Edmond Dantes, the protagonist of The Count of Monte Cristo, and his noble thirst for vengeance are sympathetic to almost all readers. Few know that this novel is based on real events. And in reality everything was much bloodier …
In March 1842, the novice writer Alexandre Dumas, taking a boat trip with Jerome Bonaparte, the nephew of the great emperor, heard from him the story of the treasures of the small island of Montecristo, visible on the horizon …
Back in the 5th century, this stone block protruding from the sea was mastered by hermit monks, apologists of Saint Mamilian. Subsequently, representatives of another Catholic order - St. Benedict - founded a monastery on the island. For many centuries the monastery flourished, the diocese gained great prestige, and fabulous riches flocked here. In 1553, excited by rumors, the island was captured by pirates under the command of the famous sea robber Dragut. However, not one of the monks, even under terrible torture, indicated the location of the treasure. Nevertheless, the island became a base for pirates, and all the loot over the course of several centuries was brought here.
Jerome assured the future novelist that the secret of the monastic treasures was known only to the descendants of the monks and that the rebels would definitely use them in Italy's struggle for independence.
Dumas remembered this story when the "Notes" of the police archivist Jacques Pesche fell into his hands. One of the chapters was dedicated to François Picot - later it was he who became the prototype of Captain Edmond Dantes. Alas, the thirst for revenge, turned into paranoia, drove out of him other human feelings. And for this he had to pay …
Sad revel
In 1807, a young shoemaker, François Picot, who had moved to Paris from Nimes, was going to marry a girl "from the noble" named Marguerite Vigorou. He celebrated the upcoming engagement with friends in a tavern owned by Mathieu Luppian, a fellow countryman of François. The party was attended by the grocer Gervais Chaubard, the hatter Guillaume Solari and the half-ruined friend of the innkeeper Antoine Allu. The tipsy Pico boasted of a bride's dowry of 100 thousand francs (a real fortune in those days!). Alas, the tipsy groom did not understand that his friends did not share his enthusiasm at all. This was especially true of Luppian …
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As soon as François left, he invited his comrades to teach the shoemaker a lesson: write a denunciation on him to the police commissariat. The envious people willingly signed a paper in which Pico was called an "English spy". Gloating, they imagined François being dragged before the wedding by interrogation. Only Allu expressed small doubts: it seemed strange to him that the police commissioner had accidentally entered the tavern, to whom Luppian slipped paper as a dessert for a free dinner.
The very next day, François Picot was placed without a court verdict in the Fenestrelle fortress, located in the Piedmont Alps. And after some time, the prisoner's rich bride became the wife of the informer Luppian …
Abbot's testament
François had no chance of freedom while Napoleon was in power. In order to occupy himself with something and not go crazy, he asked to serve as one of the noble prisoners - a supporter of the national unity of Italy, an elderly Benedictine from Milan. The Corsican monster, who also decided to unite the Italians, but under his crown, did not need such preachers, so the prelate was imprisoned in the fortress until the end of his days. Pico became close to the abbot and looked after him so well that before his death he bequeathed him incredible wealth: according to various estimates, from 7 to 12 million francs in gold, the bulk of which was in a cache. Dying, the priest asked Pico to act like a Christian: to forgive the envious and spend all the money on the struggle for the freedom of Italy …
First step
Pico spent 7 years behind bars - significantly less than the literary Edmond Dantes - and was released in 1814, after the overthrow of Napoleon. Obsessed with a thirst for revenge, Pico was very afraid of the freedom fighters of Italy, who could encroach on his treasures, so he decided not to linger in those places. But before leaving, he found Antoine Allu in Rome, the very one who in Luppian's pub sluggishly resisted the devil's idea. He introduced himself to him as Abbot Baldini (in the novel his name is Busoni) and offered the finally ruined man a diamond, allegedly received by him in the castle of Okuf from the dying Pico, the owner of untold riches bequeathed to him by the Benedictine monk. In exchange for the stone, he asked to tell about the people who became the perpetrators of the terrible fate of the innocent imprisoned Pico. Allu - like his counterpart Cadruss in the novel - told everything he knew. After receiving the diamond, he found a buyer for it, and then robbed and killed it. And, tormented by the thirst for profit and the fear of persecution, he went to Paris, after the Abbot Baldini.
Death conveyor
Pico in Paris under the name Prospero got a job as a waiter in the restaurant of the prosperous Mathieu Luppian. The company of deceitful scammers still gathered in this establishment. The first victim of the avenger was the grocer Gervais Chobar: he was found in a dark alley with a dagger sticking out of his chest. A piece of paper was tied to the dagger, and on it was inscribed: Number One.
And soon Luppian learned that his daughter had been dishonored. The scandal was hushed up when the perpetrator of the misfortune, who introduced himself as an Italian marquis, proposed to the girl. The successful restaurateur was glad to intermarry with an aristocrat and agreed to the marriage. But in vain was the bride waiting for her betrothed on the threshold of the church, he fled along with the Luppian silverware. Later it turned out that the groom was not a marquis, but a fugitive convict (probably bribed by the avenger).
But the misfortunes of Luppian did not end there. Soon, the police received a denunciation of his son, and he was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for participating in robberies. At the same time, in the restaurant Luppiana, where the modest waiter Prospero still worked, hatter Guillaume Solari was poisoned with fish. In the coffin during his funeral they found a sheet with the inscription: "Number two." Some time later, the restaurant of the instigator, set on fire from several sides at once, burned down. To complete the misfortunes, his wife Margarita, unable to withstand the misfortunes that had befallen the family, moved with her mind and hanged herself.
Lost track
The avenger left the ruined and disgraced widower Luppian for dessert. Watching the innkeeper in the evening on one of the paths of the Tuileries Park, he opened up to him. The next morning, Mathieu's corpse was found with a knife in his chest. Tied to the handle of the knife was a piece of paper with the inscription: Number Three. And on the same day, another body was discovered nearby. It was the mutilated corpse of Francois Picot …
That night, Antoine Allu, who had long tracked down the Prospero in an attempt to find out the whereabouts of the treasures, was waiting for the avenger at the garden gate of the park. Alas, by that time, obsessed with revenge, François had finally gone crazy, so no torture helped All to find out the secret of the treasure …
Having penetrated a few days later into the home of Francois Picot, the killer realized that someone had taken care to destroy all traces of his stay in Paris, and the body of the former shoemaker had mysteriously disappeared. Terrified, Allu fled to London, where until the end of his days he was shaking in anticipation of the Garibaldians: he was sure that they were looking for the treasures of Montecristo to use in the struggle for the freedom of Italy.
Twice the killer died in complete poverty. Before his death, repenting, he told a Catholic priest about his crimes, beseeching him to report what he had heard to the police.
Get away from sin
The story of François Picot became known to the chief archivist of the Parisian police, Jacques Pesche, who published it in the pages of his Notes. The chapter "Diamond and Vengeance" dedicated to these events became the subject of close study by Alexandre Dumas. Interestingly, some information from the biography of the famous writer indicates that the true history of the treasures of the island of Montecristo occupied him no less than writing a novel. But the secret of the treasure was vigilantly guarded by the patriots of the Risorgimento from the Young Italy organization. As a result, Dumas considered it reasonable to abandon their search …
Magazine: All the mysteries of the world №8