Long dead, the Abbé Faria reaches beyond the grave: his recovered prison manuscript, hidden in the cell wall, gives the Count the sign that vindicates his vengeance. Alias: the 'mad priest' of the Château d'If.
Years after his death in the Château d'If, the Abbé Faria — the learned prisoner who educated Edmond Dantès, willed him the treasure of Monte Cristo, and was mocked by the jailers as a 'poor mad priest' who 'offered millions to anyone who would set him at liberty' — is present in memory as the Count revisits their old dungeons. In his death-cell, kneeling by the bed 'converted into an altar,' the Count conjures him for 'some sign' to lay his doubts about the vengeance he has wrought.
The answer comes through Faria's own hand. The concierge produces a manuscript the abbé wrote in prison 'upon strips of cloth' — his great work on the kingdoms of Italy — found walled up near the bed and hearth. Its epigraph leaps out: 'Thou shalt tear out the dragons' teeth, and shall trample the lions under foot, saith the Lord.' The Count seizes it as his answer — 'Thanks, father, thanks' — and carries it away, 'more valuable to him than the richest jewel.' The dead mentor, whose knowledge and treasure made the Count, thus reaches from the tomb to sanction the work of his 'son.'
Not present in life; evoked only in memory — the aged, learned prisoner of the Château d'If, whose meridian drawn on the wall and death-bed remain, and whose mind survives in strips of cloth covered with his writing.
Edmond's dead prison-mentor, whose recovered manuscript and its epigraph give the Count the sign he seeks that his vengeance was divinely sanctioned.