Chapter Summaries

The Duke of Leeds secured Algiers’s agreement to admit Albanian mercenaries, while Joseph sought an alliance with Younis to seize Tunis and strengthen France’s food supply and North African influence. Rabia agreed that her father would reclaim Tunis in return for French help, and Joseph began setting terms for their cooperation.

• The Duke of Leeds persuaded Mansur and Algiers’s factions to accept Albanian mercenaries, then returned to Britain believing he had checked France’s expansion in North Africa.
• Joseph reviewed France’s dwindling grain reserves and severe budget deficit, concluding that Tunis’s farmland and trade made it vital to France’s stability.
• Consul Joanne introduced Rabia, who brought gifts and reported that her father, Younis, supported Joseph’s proposal to restore him as Bey of Tunis.
• Rabia asked France to help Younis escape house arrest in Algiers and defeat Hamud Ali’s forces, and Joseph offered a warship, five thousand muskets, and ten cannon.
• Joseph asked Tunis to ban raids on merchant ships, align its trade with France, and hand Port of Bizerte over to French administration.

Joseph arranged support for Younis while revealing that he understood Younis’s ties to piracy and planned to use their cooperation for French advantage. Meanwhile, French agents warned Hafsa of an impending rebellion and helped Younis escape Algiers with his family aboard French warships.

• Rabia secured Joseph’s promise of two million livres in military funding for Younis, payable after Joseph saw his army.
• Joseph told Joanne that Younis was a pirate investor who betrayed rival factions, and Joanne questioned why Joseph was helping him return to Tunis.
• Ishaq secretly told Hafsa that a rebellion was coming and instructed her to ensure Hamud Ali learned of it within seven days.
• Algiers Guard Corps soldiers discovered that Younis, his family, and his servants had escaped after four guards were killed.
• Prosper and Police Intelligence Division agents used gunfire to delay the Algiers pursuers as Younis reached the harbor.
• The Avance drove off Algiers ships and shore guns, allowing Younis, his family, and the agents to board French warships and escape into the darkness.

Younis gathered supporters and weapons in Sfax to challenge Hamud Ali, but Ali uncovered the rebellion and sent Koja’s forces south. Outnumbered and awaiting delayed French arms, Younis ordered an attack through Choukri Valley and planned to seize Susa.

• In Saint Petersburg, Paul reunited with his brother Alexei and spoke with Catherine and Alexandra about Paris and the Crown Prince of France.
• Younis assembled troops in Sfax, accepted support from local factions, and planned to advance north against Hamud Ali.
• Hamud Ali suspected a rebellion after Hafsa connected unusual grain purchases and Guard Corps officers’ departures to Younis’s former supporters.
• Koja led 2,000 Guard Corps troops south, defeated a Berber force heading to join Younis, and learned that Imanzadeh was recruiting for him.
• Hamud Ali mobilized more than 10,000 troops near Kairouan and Sfax, while Younis’s reinforcements and French weapons were delayed.
• Younis ordered Rum and Nizamiddin to prepare an attack at Choukri Valley and planned to bypass Kairouan Fortress to seize Susa.

Joseph’s plan set Younis and Hamud Ali’s forces against each other while French troops sailed toward Tunis. Younis’s army suffered heavy losses at Choukri Valley but defeated Gedik’s force with French weapons, and the chapter ended with Joseph’s advisor promising that the Crown Prince’s aid would soon arrive.

• The Crown Prince’s Personal Guard Corps boarded ten transport ships at Toulon and sailed for Tunis.
• At Choukri Valley, Gedik’s troops ambushed Younis’s advancing forces, destroying the units led by Nizamiddin and Rum.
• Younis rallied his remaining troops and used their French muskets to break Gedik’s larger force, while Rabia led the close-combat charge.
• Koja arrived after Younis had retreated south of Sfax, and he halted his pursuit to establish defenses.
• Younis counted nearly two thousand dead or missing and fewer than five thousand fighting troops, before his French Advisor said the Crown Prince’s aid would soon arrive.

