After the Count and Madame Fosco drive away at the end of the third part of the Third Epoch, the tell-all narrative that the Count agreed to write for Walter takes over and serves as the entire fourth part. Early in this narrative, Count Fosco metaphorically describes humanity as puppets and personifies Destiny as the supreme puppet-master:
All the gold of my rich nature was poured hopelessly at her feet. My wife—poor angel!—my wife who adores me, got nothing but the shillings and the pennies. Such is the World; such Man; such Love. What are we (I ask) but puppets in a show-box? Oh, omnipotent Destiny, pull our strings gently! Dance us mercifully off our miserable little stage!
Addressing Destiny, Count Fosco asks for mercy and implores for his strings to be pulled gently. The trigger of this interjection is the introduction of Marian into his narrative. He laments the irony of his absolute captivation with her—a woman he could never be with, a woman he had no choice but to wrong—over his own wife. Count Fosco, a character who is more in control than any other character we meet throughout the novel, admits with the puppet show metaphor that he too is enfeebled by the unpredictable workings of fate. His love for Marian is one of his few weaknesses, and he is dramatically aware of it.
The tone and syntax of this part and Count Fosco's narrative overall are in line with the dramatic and eloquent manner of speaking that readers have become acquainted with in his portions of dialogue. Nevertheless, the tone in this section is more apprehensive and vulnerable than it normally is when he speaks. The Count's love for Marian and his lament over his powerlessness allow Collins to fill readers with slightly more sympathy for the character just before he disappears from the novel's pages for good.
