Chapter Summaries

At the cabinet meeting, Joseph supported Louis XVI’s contribution to the Patriot Party and considered how to overcome resistance to tax reform and preserve his Police Reform. Queen Mary gave him six months to solve the police salary problem, and Joseph sought her support for a Paris Police Commissioner recommendation.

• Louis XVI offered 600,000 livres of his own money to aid the Patriot Party, allowing the treasury to pause its payments for two months.
• Brienne told Queen Mary that the High Court was likely to reject the tax reform bill, while Joseph recalled how earlier attempts had failed and resolved to strengthen royal power and government influence over public opinion.
• Queen Mary praised Joseph’s Police Reform but ordered it to end because the municipal government could not afford the police salaries.
• Joseph argued that police reform should expand and promised to find the money; Queen Mary gave him six months to solve the salary issue or restore the old system.
• Joseph asked Queen Mary about a suitable Paris Police Commissioner and said Count Monod would accept his recommendation.

Joseph considered using control of the police to build a Police Academy and cultivate loyal talent, then offered to take over the Queen’s dispute with the Navy Minister. Back in his chambers, he promised to fund a low-cost Salicin factory, leaving the medicine’s production and sale in his hands.

• Queen Mary recommended Besançon and Friant as possible collaborators, and Joseph decided to meet them before choosing one.
• Joseph conceived of building a Police Academy to train professional Police and recruit capable commoners into his circle.
• Joseph asked Queen Mary to send the Minister of the Navy to him if he came to argue against cutting the shipbuilding plan.
• Officials debated whether Joseph favored England or opposed Prussia, while British Ambassador Harriet sent a report about the Cabinet Meeting to England.
• Lamarck told Joseph that Salicin had helped save several lives, and Joseph offered to fund a factory with profits capped at 3%.

Joseph arranged to turn a failing royal perfume workshop into a pharmaceutical factory to produce affordable Salicin, while also planning to profit from skincare products. He then challenged Marquis de Castries to reconsider France’s naval strategy by describing heavily armed, iron-shelled warships, and Castries claimed such ships could defeat the English Fleet.

• Joseph told Lamarck that Salicin medicine would be sold cheaply and that profits from skincare products would support the business.
• Eman suggested using a failing royal perfume workshop, and Joseph obtained it from Queen Mary without paying for it.
• A servant summoned Joseph to meet Marquis de Castries, leaving Lamarck to handle the factory.
• Castries argued that France should build warships to fight the Englishmen and recover the Colonies.
• Joseph questioned whether France could win and described fast, heavily armed warships protected by Iron Shells.
• Castries called the proposed ships an unrealistic fantasy but said they would let him defeat the Englishmen.

Joseph persuaded Castries that a steam-powered warship could begin construction within a year and ordered preparations for a new cannon. After Castries left, Marquis of Saint-Priest requested an audience with Joseph.

• Joseph assured Castries that a steam warship could be built within six months to a year and told him to prepare craftsmen and materials.
• Joseph instructed Castries to have craftsmen make a short-barreled, large-caliber cannon, which he identified as a Carronade.
• Castries questioned the cannon's short range, and Joseph said he would explain its purpose at the Brest Shipyard.
• Joseph saw Castries out after discussing his plans with him.
• Eman arrived and told Joseph that Marquis of Saint-Priest requested an audience.

Joseph secured spies from the Minister of War and appointed Besançon and Friant to lead Paris police reform and establish a Police Academy. After allocating funds for their work, he began preparing to sell a salicin-based cosmetic called Angel Water to replenish his dwindling fortune.

• Joseph persuaded the Minister of War to provide three top-tier spies and eight ordinary spies for his intelligence agency.
• Joseph appointed Besançon Paris Police Commissioner and Friant Dean of Academic Affairs at the planned Police Academy.
• Joseph instructed Besançon to expand police reform across Paris and promised monthly funding for salaries.
• Joseph tasked Friant with finding a cheap academy site, recruiting instructors, and teaching subjects including finance, trade, journalism, and law.
• Joseph spent seventy thousand livres on police reform and academy start-up costs, leaving him with just over one hundred thousand livres.
• Joseph ordered glycerin, rose essential oil, glass bottles, and wooden boxes embossed with the name Angel Water for his salicin-based cosmetics.