The Crown Prince Guard Legion landed at Port of Bizerte to seize the pirate stronghold, while the Combined Fleet bombarded its defenses. The landing force formed up under fire and began attacking the Tunis Navy soldiers, leaving the battle underway.

• Hafsa warned Hamud Ali that Younis could recover from his defeat, and Ali sent reinforcements and money to Koja after Younis broke the siege with French-supplied weapons and artillery.
• The Combined Fleet demanded that Bizerte surrender named pirates, but local officials rejected the ultimatum, prompting Berthier and Major General Cisneros to prepare an assault on the port.
• Berthier rallied the Crown Prince Guard Legion aboard the transports, and its soldiers rowed landing sloops toward the shore.
• The Tunisian officers hesitated to fire while waiting for Ayas, allowing the first landing sloops to reach the beach without taking casualties.
• Davout led the landing force in forming ranks and setting up small cannons as the Forward and other warships bombarded the port batteries.
• The Tunis Navy soldiers turned most of their guns toward the fleet, and the legion's mortars fired exploding shells at the pirate formation.

The Royal Guard Legion landed and routed the pirates defending the beachhead, then advanced on the harbor battery. Police Academy officers and Davout led an assault that broke the battery’s defenders, with the students reaching the stronghold first.

• A Royal Guard Legion bombardment killed and wounded pirates at the beachhead, and the Major ordered an immediate assault.
• The Royal Guard Legion advanced with coordinated volleys, drove the pirates into flight, and dismantled their barricades.
• Berthier agreed to let Police Academy officers attack the harbor battery, while Davout joined with a company to provide cover.
• The Police Academy Students charged the pirates on the slope as Davout’s troops fired a covering volley, breaking the defenders’ line.
• The pirates fled or surrendered as the Police Academy Students stormed the battery, leaving Davout envious that they had won the honor of breaching it first.

The Royal Guard Legion captured Port of Bizerte and advanced toward Tunis City, while Hamud Ali chose to defend the navy rather than hand it over to the Europeans. The chapter left the Royal Guard Legion outside Tunis City as the Combined Fleet moved to blockade its harbor.

• Cisneros saw the Fleur-de-lis Flag raised over Bizerte’s battery less than an hour after the landing began, and Berthier ordered his troops to rest before pursuing south.
• The Royal Guard Legion took control of Port of Bizerte, capturing hundreds of pirates and driving many others to flee toward Tunis City.
• Naval officers begged Hamud Ali to defend them, but Sinanidin advised sacrificing the navy to avoid European censure.
• Hafsa urged Hamud Ali to protect the navy, warning that appearing weak could drive Tunisian forces to join Younis’s rebellion.
• Hamud Ali ordered Sinanidin to offer the Europeans thirty thousand Riyal and summoned the Guard Corps to strengthen Tunis City’s defenses.
• After three days of marching, Berthier’s Royal Guard Legion reached Tunis City as the Combined Fleet headed for the Port of Tunis.

Berthier’s forces defeated the Tunisian army as Haji seized power from Hamud Ali and handed Tunis over to France. News of the victory and the Pope’s title for Louis XVI as the “Suffering Savior” sparked celebration in Paris, while French officials and investors looked toward Tunis’s new trade and land agreements.

• Berthier demanded the pirates from Hamud Ali, who expelled the French negotiators as Sinanidin mobilized the Guard Corps in Tunis City.
• Berthier launched an artillery assault on Tunis City while Haji and Prosper’s agents entered Kashir Palace and Haji killed Hamud Ali, then claimed the Bey’s title through a supposed will.
• The Royal Guard Legion broke the Tunisian army’s line, and Haji ordered the troops to surrender and let the French enter the city.
• Haji dissolved the Tunis Navy, handed suspected raiders over to France, and placed Tunis City under the Royal Guard Legion and a newly organized Berber police force.
• Newspapers in Paris celebrated the victory, the rescue of European captives, and the Pope’s title of “Suffering Savior” for Louis XVI as nobles discussed opportunities in Tunis.
• At a Versailles ball, Queen Mary displayed a ship-shaped hairstyle modeled on the fleet’s flagship and led the nobles in honoring Louis XVI.

