In chapters 111 and 112 of The Count of Monte Cristo, titled "Expiation" and "The Departure," the story reaches a critical psychological turning point as the Count's quest for revenge results in unintended tragedy.

Chapter 111: Expiation Following the public disgrace of his trial, Villefort rushes home. He has realized that he is no more virtuous than his wife and intends to forgive her so they can flee France together with their son, Edward.

The Discovery: Upon arriving, Villefort finds that his wife has already followed his earlier command to commit suicide. Horrifically, she has also poisoned Edward, refusing to leave her son behind to face a world of shame.

The Confrontation: A broken Villefort encounters the Count (disguised as Abbé Busoni) in his father Noirtier's room. The Count reveals his true identity as Edmond Dantès, expecting a moment of triumph.

The Turning Point: Instead of triumph, Dantès is met with the sight of Edward's corpse. Shaken to his core by the death of an innocent child, he tries and fails to revive the boy with his elixir. He begins to doubt if he has overstepped his role as the hand of "Divine Providence."

Villefort's Fate: The chapter ends with Villefort losing his mind completely, seen digging in his garden for his dead son.

Chapter 112: The Departure This chapter focuses on the emotional aftermath and the transition away from Paris.

Leaving Paris: The Count picks up a grieving Maximilian Morrel from the home of Julie and Emmanuel. As they leave the city, the Count looks back at Paris and declares his work of vengeance is finally done.

Return to Marseille: They travel to Marseille, where they witness Albert de Morcerf boarding a ship to begin his new life as a soldier.

The Meeting with Mercédès: The Count visits his father's old house and finds Mercédès living there in solitude. Their meeting is deeply bittersweet. While he offers her his fortune, she refuses most of it, choosing a life of quiet penance.

Resolution: The Count encourages her to live, but Mercédès remains a shell of her former self, resigned to her fate. This encounter reinforces the Count's growing sense of remorse for the collateral damage caused by his long-plotted revenge.

CHAP 109 THE ASSIZES Chateau-Renaud, Debray, and Beauchamp are in court to see the beginning of the famous Benedetto Affair. They discuss the rumor that the murderer in the house of Villefort is young Edouard, who has become increasingly jealous of his stepsister and her grandparents. But others in the group dismiss this as nonsense and wait for the excitement of the case to begin, with Villefort drawing up evidence against the accused "Prince," Cavalcanti.

CHAP110 THE INDICTMENT

Villefort is called as the crown prosecutor before the court, and the judges similarly call Andrea to testify. He admits that he lived a life of petty crime before causing the murder of Caderousse, and when the court asks him for his identity, he pauses and says he does not really know his "actual" name, for he was abandoned as a very young infant by his father. When the court asks who this father might be, Andrea/Benedetto declares that it is the crown prosecutor himself, Villefort. Villefort understands instantly that, from this point on, there is nothing he can do to protect his good name. Like Fernand and Danglars, he too will suffer in shame, and will need to determine some way to slide nobly off the public stage of French civic life. The crimes Villefort committed so many years ago have finally come back to light, causing the criminal to be punished.

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The scene shifts to the prison, called the Lion's Pit, where violent criminals are kept awaiting trial. This includes Andrea, who still insists to the other prisoners that he is of royal birth, although they make fun of him, harry him, and threaten him. Late one day, Bertuccio pays off the guards to visit his adoptive son, telling him he has information related to Benedetto's real father. Bertuccio promises to return with this information in due course, and Andrea says he awaits it with great eagerness. This important interstitial chapter shows that Andrea is once again in prison, a place he's become accustomed to at this stage of the novel. It is not entirely clear to the reader what Bertuccio intends to do to his "son."n this brief chapter, Villefort finally confronts his wife Heloise after many days spent going over evidence—evidence not only of the poisonings in his own home, but also in the case regarding Benedetto, now known publicly as the Benedetto Affair (because it involves the famous Count). This affair has taken over Paris, and indeed every affair involving the Count seems to be of citywide, and indeed national, importance. In the space of only a few months, the Count has placed himself in the center of French social life. Villefort abruptly asks Heloise if she still has the poison she has used on the Saint-Merans, Barrois, and Valentine. He says that he asks not because he will denounce her publically, but instead because he expects her to do the honorable thing and commit suicide at her earliest convenience. If she does not do this in the next day, he warns, he will send her to prison, which will result in her eventual execution.

