Mercedes read:
"Albert,
By showing you that I know your plans, I hope to also show you my consideration. You're free to leave your father's house and take your mother with you. But think, Albert, you owe her more than your noble heart can ever repay. Fight your own battles and bear your own suffering, but spare her the poverty that will come with your fresh start. She doesn't deserve even a shadow of the misfortune that's fallen on her today, and fate shouldn't punish the innocent for the guilty.
I know you plan to leave without taking anything. Don't ask how I know, I just do.
Listen, Albert. Twenty-four years ago, I returned home proud and joyful. I had a fiancée, a beautiful girl I adored. I'd saved a hundred and fifty gold coins through endless hard work. That money was for her, for our future. Knowing the dangers of the sea, I buried our treasure in the little garden of my father's house in Marseilles. Your mother knows that house well.
