Editing Edmond Dantès (section)

=== Despair and near-suicide ===
After six long years in [[solitary confinement]] in the dungeons of the Chateau, Edmond decides to commit [[suicide]] by starving himself. Fearing he will be forced to eat, he throws out his food in secrecy. After nearly six months, he hears scratching against the wall of his cell. Curiosity about the source of the noise inspires him to begin eating again.  He taps on his wall several times, and when the scratching stops, he concludes that it is a prisoner trying to escape. He then uses the saucepan on which his food is served to begin digging where he heard the scratching before in hopes that it was another prisoner digging his way to freedom. Dantès eventually breaks through enough of the wall that he is able to exchange a brief greeting with an old Italian [[abbé]] named [[Abbé Faria|Faria]], sometimes called the "Mad Priest", who had indeed been attempting to dig to freedom.