The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian — Carnival Ends in Darkness as Albert Fails to Return (The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 37 – Part 1)

In The Count of Monte Cristo, the extinguished moccoletti leave Rome in sudden darkness, replacing Carnival with silence and unease.

Franz returns alone to the Hôtel de Londres, the abrupt shift from noise to stillness weighing heavily as Albert does not come back.

He waits through the evening, offering little explanation, and resolves to hold out as long as possible before acting. As the hours pass without word, he prepares to leave for the Duke of Bracciano’s ball, carrying his uncertainty into the night.

The celebration ends, and absence takes its place.

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Passage

Chapter 37. The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian

In his whole life, perhaps, Franz had never before experienced so sudden an impression, so rapid a transition from gayety to sadness, as in this moment. It seemed as though Rome, under the magic breath of some demon of the night, had suddenly changed into a vast tomb. By a chance, which added yet more to the intensity of the darkness, the moon, which was on the wane, did not rise until eleven o’clock, and the streets which the young man traversed were plunged in the deepest obscurity.

The distance was short, and at the end of ten minutes his carriage, or rather the count’s, stopped before the Hôtel de Londres.

Dinner was waiting, but as Albert had told him that he should not return so soon, Franz sat down without him. Signor Pastrini, who had been accustomed to see them dine together, inquired into the cause of his absence, but Franz merely replied that Albert had received on the previous evening an invitation which he had accepted.

The sudden extinction of the moccoletti, the darkness which had replaced the light, and the silence which had succeeded the turmoil, had left in Franz’s mind a certain depression which was not free from uneasiness. He therefore dined very silently, in spite of the officious attention of his host, who presented himself two or three times to inquire if he wanted anything.

Franz resolved to wait for Albert as late as possible. He ordered the carriage, therefore, for eleven o’clock, desiring Signor Pastrini to inform him the moment that Albert returned to the hotel.

At eleven o’clock Albert had not come back. Franz dressed himself, and went out, telling his host that he was going to pass the night at the Duke of Bracciano’s. The house of the Duke of Bracciano is one of the most delightful in Rome, the duchess, one of the last heiresses of the Colonnas, does its honors with the most consummate grace, and thus their fêtes have a European celebrity.