On his first day as Assistant Minister of Finance, Joseph learned that the High Court had refused to register the Tax Law and resolved to help Brienne overcome the nobles’ resistance. While reviewing France’s finances, he discovered the enormous costs of government bonds and short-term bank loans, then learned Laborde Bank had postponed their loan negotiations.

• Joseph arrived at the Office of the Minister of Finance and learned that the High Court had refused to register the Tax Law.
• Brienne said he would seek the church’s support and make further concessions, while Joseph resolved to find a way to pass the bill and counter the nobles.
• Joseph reviewed France’s financial records and found that the government owed 2 billion livres in bonds, with costly interest payments and additional short-term bank debt.
• Joseph’s assistant reported that Laborde Bank had postponed loan negotiations for the money needed to repay a 6 million livre bond due in a month.
• Joseph reviewed the planned borrowing and remarked that the banks’ interest rates amounted to usury by modern standards.

Joseph revised the Tax Law to remove provisions that burdened ordinary people, turning it into a weapon against noble privileges. After gambling with Queen Mary and the court, he considered how France’s enormous debt would require an Industrial Revolution to overcome.

• Joseph crossed out the Tax Law provisions harmful to ordinary citizens and small business owners, then set the revised bill aside until morning.
• Eman invited Joseph to Queen Mary’s gambling game in Mars Hall, where nobles gathered to play cards and celebrate her winning streak.
• Joseph lost three rounds before the noblemen at his table began deliberately letting him win, encouraged by the young noblewomen who saw him looking unhappy.
• Joseph won 156 Ecus, then reflected that France’s debt required him to advance steam engines, textile technology, and supporting policies.
• Hungry after the late-night game, Joseph headed for a nearby kitchen to get something to eat.

Joseph mistook Perna for a ghost while finding her secretly practicing dissection in the palace kitchen. Perna confessed her wish to become a doctor despite the restrictions on women, and asked Joseph to report her.

• Joseph entered the empty kitchen and mistook bloodied, white-robed Perna for Sadako when she turned toward him holding a knife.
• Eman and Kexer shielded Joseph as the Personal Guards aimed their guns at Perna, who screamed until Joseph recognized her voice.
• Kexer confirmed Perna’s identity, and Joseph learned she had been helping Mr. Valister butcher meat.
• Joseph noticed the dissected rabbit and asked Perna if she was practicing dissection, prompting her to admit she was.
• Perna explained that she wanted to become a doctor but could not study or dissect openly because she was a woman, and she asked Joseph to report her.

Joseph encouraged Perna to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, then shared a meal she cooked and promised to have a doctor’s uniform made for her. The next morning, Perna examined Joseph and found herself newly struck by how handsome he was.

• Joseph told Perna he supported women practicing medicine and encouraged her to become a doctor.
• Perna cooked foie gras and soup for Joseph, and he praised her food and invited her to share the meal.
• Joseph promised Perna a specialized doctor’s uniform that might later be promoted across the country.
• The next morning, Perna examined Joseph and blushed when she realized how handsome he was.

Joseph prepared a strategy to pass the Tax Law by provoking the nobles and turning public opinion against the High Court, while Dr. Lamark reported that the Pharmaceutical Factory had begun producing Salicin. The chapter ended with Patriot Party leader Dandels meeting a French guest in Amsterdam.

• Joseph gave Brienne a revised Tax Law that removed provisions favorable to the nobility and urged him to submit it to the High Court.
• Joseph instructed his assistant to prepare newspaper coverage explaining the bill and reporting the High Court’s expected refusal to register it.
• Dr. Lamark apologized for Perna and told Joseph that the Pharmaceutical Workshop had successfully purified Salicin.
• Dr. Lamark estimated production at 2,500 grams of Salicin per day and discussed affordable pill prices with Joseph.
• Joseph asked Dr. Lamark to produce an additional 300 grams of high-purity Salicin daily for skincare products.
• Dandels received a guest from France in Amsterdam.

Colbert persuaded the Dutch Patriot Party to suspend peace talks and prepare to resist the Prussian Army, while a French team planned to capture Wilhelmina in Nijmegen. At Versailles, Joseph created and packaged Angel Water for sale, then sent bottles to Paris luxury stores and Queen Mary.