After France’s victory in Tunis, Joseph proposed a government-backed North Africa Development Plan to encourage poor farmers to immigrate and increase grain production. The plan still needed funding, while in London, British officials began blaming the Duke of Leeds for France’s gains.

• Queen Mary praised Joseph for proposing the campaign against the Barbary Pirates, and nobles celebrated France’s new advantages in Tunis.
• Military nobles complained that Berthier had deployed his legion without consulting them and vowed to prevent the royal family from controlling the army.
• Joseph asked Mirabeau to accelerate immigration to Tunis, then proposed government-backed loans for poor farmers and land they could own after ten years of cultivation.
• Joseph told Mirabeau he would find a way to fund the plan, considering a Tunis Development Fund or government bonds.
• In London, Councilor James accused the Duke of Leeds of letting France gain colonial-like benefits in Tunis after Britain spent money fortifying Algiers, and the Duke corrected the spending figure.

The Duke of Leeds claimed Britain could drive France out of Tunis by fomenting resistance, while British Consul Hollis paid Tunisian officers and Berber leaders to attack the French. As violence spread, Joanne reported the crisis to Joseph, and a French Cabinet Meeting began with immigration to Tunis already collapsing.

• The Duke of Leeds defended the government in Parliament, promised the French would be forced out of Tunis, and requested 300,000 Pound Sterling for the plan.
• Hollis paid Ercuz to attack French caravans and property, then urged a Berber chief to drive out French settlers with financial support.
• Joanne congratulated Haji on the defeat of the Younis rebels, then learned that attacks had killed French and Sardinian civilians and destroyed a workshop.
• Joanne told Joseph that Tunisian Guard Corps units and Berber tribes were attacking French people, and Joseph suspected someone was secretly organizing the violence.
• At the Cabinet Meeting on Tunis, Mirabeau reported that news of the attacks had caused prospective immigrants to cancel their journeys.

Joseph persuaded Queen Mary’s cabinet to try political persuasion before committing France to a costly war in Tunis, then decided to travel there himself to oversee the plan. Aboard the Forward, he directed historians to build a shared Roman ancestry narrative for the French and Tunisians, and the ship reached waters off Cape Bon with their first manuscript ready.

• At an emergency Cabinet Meeting, Joseph opposed abandoning Tunis and proposed persuading the Tunisians before sending reinforcements, winning Queen Mary’s approval.
• Joseph explained to Joanne that France should exploit the Tunisian Guard Corps’ isolation and begin its political strategy through identity and the church.
• Joseph convinced Queen Mary to let him go to Tunis aboard a ship, accompanied by three thousand Moulins Legion soldiers and five hundred Swiss Guard.
• During the voyage, Joseph asked historians to find evidence that the French and Tunisians shared Roman origins and instructed them to develop the claim into manuscripts.
• The Forward reached waters off Cape Bon as Joseph received a copy of Analysis of the Origins of Tunis.

Joseph arrived in Tunis and began preparing to reshape the city’s politics by controlling the Guard Corps, secretly moving weapons and money, and spreading a history that portrayed Tunisians as kin to France. The chapter leaves him with local merchants willing to support his plans and Tunisian intellectuals embracing the French-origin narrative.

• Said left the Sultan’s court after being appointed envoy to Tunis, where he was expected to make Haji apologize and seek appointment as Pasha despite the Empire’s crisis and Said’s lack of funds.
• Joseph arrived in Tunis aboard the Forward, and Berthier explained that Koja’s twelve-thousand-man Guard Corps was camped outside the city; Joseph ordered the soldiers allowed home after surrendering their weapons.
• Joseph recruited Agadon and More to transport weapons, ammunition, and silver throughout Tunis, offering protection, payment, and access to Parisian high society.
• Tunisian intellectuals circulated Analysis of the Origins of Tunis and embraced its claim that Tunisians shared ancestry with France and other European peoples.

