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IX . The House at Auteuil The Count soon met the other two men whose names he had carried in his heart for so many years . He opened an account at the bank of Baron Danglars . When the banker asked politely how much credit he wanted , the Count answered that he wanted no limit at all . Danglars laughed . But the letters from the Count’s banks in Rome , London and Vienna were real , and the banker began to treat his strange new client with great respect . He did not know him either . In his mind Edmond Dantès had died long ago . The Count entered the house of Villefort in a more dramatic way . One day the horses of Madame de Villefort ran wild in the street while she and her little son Edward were sitting in the carriage . The Count’s servant Ali , a silent man from Africa , threw a rope around their legs and stopped them just in front of the Count’s house . Her husband , who was now the king’s attorney in Paris and one of the most powerful men in the city , came the next day to thank him . He was proud and cold , and he did not know the Count . But his young second wife , Héloïse , was charmed by their rescuer . During her visit she asked him many questions about the poisons and medicines of the East . The Count answered all of them , and he noticed how closely she listened . The Count had bought a country house at Auteuil , a quiet village near Paris . When his steward heard the address , he turned pale and begged to stay away , but the Count insisted . The steward’s name was Bertuccio , and when they arrived there at night , he was so frightened that he could hardly walk through the garden . “ A terrible thing happened in this house , ” he said at last . “ I must tell you the whole story , sir . ” He was from Corsica . In 1815 his brother had been murdered in the south of France , and he had gone to the king’s attorney at Nîmes and asked for justice . That attorney was Monsieur de Villefort , and he had refused to help . So the Corsican had sworn a vendetta , the old revenge of blood , against the man who had refused him . He had followed his enemy for months . One night in 1817 he had hidden in the garden of this very house at Auteuil , which a rich young widow used to rent . “ I saw him come out of the house with a spade and a small box , ” the steward said , trembling . “ He dug a hole under the trees and put the box into it . I jumped on him and struck him with my knife , and he fell . Then I dug up the box , because I thought it was full of money . But inside there was a newborn baby , and it was still alive . ”
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