Chapter Summaries

French police and Intelligence Bureau agents staged arrests to expose the Southern Netherlands Committee’s role in fomenting unrest and implicate the Liberals. The captured Netherlanders confessed in prison, while the French noblemen arrested during the riots were released two days later.

• Saint-Just recognized his handwriting on a forged letter, panicked, and fled, while Yeskute tried to seize the letter and was arrested.
• The mounted-police captain showed the letter to the farmers and presented Henry Belwin, who confessed that the Committee had sent him to spread rumors and provoke conflict.
• Farmers realized they had been used, and two of them offered to return the silver coins Yeskute had called a Freedom Allowance.
• Intelligence Bureau agents arrested Committee members in Reims, Lille, and other places as more than thirty French noblemen remained in the Reims Police Department cells.
• Three captured Netherlanders admitted that the Committee and French Liberals had incited the Reims farmers to besiege City Hall.
• The French noblemen angrily blamed the Netherlanders for the unrest, but prison guards released them two days later.

Joseph used a public campaign against Southern Netherlands spies to suppress the Northwest provinces’ riots, while the Paris High Court began trying members of the Committee of Freedom Allies. After Brienne warned that discontent over land redemption would return, Joseph ordered the revised plan announced once the trials ended.

• More than thirty young nobles left Reims Prison but insisted on staying to watch the public trial after claiming Southern Netherlands spies had deceived them.
• The Intelligence Bureau’s stories and newspapers stirred outrage against Southern Netherlands spies, pushing the land redemption dispute out of public attention.
• Thousands gathered at the Paris High Court as officials presented evidence and witnesses testified against the Committee of Freedom Allies; the trial was scheduled to continue the next day.
• Venio and Brienne told Joseph that the spy affair had temporarily ended the Northwest provinces’ riots, but peasants and nobles still awaited the land redemption plan.
• Joseph ordered the revised land redemption plan, allowing peasants to redeem eight years’ worth of land output through Annual Tribute, to be announced after the public trial concluded.

Karl II prepared a counteroffensive against the French, expecting riots in France to force the French Army to withdraw, but Van der Noot reported that the plot had failed. In Paris, Joseph learned that the British Foreign Minister had postponed a meeting, apparently to consider how to respond to the situation.

• Karl II told his officers that the French would soon redeploy troops and began planning an operation to support the Prussian Army.
• Van der Noot arrived and told Karl II that French authorities had arrested their agents and publicly tried them, causing the plan to fail.
• Karl II dismissed the officers and ordered them not to discuss what they had heard.
• Joseph received notice that the British Minister of Foreign Affairs had postponed their meeting by five days.

Farmers across France celebrated Joseph’s land redemption plan, which offered affordable payments and loans, and many repented for having joined protests after believing Saint-Just’s false claims. The chapter left farmers turning against the Liberals and Dutch spies and volunteering their sons for the war against the Netherlands.

• Joseph hurried to Versailles Palace to steady the Old Nobles after the land redemption plan was announced.
• Farmers in Zesfield Village crowded into the church to confess that they had been deceived by foreign spies and had cursed the King.
• The farmers learned the plan offered land redemption through manageable payments, subsidies, and low-interest loans.
• Farmers blamed Saint-Just and the Liberals for spreading false rumors and vowed to report Liberals to the Mounted Police.
• The farmers celebrated the punishment of Dutch spies and offered their sons for enlistment in the war against the Netherlands.

Joseph defended the Land Redemption Policy to protesting nobles and argued that they could profit by organizing large companies to provide farmers with livestock, fertilizer, irrigation, farming instruction, and transport. He left the nobles with his proposal as Queen Mary prepared to intervene.

• More than a thousand nobles protested the Land Redemption Policy at Versailles and pleaded with Queen Mary to change it.
• Queen Mary summoned Joseph, believing she would need to mediate and compensate the nobles for his policy.
• Joseph arrived with Mirabeau and Archbishop Beaumont, who had gathered support from capitalist aristocrats and the Church.
• Joseph told the nobles that he had drafted the policy himself and insisted it needed no changes.
• Joseph argued that nobles could become wealthier by forming large companies to supply farmers with equipment, expertise, and transport.

Joseph persuaded the Old Nobles to invest in a King's Fund that would finance Agricultural Service Consulting Companies, promising dividends from modernized farming and grain sales. The Capitalist Aristocrat had already supplied most of the fund, motivated in part by the opportunity to buy large estates under Joseph’s land redemption plan.