• Colbert convinced Dandels and the Patriot Party to suspend peace talks and defend Amsterdam with French money, weapons, and volunteer artillerymen.
• Second Lieutenant Fovatu led a disguised team into Nijmegen and planned to act when Wilhelmina went to church on Sunday.
• Joseph mixed Salicin, Glycerin, rose oil, water, and beeswax to make Angel Water, then tested it on himself and his beautician.
• Joseph had the beautician and his assistant package more than fifty bottles and sent forty to Paris stores on consignment.
• Joseph took the remaining bottles to Queen Mary and calculated that each bottle could earn him a large profit.

Joseph introduced Angel Water, his skincare product, to Queen Mary, whose use of it sparked intense demand among Versailles noblewomen. By the next morning, buyers were competing for scarce bottles in Paris, while the Silver Knight shop’s manager regretted refusing the consignment.

• Joseph gave Queen Mary Angel Water and asked her to mention it to noble ladies, and she agreed while giving a box to her maid Morgana.
• The Duchess of Broglie noticed the product, and Queen Mary gave her a box before De Berninac distributed boxes to the other ladies.
• News of Angel Water spread through Versailles, and a buyer learned that forty bottles had been consigned to Paris shops after paying a gratuity for the information.
• Joseph’s assistant consigned five bottles to Source of Elegance after Silver Knight’s manager demanded a high fee.
• Noblewomen and young ladies rushed to Paris the next morning, and one noblewoman outbid two girls to buy five bottles for two hundred livres.
• Young ladies left Silver Knight without Angel Water, while a fierce contest for the remaining stock began at Source of Elegance.

Joseph expanded his Angel Water business plan into a graded cosmetics line and organized the Paris Angel Trading Company to produce and sell it. He then visited Lamarck’s Pharmaceutical Workshop and ordered him to expand Salicin production.

• After learning that forty bottles of Angel Water had sold for 1,460 livres, Joseph decided to raise prices and create luxury, deluxe, and standard editions.
• Joseph planned facial masks and other cosmetics, along with direct-sales shops, membership cards, and franchises across Europe.
• Joseph assigned his attendants to buy supplies, arrange production, and register the Paris Angel Trading Company.
• Joseph traveled to Paris to choose a shop location and visited Lamarck’s Pharmaceutical Workshop.
• When Lamarck asked whether to dismiss surplus workers or return them to perfume-making, Joseph told him to buy equipment and expand Salicin production.

Joseph persuaded Lamarck to stay at the Pharmaceutical Workshop by promising to develop Tocopherol and a far more powerful medicine, then sent Eman to find a suitable Paris property for a new business. The chapter left Joseph choosing Nagel Jewelry Store on the Champs-Élysées.

• Lamarck told Joseph that he planned to leave for botanical research in South America, but Joseph decided to keep him at the workshop to help develop new medicines.
• Joseph proposed extracting Tocopherol from corn cobs and described equipment for building a constant-temperature laboratory.
• Joseph promised Lamarck a medicine that could treat pneumonia, infections, and other serious diseases, and offered to fund his South American research later; Lamarck agreed to stay.
• Joseph gave Lamarck the Tocopherol extraction method and left the workshop.
• Eman told Joseph that fourteen Paris properties met his requirements, and Joseph chose Nagel Jewelry Store on the Champs-Élysées.

Joseph bought a Paris jewelry store and ordered a rapid renovation to make the shop itself a model for a new kind of merchandise. In the Netherlands, Captain Diboa planned an ambush against the Prussian vanguard and assigned Second Lieutenant Davout to disrupt its supply lines.

• Joseph bought the Nagel Jewelry Store for 36,000 livres and ordered Archide to renovate it within a week.
• Joseph explained that the renovated shop would serve as a sample, in addition to selling Angel Water.
• Colonel Vorst proposed withdrawing toward Amsterdam, but Captain Diboa argued that the Dutch should counterattack the Prussian vanguard.
• Diboa planned to use Dutch recruits as bait and position the main force and cannons between the Sibella River and Abcoude Lake.
• Diboa tasked Second Lieutenant Davout with harassing Prussian supply lines and gave him 650 Dutch cavalry in addition to his own sixty.

Captain Diboa took command of Dutch cavalry and arranged Dutch and French forces to meet the Prussian vanguard. Andre led a harassment attack on a Prussian convoy, then marched north toward the main Prussian assembly ground.