Joseph tried to provoke a revolt against the Tunisian Guard Corps by spreading claims of Roman kinship, offering weapons, and forging Elder Alayi’s support, but the armed natives still feared to act. After hearing Ishaq’s report, Joseph realized he would need to lead them himself.

• Hilada promoted the pamphlet blaming the Ottomans for Tunisian oppression, while Elder Alayi refused Joseph’s proposal to call for attacks on the Guard Corps.
• Joseph arranged for painters to create a false portrait of Alayi declaring war, and copies spread across Tunis until people believed the religious leader had called for revolt.
• Sword of Vengeance leader Zhemile accepted one hundred Flintlock Guns from Ishaq in exchange for endorsing the claim that Tunisians descended from Rome.
• Zhemile’s allies and other armed groups received weapons but repeatedly delayed attacking the Guard Corps out of fear.
• Joseph compared the hesitant Tunisians to the people of Goose City and realized he would have to appear before them and lead the revolt himself.

Joseph’s attendants used staged prophecies and a giant one-eyed statue to inspire Tunisian rebels to rise against the Guard Corps, while Ishaq helped turn their first victory into a spreading revolt. As the rebels surrounded Tunis City, Said fled the chaos and decided to seek military help from Algiers.

• Joseph ordered Brigitte to carve a giant one-eyed stone man, while his attendants and the Police Intelligence Division planted fake oracle stones and staged prophetic fox cries.
• On Ashura Festival, crowds in Utica found the stone giant in the Medjerda River and treated it as proof that the Guard Corps would be driven out.
• Zhemile led an attack on the Guard Corps in Andalusian, and Ishaq secretly brought in a Four-Pound Cannon to breach the defenders’ position and secure the rebels’ victory.
• Zhemile’s forces seized towns, defeated reinforcements, and captured Susa as rebel forces grew and surrounded Tunis City under Ishaq’s leadership.
• Said fled Tunis after discovering the Guard Corps had collapsed and resolved to persuade the Guard Corps in Algiers to send troops.

The French Royal Guard Legion helped Zhemile’s rebel army overcome the Guard Corps’ artillery and organize its attacks on Tunis. After five days of bombardment, Koja’s breakout attempt failed, leaving the Guard Corps on the defensive.

• Koja ordered the Guard Corps to fire on the rebel assault, scattering Indigenous Army troops with repeated cannon bombardments.
• After repeated failed attacks, Zhemile asked Ishaq Pasha for cannons, and Ishaq brought Elder Alayi and a delegation to seek French assistance.
• Berthier promised the rebels cannons and French officers, then the Royal Guard Legion’s artillery silenced the Guard Corps guns.
• A French officer directed the rebels through feints and flank maneuvers, allowing cavalrymen to disable the remaining Guard Corps cannons without a major battle.
• After five days of French-led bombardment, Koja launched a breakout attack, but the rebels repelled it with dense volleys and cannon support.

Zhemile’s rebels took control of Tunis, and Joanne persuaded them to spare Haji by recognizing him as a Tunisian ruler rather than an Ottoman. In Bizerte, Joseph explained his plan to integrate Tunis as a French province, while Perna volunteered to treat soldiers with dysentery; in Paris, the Duke of Orléans learned that his son Philip had syphilis.

• Zhemile led the rebels into Tunis after defeating the Guard Corps, then stopped his soldiers from killing Haji.
• Joanne argued that Haji was a Tunisian ruler, and Zhemile, Ishaq, and the tribal leaders pledged loyalty to him.
• Joseph told Berthier that he wanted Tunis to become a developed French province rather than a colony, and explained why its location and resources made investment worthwhile.
• Perna offered to help treat the soldiers suffering from dysentery, and Joseph agreed on condition that she wear men's clothes.
• The Duke of Orléans noticed Philip's rash and bloodshot eye, and Philip admitted that he had syphilis.