• Joseph proposed Agricultural Service Consulting Companies that would provide farmers with supplies, irrigation, loans, and efficient grain transport.
• Joseph announced that the King's Fund, the Agricultural Bank, the church, the Steam Engine Company, and the Strategic Grain Reserve would support the companies.
• The Old Nobles received subscription forms, found that they could invest as little as 200 livres, and began subscribing to the fund.
• Joseph considered how royal oversight and possible price laws would keep the companies from exploiting farmers.
• Mirabeau and other Capitalist Aristocrat members revealed that they had raised most of the fund and discussed buying large estates.

Mirabeau invested most of his funds in Lyon’s Automatic Loom factory and some in the Coal Mines of the Southern Netherlands after weighing the effects of industrialized farms. At the Petit Trianon, nobles who could not afford the King’s Fund protested the loss of their traditional income, and Joseph challenged them to remember how their ancestors earned their fiefs.

• Mirabeau considered how industrialized farms would free workers for cities, expand factory labor, and create a larger consumer market.
• Mirabeau chose to buy land for resale while investing most of his funds in Lyon’s Automatic Loom factory and some in the Coal Mines of the Southern Netherlands.
• Joseph’s Grain Yield Act required landholders to meet minimum harvest yields or face joint liability, fines, or forced auctions.
• A group of cash-strapped nobles protested at the Petit Trianon, demanding their traditional rents and taxes instead of the King’s Fund.
• Joseph asked the nobles how their ancestors had obtained their fiefs and declared that they had earned them through valor in the king’s army.

Joseph persuaded France’s idle nobles to join the Royal Legion by promising military glory and colonial fiefs, while Queen Mary watched with relief. Meanwhile, Marquess Wellesley met Talleyrand to begin negotiations after his hopes of exploiting French unrest had failed.

• Joseph shamed the nobles for resting on their ancestors’ achievements and urged them to serve France as warriors.
• Joseph promised nobles who earned merit in the Royal Legion overseas fiefs and rewards far greater than their inherited lands.
• Queen Mary watched the nobles grow enthusiastic and returned inside, content that Joseph could handle the crisis without her help.
• Marquess Wellesley arrived at Versailles frustrated that the riots had been quelled and the French nobles had not risen against the King.
• Talleyrand greeted Wellesley in the Hall of Peace, and the two ministers exchanged pointed remarks about unrest in France and trouble in India.

Marquess Wellesley and Talleyrand negotiated over French and British interests in Tunis, India, and the Maghreb but reached no agreement. Wellesley left to pressure England’s allies and strengthen its position in India, while Talleyrand reported the talks to Joseph.

• Wellesley explained that England was spending heavily to defeat Mysore, while Talleyrand mocked the costs and pointed out England could not afford to lose India.
• Wellesley proposed that England stop supporting Algiers and Tripoli if France stopped subsidizing Mysore, and Talleyrand demanded British recognition of French interests across the Maghreb.
• Wellesley rejected France’s broader claims, and he and Talleyrand argued over Tunis, Morocco, Indian trade rights, and Caribbean islands without reaching an agreement.
• Wellesley wrote to Lord Talmos to urge Algiers and Tripoli to pressure Tunis, then told Cornwallis to win a decisive victory in India.
• Talleyrand reported the negotiations to Joseph.

Joseph directed France to reduce its attacks in India and instead make Britain pay through a costly campaign against Mysore, while Talleyrand prepared to rally European rulers against possible British trouble in the Southern Netherlands. In New Zealand, Magnus and Nikau arrived in Mysore and discussed the Maori tribes’ growing cooperation with the French and plans to resolve intertribal conflicts.

• Joseph rejected Talleyrand’s proposal to increase investment in Mysore and ordered Marquis de Lafayette to defend and destroy British supplies rather than try to drive Britain from India.
• Joseph told Talleyrand to warn rulers in the German States and Northern, Eastern Europe about likely British interference in the Southern Netherlands.
• A Russian-flagged schooner belonging to the Gemini Trading Company arrived at Mangalore carrying Magnus, Nikau, and other Maori.
• Magnus described how the Development Team’s stories and sheep-raising agreements had encouraged Maori tribes to cooperate with the French and expand wool production.
• Magnus reassured Nikau that Marion du Fresne was promoting a Common Declaration and Tribal Council to settle disputes, and argued that the Waitaha would avoid attacking Yamotu to preserve their chance to raise sheep.

Fernand du Fresne and the Maori arrived in Mangalore to help Lafayette strengthen Mysore’s defenses with their traditional Pa fortresses. After seeing the first completed Pa, Lafayette realized it could be effective against the English advance.