The Count heads to Pere Lachaise where the funeral is taking place, and finds Maximilien off to the side of the funeral ceremony itself, overcome with grief. The Count then follows Morrel back to the home of Julie and Emmanuel, and his fears are justified, for as he walks into Morrel's room unannounced, he finds the young soldier drafting a suicide note. The Count begs Morrel not to do this, but Morrel insists that without Valentine, life is no longer worth living. The Count realizes the effect that his ruse with Valentine will have on Young Morrel. And though he wants to tell Morrel the plot he has concocted, he also wants to make sure this plot can succeed. Thus, to protect Maximilien, he asks only that the young man promise him to hold off on the thought of suicide for some time. To stay his hand, the Count blurts out that he is Edmond Dantes, and that he is the man responsible for saving Old Morrel exactly ten years ago when that man was afraid he would become bankrupt. Julie and Emmanuel come upstairs, but the Count asks Morrel to reveal only that he is the benefactor, not that he is Edmond Dantes. His reasons for this discretion are unclear. The Count has, by now, revealed his identity to Mercedes, Caderousse, and Fernand. He reveals it here to try to convince Morrel that he has a plan in place to help him – that he is not simply a man of society in Paris, but a person with a deep connection to the Morrel family, going back to their days in Marseille.

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CHAPTER 103 MAXIMILIAN

Analysis Maximilien flies into a hysterical rage on hearing the news that his intended, Valentine, is dead. He does this in the presence of Villefort, the doctor, and Noirtier. When Villefort and the doctor ask who Morrel is, and why he has been admitted to the house in which the murder has taken place, Morrel asks Noirtier to confirm that he, Morrel, was engaged to Valentine before her death, and that he loved her dearly. Young Morrel is finally able to reveal to Villefort that he has been in love with Valentine all along, and that the two were to be married. Although Young Morrel believes that Valentine has already died, this admission of their love feels like a victory for him, a confirmation that their love, while it lasted, was real.

CHAPTER 104 DANGLER'S SIGNATURE

The funeral for Valentine commences, and the narrator shifts his attention to a commercial interaction between the Baron Danglars and the Count, who spots him outside his home. The Count says he would like to take up the balance of his initially-requested credit with the Baron, for a sum of 5 million francs, assuming that the Baron has it on hand. The Baron pretends that this is no issue, that he will be able to cash out the receipts the Count holds; but when the Count heads to the Bank of France with these receipts, the Baron is met by Boville, the former inspector of prisons, who is collecting money for a charity hospice. The Count wishes to allow himself the joy of collecting a final amount of money from Danglars that Danglars himself is unable to pay out. This is a mirror and an opposite to the scene far earlier in the text, when the Count, as Lord Wilmore, offers Old Morrel sufficient money to remain open and in business. The Count seems to delight just as much, if not more, in viewing the financial ruin of one family as the financial security of another. It turns out that this hospice also has 5 million francs drawn on the Baron. This rather complex set of banking conversations reduces to the simple fact that the Baron does not have enough money to cover his debts. He is, in fact, bankrupt. The Count of course knows this, but Boville does not yet, and so the Baron tries to maintain his composure with him during their conversation. He tells Boville, headed to the funeral, that he himself will not be going, that he must instead go back to the office. At home, Danglars takes his remaining funds (about 50,000 francs) and his passport and prepares to leave the country as his daughter Eugenie has just done, presumably to avoid financial ruin. Fernand has committed suicide rather than accept public humiliation for the treachery he engaged in overseas. Caderousse has died, not being given the option to atone for his past crimes, after the Count determined that he was fundamentally beyond redemption. But Danglars tries to take his chances abroad, figuring that if he escapes Paris, he at least has a chance of speculating whatever money he retains in another market, with the hope of regaining some of what he's lost.

In 101 and 102 the effort to kill Valentine continues....and that'sall I can say here.

