”Gods never do ill, gods stop when they want to stop. Chance is not stronger than they are and it is they, on the contrary, who dictate to chance. No, Emmanuel, on the contrary, I am a man and your admiration is as unjust as your words are sacrilegious.”

it’s clear Dantes’ conscience is starting to catch up with him after the horror at Villefort’s (truly the most horrific punishment). it seems like just a while ago he was proclaiming himself an agent of Providence, the hand of God. now he doubts, “wondering for the first time whether he had had the right to do what he had done”. now he wants to stop, perhaps, but feels driven on by fate and the path he’s chosen.