• Lafayette welcomed Fernand du Fresne and the Maori, who had been sent by the Crown Prince to assist Mysore.
• Magnus and Fernand explained how the Maori built Pa, while Major Gaston argued that Bastion Forts were better suited to withstand English cannon.
• Fernand said Pa could be built faster and more cheaply than Bastion Forts, and could slow the English if enough were constructed.
• Lafayette ordered Mangalore’s local officials to assist the Maori while also building Bastion Forts at key points.
• Half a month later, Lafayette inspected the first Pa northwest of Mangalore and recognized its defensive value.

Nikau, Fernand, and Lafayette showed how Mysore’s newly built Pa could withstand an assault, while Cornwallis’s confident advance into Mangalore stalled at the crude fort. The English captured the first wall but failed to take the Pa, losing twenty-seven soldiers in their first assault.

• Nikau explained the Pa’s layered defenses and escape tunnels, while Fernand described its cannon and gunpowder trap.
• Cornwallis assembled nine thousand English soldiers and allied forces, confident he would reach Mysore City within three months and force Tipu to surrender.
• The English vanguard halted at the Pa, and Cornwallis ordered Lieutenant Colonel Priestley to destroy it after its defenses frustrated the artillery.
• Cornwallis brought heavier cannons and ordered an assault; English skirmishers breached the first wall but withdrew after Mysore’s defenders attacked them from above.
• The skirmisher commander reported that the assault had failed and twenty-seven English soldiers had been lost.

Cornwallis’s campaign in Mysore was slowed by a network of fortified Pas while Tipu Sultan expanded the war into Travancore and Carnatic. Meanwhile, Talleyrand arrived at Munich Palace with a captive in tow.

• Cornwallis ordered his troops to destroy the Mysore Pas after discovering that they blocked the main routes through Mangalore.
• After nine days of fighting, English troops captured one Pa, but Mysore defenders detonated buried gunpowder and killed more than thirty Grenadiers.
• Magnus’s network of more than seventy Pas threatened to delay the English advance through Mangalore for months.
• Tipu Sultan led seventeen thousand soldiers into Travancore, and its Raja surrendered before Cornwallis’s relief force could arrive.
• Tipu Sultan moved east toward Carnatic while Salah and Shah traveled to Hyderabad to try to turn it against the English or force the English to spend more securing it.
• Talleyrand arrived at Munich Palace with a captured middle-aged man as Grand Duke of Bavaria Karl Ottodor greeted him.

Talleyrand persuaded Bavaria that Britain had backed the Southern Netherlands rebels in an effort to export revolution and overthrow France’s monarchy. Bavaria agreed to unite against the British, while Talleyrand set out to spread the accusation across Europe.

• Theodor and Talleyrand discussed the French riot, and Talleyrand claimed the Southern Netherlands rebels had plotted to kill the French King and spread revolution.
• Talleyrand accused Britain of directing the rebels and warned Bavaria that Britain wanted to export revolution across Europe.
• Talleyrand presented Steven Albert Visari, who testified that British Foreign Minister Wellesley had instructed Van der Noot to launch a revolution in France.
• Duke Theodore agreed that Bavaria must unite with others to make Britain abandon its alleged plan.
• Talleyrand left Munich for Württemberg and planned to carry his accusation to other European courts.

Marquess Wellesley arranged British support for Moroccan and Ottoman forces to pressure France in North Africa while pursuing British interests in the Southern Netherlands. European accusations that Britain was exporting revolution threatened to derail his plans, and he later heard that Ludwig IX had proposed a Southern Netherlands Initiative.

• Joseph II warned Leopold II to remain vigilant about Talleyrand's claim that Britain intended to export revolution and called for coordination with France.
• Wellesley discussed using Morocco, Tripoli, and Algiers to attack French interests, and assigned Talmos to handle affairs with the Ottomans and North African states.
• Wellesley learned that Austria, Spain, Bavaria, Mainz, and other nations had condemned Britain's alleged role in the Southern Netherlands Rebellion and French riots.
• Wellesley realized the accusations could cause a diplomatic crisis as he traveled through Europe.
• More than ten days later, Wellesley received word that Ludwig IX had proposed a Southern Netherlands Initiative.

Marquess Wellesley struggled to contain the diplomatic fallout from the United Kingdom’s involvement in Southern Netherlands, while Pitt the Younger and George III issued a public announcement conceding ground to other powers. In Versailles, Queen Mary grew closer to Alexandra, whose advice brought her a remarkable run of Baccarat wins.