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CHAP 99-THE LAW

The Baroness Danglars, unsure what to do with herself and believing that Eugenie and Danglars are both locked in their rooms, first goes to visit Debray. But she finds him out at the club, and so later that day she goes instead to the Villefort home, where she is greeted with suspicion by the servants before finally being allowed into Villefort's study. There, the two old friends and former lovers speak to each other about Benedetto, though they do not know the truth of that man's identity and relation to them.

CHAP100 THE APPARITION

The narrator moves to Valentine, who has been recuperating in her room at the Villefort home. One night, when Valentine is lying between sleep and wakefulness, the Count (who, as the Abbe, has recently purchased the land next door) comes out of the shadows in her room. He tells her not to fear, that he has been protecting her in the home for the sake of Maximilien Morrel. In the case of Valentine, the Count has turned from an avenging angel to a protector. He sees Valentine as a part of Young Morrel's family, and so the Count has committed himself to making sure that she will suffer no more harm at the hands of the phantom poisoner. At this Valentine is confused and afraid, for she believes she was naturally sickened by some disease and not poisoned. But the Count convinces her that she has fallen ill of the same ailment that killed her grandparents, and he reminds her that Noirtier had asked her to drink the same drink he himself had been prescribed by the doctor. The Count reveals he has been providing her with another draught of this red potion, designed to counteract any possible poison that might be put into her food or drink. When Valentine asks who in the house could be doing this harm, the Count retreats into the shadows and tells Valentine to pay attention, for the criminal is about to attempt once more act of violence against Valentine.

CHAP 97 THE DEPARTURE FOR BELGIUM

Eugenie shears her hair and says she will dress as a man and accompany Louise to Belgium with what money they can grab. They will live together as partners and musicians, thus earning money to survive. Eugenie's relationship with Louise has, over the course of the novel, seemed like a particularly intense friendship.

CHAP 98 THE BELL & BOTTLE TAVERN

Analysis Andrea heads away from Paris in a mail coach as fast as he can, and winds up at an inn called the Bell and Bottle. There, he orders a room in the dress of a common bourgeois and makes a plan for the following day: he will move out into the countryside, rent a small shack or room from a peasant, and avoid contact with people as much as is possible. He wakes early in the morning to head out into the countryside. But when he does this, he notices that the inn is swarming with gendarmes. Alarmed, Andrea climbs up onto the roof, then tumbles down and hides in a room of the inn. There, to his surprise, he finds Eugenie and Louise, with Eugenie traveling as a man. Andrea believes, much to the girls' laughter, that they have followed him to the inn because Eugenie is still in love with him. Out of a mixture of condescension and basic fellow-feeling, they tell him to run, but he steps outside and is caught by the gendarmes to be taken back to Paris and tried. This allows Louise and Eugenie to continue their escape to Belgium later that day, as the commotion of the arrest of Andrea has caused enough of a distraction for them to sneak away. It is another of the novel's coincidences that Andrea and Eugenie wind up fleeing to the same inn. But Eugenie and Louise manage to maintain their low profile and to escape to Belgium, whereas Andrea, even though Eugenie tries to help him, will be caught by the authorities. This is an instance in the text where characters appear to receive their just desserts: Andrea, the criminal, will have trouble escaping the law, whereas Eugenie, who has only ever wanted her independence, is able to fight for it and gain it on her own terms.

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CHAP 95 FATHER AND DAUGHTER

Eugenie requests a formal meeting with Danglars, in whom she confides that she no longer wishes to marry anyone, especially Andrea Cavalcanti, who seems fine enough to her but has no charm beyond his bare good looks. Danglars, for his part, says that he largely respects Eugenie's wishes, but says that he is ruined financially, and that he needs the capital Andrea can provide in order to guarantee his current loans and speculate on a railway with other investors. He asks Eugenie to go through the motions of signing the contract and marrying Andrea so that this loan and his good name can be secured. This is the first acknowledgment Danglars makes about his financial situation. For many chapters, it has seemed that Danglars has sustained heavy losses on the markets, but he has not yet admitted that these losses are more than he can bear. The Count, then, has succeeded in eroding the Baron's fortunes, forcing the Baron to look for other avenues for wealth – including a marriage to Andrea, whom he believes to be a nobleman. Eugenie agrees to this, although she insists that she has her own secret plan, which she will not divulge to her father and that will not, she insists, interrupt his plan for obtaining the loan from Andrea. Danglars seems to appreciate this negotiation on Eugenie's part, and they shake hands before Eugenie readies herself to visit the Villeforts with her mother. Danglars seems to respect a certain kind of financial negotiation, as Eugenie has offered her father here. Eugenie seems to know this as well, and so has given herself some bargaining room as she figures out what to do with the idea of a potential marital match to Andrea. Active Themes

