The Vendetta
- And so begins Bertuccio's story.
- Many years before, Bertuccio's brother was murdered by soldiers who belonged to the royalist party (the party that favored King Louis).
- Bertuccio's brother was a soldier in Napoleon's army.
- Bertuccio went to the city of Nîmes to seek justice for his brother's death, approaching Villefort (remember, he was kind of like a district attorney at the time), but Villefort was a royalist and sided with the murderers rather than the murdered.
- Incensed by Villefort's coldness, Bertuccio swore to seek revenge on him.
- Freaked out, Villefort leaves town in hopes of fleeing Bertuccio. He moved to Versailles.
- Versailles is famous for many reasons, but Villefort liked it because it was the home of his mistress who lived in the very house that the Count has just bought.
- One night, Bertuccio hid in the garden of Villefort's mistress's house, waiting to kill Villefort.
- Villefort buried a box in the garden, and then Bertuccio stabbed him several times.
- Bertuccio then dug up the box, expecting to find treasures beyond his wildest dreams.
- But instead, he found a baby boy.
- The baby was almost dead (it looked like he had been suffocated), but Bertuccio was able to help the boy start breathing again.
- Bertuccio took the baby to a hospital where it stayed for a few months, and then Bertuccio brought the baby home.
- Bertuccio and his sister-in-law named the baby boy Benedetto and took good care of him.
- But Benedetto had a cold streak, and he disappeared when he was old enough to run away.
- When Benedetto ran away, Bertuccio had been off smuggling.
- One night, when the police were hot on his trail, Bertuccio hid behind Caderousse's inn (remember him?), and he saw something horrible happen.
- A jeweler came to buy the diamond that the Edmond-disguised-as-Abbé-Busoni gave Caderousse and his wife.
- The jeweler offered forty-five thousand francs for the diamond.
- The jeweler was about to head for home, when a bad storm hit town, causing him to stay the night at the inn.