1. Haydée gives the count pause here, as Mercédès does to Albert, in Chapter 88 (“The Insult”), whereas Beauchamp offers the pistols he had planned for his own duel with Albert to the present duel… does it seem unfair that women in TCoMC are frequently having to act as checks on destructive male impulses while the men simply transfer violence among them?

2. The count has apparently revealed the grotto location of his treasure to Bertuccio… does this make him an Abbé Faria figure?

3. The count mentions that he has no mother—in fact, TCoMC has never, to this point, mentioned his mother. How does the lack of this relationship affect him?

4. The count is always precisely on time, Maximilian arrives at the count’s twenty minutes early, and Albert arrives at the dueling ground ten minutes late… is there significance to these characters’ varying relationships to time?

5. Who has matured more since the outburst at the opera—Albert or the count?

Final sentence of chapter:

“‘Ah, only now, from this day onwards, am I really certain of being an emissary of God.’”

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