CHAP 93 VALENTINE Maximilien Morrel, fresh from the aborted duel, goes to visit Valentine at the Villefort home, where she announces that she has decided that finally she and Noirtier will move out together into their own quarters. Mme Danglars and Eugenie visit Mme de Villefort to announce that Eugenie will be marrying Andrea Cavalcanti, and though Eugenie says she does not wish to marry at all, she says it is at least better that she marry Andrea than a man disgraced. This is another instance of dramatic irony, for the reader understands that Andrea himself is an imposter, and as previous events in the novel have indicated, it seems only a matter of time until Andrea's past is also brought to light. Eugenie is a fascinating character, one who attempts to make her own life in a society where this kind of independence for women is rarely possible. Valentine has been feeling faint and unwell, and she tells Maximilien that Noirtier has prescribed to her the same potion that he drinks in large quantities, as a medicine for his own condition. This same potion is what the doctor formerly described as a poison which, in preparatory doses, can be used actually to prevent poisoning, if one builds up resistance to it slowly. Coming to pay respects to the Danglars, Valentine excuses herself, falls ill again, and collapses in another room near Noirtier and Morrel, who immediately call for help. For many chapters the groundwork has seemingly been laid for Valentine's poisoning. Although it has not been stated explicitly that Mme de Villefort is the poisoner, it always seemed unlikely that Valentine was the culprit. Now that Valentine has fallen ill, this gives even more credence to the idea that it is Mme de Villefort who is to blame. The question now is the emergency of Valentine's condition, and whether she will be able to survive this sickness.\

CHAP 94 MAXIMILIAN'S RENEWAL

Villefort calls on the doctor who had warned him about the poisoning in his family, and after hearing that it is Valentine who has now fallen ill—Valentine whom the doctor initially suspected of the crime—he agrees to help Villefort in finding the true criminal. The doctor arrives at the Villefort home and questions Noirtier, who admits in his sign-language to having prepared Valentine by administering to her protective doses of brucine, the poison, in order to inoculate her against possible attack. The doctor thanks Noirtier for saving Valentine's life. The doctor discovers practice the method that, long ago, the Count discussed with Mme de Villefort. Noirtier, in his wisdom, saw that Valentine was going to be a target of poisoning in the home, and so he used a small amount of poison to build up Valentine's tolerance, allowing her to suffer larger doses without immediately succumbing to them. The doctor recognizes how clever and compassionate Noirtier's care for Valentine has been. In parallel, Maximilien runs to the house of the Count, begging him for help, since there is a murderer in the Villefort house. Morrel finally admits to the Count that he is in love with and wishes to marry Valentine. As devoted as the Count is to Morrel, this harms his plan, for the Count has sworn vengeance against Villefort and calls Valentine the child of a "dangerous breed." At this, however, the Count says he will ponder what best to do. After the doctor has finished checking up on Valentine and realizes that she will survive this poisoning attack, the narrator relates that the Abbe Busoni has purchased the house next to the Villeforts, the house whose garden Morrel has tended as a way of courting Valentine. This is another complication to the Count's plan. The Count wants to elevate Young Morrel, to name him as his son and heir, as indicated in previous chapters. But if Maximilien is joined to the Villefort family, the Count finds himself in a conundrum, for he wants to destroy the Villeforts. With this said, however, the episode with Albert and Mercedes has helped him to separate the innocent from the guilty, even within a family. Thus, after much thought, he seems open to the possibility that he can disentangle helping Valentine from harming Villefort.