugénie’s involvement comments on social reputation and gendered shame. The brigadier’s procedural calm and the crowd’s prurient curiosity contrast with Andrea’s panicked resourcefulness, reinforcing themes of law versus disorder and the precariousness of social standing.

Important quotes

“I have no money to pay my bill, but I am not a dishonest man; I leave behind me as a pledge this pin, worth ten times the amount. I shall be excused for leaving at daybreak, for I was ashamed.”

Andrea (written on a note)Andrea leaves this note and a pin when he prepares to escape by the chimney, hoping to disguise his flight as honorable.

“They’re after me!”

AndreaAndrea first realizes he is surrounded by gendarmes when he looks out the window and panics at the sight of the uniforms in the courtyard.

“Andrea, the murderer!”

One of the ladies (Eugénie Danglars)Eugénie recognizes Andrea after he falls into their room via the chimney and accuses him aloud, drawing the brigadier to the door.

Characters in XCVIII

• Andrea Cavalcanti
• Eugénie Danglars
• Mademoiselle d’Armilly
• Brigadier (gendarme)
• Commissary of police
• Host (innkeeper)
• Waiter
• Host's son (the little boy)
• Gendarmes
• Mademoiselle Danglars
• Gaspard Caderousse
• Danglars