• Captain Diboa persuaded Vorst to hand over 650 Dutch cavalrymen and assigned Andre to command them.
• Diboa arranged for the Freedom Legion to face the Prussians while Dutch troops and French artillery waited near the Sibella River.
• Andre’s Rangers spotted the Prussian vanguard and later found a convoy guarded by more than three thousand troops.
• Andre led French and Dutch cavalry in repeated feinting attacks that kept the Prussians in defensive formation until reinforcements arrived near nightfall.
• Andre rested his cavalry in a forest, then ordered them to march north through the night toward the Prussian main force.

Andre's nighttime cannon raid unsettled the Prussian camp, while Blücher's forces defeated a Dutch infantry line near Abcoude Lake before Dutch artillery halted their advance. A report that Dutch cavalry had appeared near Utrecht left Duke of Brunswick weighing the threat to his supply base.

• Andre fired two small cannons at the Prussian camp, then withdrew south toward Utrecht under cover of night.
• Duke of Brunswick sent cavalry to scout the area and then ordered the Prussian army to continue toward Amsterdam.
• Blücher pursued a Dutch force to Abcoude Lake, where his disciplined troops defeated the Dutch infantry line and drove it from the field.
• Blücher sent cavalry after the retreating Dutch, but heavy Dutch cannon fire struck the Prussian forward flank and stalled his advance.
• Duke of Brunswick received word that Dutch cavalry had appeared near Utrecht and considered the threat to his logistical base.

Duke of Brunswick's Prussian army attacked the Dutch but withdrew after Princess Wilhelmina's rescue removed the pretext for the invasion and William V was accepted back as Stadtholder. The Dutch celebrated their victory, while Joseph traveled to Paris for the opening of Paris Angel's exclusive shop.

• Duke of Brunswick ordered Blücher to scout cautiously and strengthened the Prussian supply line after Blücher's corps suffered heavy losses against the Dutch.
• Diboa and Andre led the Dutch defense against Duke of Brunswick's renewed assaults, and Andre prepared to attack the Prussian artillery when the French Artillery ran out of shells.
• An envoy delivered King William II's withdrawal order after reporting that Wilhelmina had been rescued in the Southern Netherlands and that the Dutch Parliament had accepted William V's return as Stadtholder.
• Joseph's arrangements and further concessions from the Patriot Party helped bring about the Prussian withdrawal, while Andre watched the Prussian lines retreat and the Dutch cheered.
• Joseph traveled to Paris for the opening of Paris Angel's exclusive shop, where crowds filled the Champs-Élysées.

Joseph opened the first Paris Angel Boutique with a crowded public ceremony, then helped a poor boy whose sister was ill and showed him how to earn money. A veiled woman watched Joseph and reconsidered her opinion of the royal family.

• Joseph and Kexer used the Guards to make a path through the crowd gathered for the Paris Angel Boutique’s opening.
• Joseph cut the ribbon and announced the boutique’s mission before leaving through the back door under Kexer’s protection.
• A veiled young woman went around to the rear of the store, hoping to buy more Angel Water for her skin.
• Joseph gave money and Salicin to a starving boy whose younger sister had a fever, and the boy gave her a pill.
• Joseph advised the boy to rent chairs and offer shopping services to customers at the boutique.
• The veiled woman watched Joseph help the children and said the royal family might not be entirely made up of Vipers and parasites.

Soleil sneaked into Paris Angel Company, became caught up in its cosmetics and VIP card offers, and left regretting her spending. After hearing the store’s first-day sales figures, Joseph ordered Paris Angel to expand into branded jewelry, hats, and shoes.

• Soleil slipped into Paris Angel’s shop and browsed its cosmetics, then bought several products and a VIP card despite worrying about the cost.
• Soleil left the store regretting her spending and reminded herself that she pursued freedom and justice, not money.
• The Paris Angel managers reported sales of 126,562 livres, including cosmetics and VIP card deposits, to Joseph.
• Brent admitted that the store had run out of stock, and Joseph instructed him to stock 95 percent of projected sales to sustain customer demand.
• Joseph told Brent to commission exclusive jewelry, hats, and shoes for Paris Angel and sell them under the company’s brand at three to five times cost.