by Alexandre Dumas from the version for broadcasting in twelve parts by Patrick Riddell
8-1 Reception at Auteuil'
Produced by Peter Watts
Edmond Dantes , now possessed of fabulous wealth, has come to Paris to revenge himself on Danglars, de Villefort, and Mondego, the three men who had him falsely imprisoned for fourteen years.
His long inquiries have disclosed that years ago de Villefort had a child by the woman who is now married to Danglars, though both parents now believe the child to be dead. The Corsican, Bertuccio, who revealed this sordid story to Edmond and is now his steward, rescued the almost lifeless child and brought him up. Edmond proposes to use this youth Benedetto as an instrument of his revenge; he has brought him to Paris and dressed him as a rich Italian.
For the undoing of Mondego, now a General and a Peer of France, Edmond has traced a young Greek girl who knows of the treachery on which de Morcerf's fortune was founded.
He has also found, in de Villefort's wife, an unhealthy interest in poisons, which he hopes to turn to his own uses.