Story so far

On the 24th of February, 1815, the merchant three-master Pharaon glides into the port of Marseilles, its slow approach stirring uneasy speculation among the watchers on the ramparts. The vessel is brought in with masterly skill by its young acting mate, Edmond Dantès — barely twenty, dark-eyed, and calm — who bears sad news to the ship's owner, M. Morrel: the good Captain Leclere has died of brain-fever off Civita Vecchia. The cargo, however, is safe, and Dantès has scrupulously followed the captain's last instructions, which included a stop at the isle of Elba to deliver a mysterious packet to Marshal Bertrand, where he even spoke briefly with the exiled emperor. Morrel, delighted and fatherly, warns only that such an errand could bring trouble, then all but promises to make the deserving young man captain of the Pharaon. Dantès, overwhelmed, thanks him in the name of his aged father and his beloved Mercédès, whom he hurries ashore to see. But envy is already at work: Danglars, the ship's grasping supercargo, watches Dantès with a hatred hidden beneath servility. Rebuffed in his attempt to blacken Edmond's conduct, he quietly plants the seed of a graver suspicion — a secret letter Dantès may be carrying — before withdrawing to bide his time. As Dantès leaps ashore into the bustling Canebière, two men follow him with their eyes: one wishing him well, the other plotting his ruin.