Mercédès Herrera, Comtesse de Morcerf was a French aristocrat and the wife of Fernand Mondego, Comte de Montcerf and Edmond Dantès, Comte de Montecristo.
Biography[]
Herrera in 1815
Mercédès Herrera was born in Marseille, France to a family of Catalan descent. She developed a relationship with Edmond Dantès and a friendship with Fernand Mondego during the two men's service aboard the merchant ship Pharaon, and, while she came from a well-to-do background, she loved Dantès in spite of his poverty and illiteracy. In 1815, after Dantès was promoted to captain of the Dantès by shipowner Patrice Morell, the two planned to marry, but a jealous Mondego plotted with first mate Philippe Danglars to incriminate Dantès; the aristocratic Mondego coveted Mercédès and could not stand to be outranked by a commoner, while Danglars sought the title of captain for himself. Mondego and Danglars informed magistrate Jean-Francois Villefort that Dantès had smuggled a letter from Napoleon to Marseille, leading to Dantès' arrest and deportation to the Chateau d'If. At the same time, Mondego persuaded Villefort to inform Mercédès of Dantès' "death" (and encourage her to find comfort with Mondego) in exchange for murdering Villefort's Bonapartist father Monsieur Clarion to cover up Villefort's familial ties to the defeated emperor and enable his career advancement. Mercédès, who was pregnant with Dantès' child, married Mondego just a month after Dantès' death to cover up the illegitimacy of the baby, and, while she became Countess of Morcerf as Mondego's wife and even abided by his frequent infidelities after they moved to Paris, she secretly retained her love for Dantès.
In 1831, Dantès, having escaped the Chateau d'If, discovered the treasure of Count Enrique Spada, and reinvented himself as the "Count of Monte Cristo", purchased a chateau in Paris and became well-known in Parisian high society. That same year, he arranged for the Mondegos' son Albert to be kidnapped during his trip to Rome, only to "rescue" Albert from Luigi Vampa's pirates and thus enter the good graces of the Mondegos, who frequently invited him over. During one social occasion, Mercédès realized that Monte Cristo was her old love, recognizing his twirling of his hair and his facial features. The count continued to deny his identity for some time, but he ultimately caved in and told Mercédès that he intended to have his revenge against those who had wronged him. Monte Cristo masterminded the arrest of Danglars for piracy and of Villefort for murdering his own father, implicating Fernand Mondego in both crimes. When Fernand decided to flee the country as the gendarmes came to arrest him and the banks called in his loans, Mercédès said that she would not accompany him, and she revealed the true parentage of Albert. When Mercédès discovered that Albert had rushed to Bouchon to join his father on hearing from Villefort's wife that Monte Cristo had used him as a dupe to get close to his father, Mercédès followed her husband and son there. She arrived just in time to prevent Dantès and Albert from dueling, and she told Albert and Dantès of their relationship, turning Albert against his father, who had let him fight Dantès. Mondego, in a move to escape, attempted to shoot Dantès, only for Dantès' valet Jacopo Guzman to throw a knife at Mondego's gun, which fired and struck Mercédès in the shoulder. Mercédès was lightly wounded, and Dantès gave chase to Mondego and slew him in a swordfight. After Mercédès recovered, she married her old love, who took Albert in as his own son.