Joseph learned that Algiers was preparing to invade Tunis and convened a military conference, while Queen Mary ordered French forces to protect him. The chapter ended as Joseph prepared the officers to plan their response.

• The Duke of Orléans learned that the Duke of Chartres had contracted syphilis from Madame de Sambelange and vowed revenge against Louis Joseph and the others he blamed.
• Hollis handed over his post in North Africa to Stuart, then was strangled by a black-clad man sent after him for his role in provoking the Tunisian nobles.
• Stuart and the Ottoman envoy Said persuaded Algiers to invade Tunis, and the Divan approved sending eleven thousand troops and twelve thousand Albanian mercenaries.
• Queen Mary sent Baron Vermorel to retrieve the Crown Prince and ordered ministers to dispatch troops to Tunis to protect him.
• Joseph approved plans to free white slaves and introduce civil service examinations, then learned from Ishaq that Algiers was assembling an army and Britain had funded attacks on the French.
• Joseph summoned senior officers to an operational conference and told Eman to replace the table with one large enough for a sand table.

Joseph rejected a prolonged defensive war and urged a surprise attack in Annaba, while the French relief army remained stalled in Paris. Kehler’s Algerian force advanced toward the border, unaware that the Tunisian movements might threaten its plans.

• Joseph ordered the officers to abandon luxury during war councils, and Berthier outlined the enemy’s strength and the French logistical and manpower problems.
• Berthier and Andre argued over defending at Ferryville or along the Medjerda River until Joseph warned that supply troubles made a quick victory essential.
• Joseph rejected a straightforward battle at Ferryville and proposed striking the Algerians in Annaba.
• Queen Mary learned that Marquis of Saint-Viran’s army had not left because of funding and payment delays, and she ordered Brienne to press for its arrival in Tunis.
• Kehler dismissed reports of French readiness and ordered more scouts after hearing that Tunisians had been spotted near Nefza.

Joseph accompanied the Royal Guard Legion as it marched to confront the Algiers Army, trusting Berthier to command the battle. The Legion caught Semiz’s Albanian Mercenaries unprepared near Nefza, and Berthier ordered the French troops to deploy and open fire.

• Semiz ordered more scouts and urged his Albanian Mercenaries to march faster, dismissing the Bey of Tunis’s warning and appeal for French help.
• Joseph refused Berthier’s offers to send him to safety, choosing to march and camp with the Royal Guard Legion as Berthier and the officers planned their surprise attack.
• A scout reported more than ten thousand Albanian Mercenaries nearby, and Berthier judged they might meet the French by noon the next day.
• Royal Guard Legion cavalrymen disguised as Tunisians ambushed and killed Algerian scouts, keeping the approaching army’s presence concealed.
• Semiz spotted the Royal Guard Legion less than five kilometers away and struggled to form his mercenaries into battle ranks while the French advanced in formation.
• Berthier ordered the Royal Guard Legion’s infantry to deploy and its artillery to begin firing.

Joseph and Berthier directed the Royal Guard Legion’s attack on Semiz’s Albanian Army, using concentrated artillery and disciplined infantry formations to shatter the Albanian left wing. As the French advanced, their cavalry and skirmishers repelled repeated Albanian cavalry attacks on the French right.

• Joseph observed the artillery position as the Royal Guard Legion’s five cannon bombarded the Albanian left wing, causing heavy casualties and throwing the mercenaries into confusion.
• Semiz learned that the French had about four thousand men and ordered Nishani to lead all the Albanian cavalry in a delaying attack against the French right.
• Berthier ordered French cavalry to support the right wing and directed its infantry to prepare for cavalry attacks, while the reserves supplied a cannon.
• French cavalry and skirmishers routed the disorganized Albanian cavalry, killing hundreds of riders as the French infantry held its line.
• After Lefebvre reported that his skirmishers could stop the cavalry without forming hollow squares, Berthier kept most of the infantry in line and ordered the frontal assault to continue.
• The Albanian cavalry repeatedly charged the French right but were driven back by musket and grapeshot fire as the Royal Guard Legion advanced.