• Wellesley learned that Austria had signed Ludwig IX’s Initiative and recognized that Austria expected Southern Netherlands to reject electing a King.
• Wellesley hurried to Brussels to check his plans for stirring trouble in Wallonia and Luxembourg, but Pitt the Younger ordered him to break contact with Southern Netherlands Parliament and return to London.
• Pitt the Younger and George III issued an announcement denying British involvement in France’s riots, rejecting the demand that Southern Netherlands elect a King, and promising to recommend the Hanoverian Army’s withdrawal.
• Wellesley faced parliamentary pressure over his diplomatic concessions and found that his promised benefits to Morocco remained stuck in Parliament.
• At Versailles, Queen Mary followed Alexandra’s Baccarat advice, won ten rounds in a row, and felt her regret about her niece Clementine fade.

Queen Mary overheard nobles mocking the Russian Grand Duchess and resolved to help bring her and Joseph together. Joseph explained how Gas Streetlights would transform Paris and asked his mother to attend their first installation ceremony, leaving her convinced they would become a new symbol of the city.

• Queen Mary overheard noblewomen ridicule the Russian Grand Duchess and reflected on how her own treatment by French nobles had shaped her.
• Queen Mary decided to work harder to bring Joseph and the Russian princess together so they would not face the same prejudice she had endured.
• Joseph explained to Queen Mary that Gas Streetlights were brighter and more convenient than oil lamps and would make Paris more fashionable.
• Joseph described his plan to install Gas Streetlights around the Tuileries Palace Gardens and use the resulting real-estate demand to attract investment.
• Joseph asked Queen Mary to attend the first Gas Streetlight installation ceremony next month, and she welcomed the idea of the lights becoming a symbol of Paris.

Joseph persuaded Queen Mary to attend the first Gas Streetlight installation ceremony, then agreed to perform in her birthday play after she invited the nobles of Versailles Palace. Meanwhile, Chanel arrived in Tunis and sent his servant to buy oats for his sick horse.

• Joseph explained how Gas Streetlights could make Paris more prosperous and safer, and Queen Mary agreed to attend the first-installation ceremony.
• Joseph saw a chance to promote his Synthetic Board Furniture and Soda drinks to the nobles Queen Mary would invite to his performance.
• Queen Mary persuaded Joseph to replace her troupe’s ill male lead in a birthday play, and he reluctantly agreed to perform one show.
• Chanel arrived in Tunis after spending 140 Livre on the journey and ordered Matthew to buy fine oats for Feinu.
• Matthew said he had only 1 Livre and 6 Sous, so Chanel handed him 10 silver coins and warned him to check the oats’ quality.

Victor Moreau led a hastily assembled force of young nobles toward Tamirai while Michel Ney’s commoner troops marched ahead of them. As Said’s large army advanced toward Bizerte and Marquess Wellesley prepared to use the North African crisis in negotiations with France, Moreau hurried to keep pace with Ney.

• Victor Moreau rallied young noble volunteers to reach Tamirai before nightfall, while Lieutenant Michel Ney’s commoner unit mocked them and marched out ahead.
• Moreau’s mounted noble force reached Ney’s camp before nightfall, and Moreau named it the Cavalry Regiment of God's Guidance.
• The next morning, Moreau heard Ney’s drums and urgently ordered his troops to assemble and depart.
• In London, Marquess Wellesley read a report of the Moroccan-Algerian advance and planned to use the threat to Tunis as leverage in talks with France over India.
• Said learned that the French main force was far away and led more than ten thousand troops toward Bizerte, intending to seize its port and earn an English reward.

Ney’s undertrained French force rushed to Tamirai as the Moroccan vanguard approached, while Victor Moreau improvised orders to delay the enemy. The Tunisian defenders fought back, and Ney arrived with reinforcements as the Moroccan troops began counterattacking.

• Said ordered the Moroccan vanguard to reach Tamirai, rest, and attack Cape Serrat the following day.
• Ney learned that thousands of Moroccans were nearing Tamirai and urged his outnumbered soldiers to march faster rather than retreat.
• Victor Moreau ordered three hundred Tunisian soldiers to form a defensive line, falsely claiming General Sherer had authorized it.
• Ney heard gunfire near Tamirai, learned the Tunisian defenders were struggling, and rushed forward with his first two companies.
• The Tunisian soldiers surprised the Moroccan vanguard before the Moroccans rallied and began driving them back.
• Ney’s soldiers in white uniforms appeared in the Moroccans’ sight.