In The Face Of The Storm

Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately my husband has been detained by business and so it is left up to me to introduce you to the Count of Montecristo yet again. You see, I had the audacity to beg the Count to allow me to give the birthday toast to Albert. I was so insistent and such is the graciousness of our host that he reluctantly gave up his fatherly right in order to accommodate a guest, even one as boorish as myself. Young Albert has made far too much of the assistance I gave him in Rome. When I arrived in the Capitol, I watched as the criminals who tied Albert to a wall threatened to cut off his finger and send it to his father as evidence of his abduction. The boy's reply to all this was, Do your worst. Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome, Do your worst. For I will do mine. Then the fates will know you as we know you. As Albert Mondego.