ESCAPE FROM CHÂTEAU D'IF Edmond Dantes was a young sailor who, in 1815, returned to Marseille with great expectations. After all, had he not just been named captain of the Pharaon? After all, was he not to marry his beloved, the beautiful Mercedes? But Dantes had enemies. His shipmate, Danglars, wanted that captaincy. Fernand wanted Mercedes. Fernand and Danglars wrote a note accusing Edmond of conspiring in a plot to bring the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte back from Elbe. Edmond was arrested on his wedding day and taken before a political turncoat named Villefort. To cover up his own reputation, Villefort had the accused Edmond Dantes imprisoned in the dungeons of Château D'If. And there, Dantes was to rot in a cell. But then, a hole appeared in his cell wall!