Dying of Benedetto's knife, Caderousse signs a deposition naming his murderer, denies God to the last, then recognizes the count as Edmond Dantès and repents as he dies.
Carried in mortally wounded, Caderousse is tended by the false 'Abbé Busoni'—the Count of Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantès)—who revives him with drops of a phial only long enough to take his dying evidence. He names his murderer: his galley-mate Benedetto, now 'Andrea Cavalcanti,' lodging at the Hôtel des Princes, who gave him the house-plan hoping he and the count would destroy each other, then knifed him at the wall. He signs the deposition, thirsting for the 'posthumous revenge' of seeing Benedetto guillotined.
The abbé recounts God's thrice-given mercies—health, then a fortune sent 'by my hands,' then a rescue from the galleys—all squandered in sloth, murder, and greed, and refuses to have warned him: 'I saw God's justice placed in the hands of Benedetto.' Cursing and denying God to the end, Caderousse demands to know who this strange priest truly is; the count strips off wig and disguise, is taken for 'Lord Wilmore,' then whispers his real name. Thunderstruck, the old convict recognizes the young sailor he wronged long ago, cries out to God for pardon at last, and dies. 'One!' murmurs the count over the corpse.
A gaunt, sunburnt man of about fifty with wolfish teeth and brilliant dark eyes, now ashen and blood-drained, his life ebbing from three mortal wounds.
The last of Dantès's old betrayers to fall, dying with the count's true name and God's pardon on his lips.