Jealous over his soon to
be rewarded courtship with a certain fair young towns-lady, Pierre's
friends send their prank letter to the commissaire, and Picaud is indeed
arrested -if you may term it that. He is hoodwinked and carried off
to a distant prison, where he is held under a false name and for no
particular charges. During his seven year stay in the harsh prison fortress
Fenestrelle, he became weakened, bitter, and delusional in his continued
love for the woman (whom he was sure would be waiting for him if ever
he escaped).
But also in prison was a
man who shared vast knowledge (and eventually vast wealth) with Pierre,
a priest named Torre. Because of this, Pierre is able to reenter society
in a fashionable manner. Hugo's Jean Valjean
also uses hidden treasure to support himself once out of prison. However,
though Valjean repeatedly tried to "play it straight," Picaud's
sole obsession was to press "vengeance upon those who were guilty
of sending him to that living death." (Wolfe,
21)
The adventurous story of
the ruin and tragedy that Picaud brings into the lives of those who
ruined him has been documented by police records and compiled by the
famous French archivist Monsieur Peuchet. But the more popular version
of this man's fearsome path of destruction is in the fictionalized account
by Alexandre Dumas called The
Count of Monte Cristo.
True tales like that of Picaud's
rampage served as both popular entertainment and social commentary in
French society.
• On the one hand,
stories like The Count of Monte Cristo thrilled and chilled
French readers, who could live out the danger and excitement of criminal
types from the comfort of their "study."
• On the other hand,
tales of false imprisonment and prison brutality like Picuad's (or
false accusation and wrongful execution like Joseph
Lesurques) helped educate French society about the evils of
the judicial system and the needs for reform.
