Chapter Summaries

Ney led French and Tunisian soldiers against the Moroccan Guard Corps, holding their line under heavy fire until Moreau’s noble cavalry struck the enemy’s rear. The Moroccans retreated, and Moreau found Ney and claimed credit for saving him.

• Ney urged his outnumbered French soldiers and Tunisian allies to fire together, inflicting casualties that briefly drove the Moroccan advance back.
• The Moroccans began closing in from both flanks, while Ney struggled to turn his disorganized troops and feared they were about to be overwhelmed.
• Hoofbeats and gunshots from the south revealed that noble cavalry had attacked the Moroccans’ rear flank.
• Chanel led more than 150 noble cavalrymen in repeated passes that disrupted the Moroccan formation and forced it to retreat.
• Moreau found Ney among the surviving soldiers, greeted him, and boasted that his cavalry had saved him.

Moreau persuaded Ney to abandon a doomed defense of Tamirai and instead lure the Moroccan army away with a deception. When Agord saw the apparent French reinforcements, he halted his assault and prepared to face them.

• Moreau reminded Ney that he had ordered the Tunisian soldiers to defend Tamirai, then Ney and the reinforcements returned to town.
• Moreau argued that fewer than two thousand men could not hold Tamirai against the Moroccan army and proposed leaving defenders in town while the rest staged as General Sherer's troops.
• Moreau and Ney led their forces south before dawn, leaving nearly a thousand men in Tamirai, and Moreau admitted he had requisitioned supplies by claiming Ney had authorized it.
• After Moreau's Hussars reported that more than three thousand Moroccans were attacking Tamirai, Moreau ordered his troops to rest and planned to attack the next morning.
• Agord began bombarding Tamirai, then heard that a French force was approaching his flank and withdrew his besieging troops to form a defensive line.
• Moreau's men used gunpowder-filled iron barrels to create the sound of cannon fire, making their force seem larger.

Moreau and Ney used a staged bombardment and a deceptive infantry line to drive most of the Moroccan force away from Tamirai, then attacked the troops left behind. After receiving Schérer’s report in Paris, Joseph rewarded the noble volunteers and promoted Moreau and Ney.

• Moreau and Ney staged a prolonged bombardment and made their small force appear to be a much larger French army.
• Agord mistook the display for Schérer’s legion and withdrew most of his Moroccan troops, leaving fewer than two thousand at Tamirai.
• Moreau confirmed the withdrawal and joined Ney and Tunisian soldiers in attacking the remaining Moroccans, capturing prisoners and cannon.
• Joseph read Schérer’s report about the victory and learned that Moreau and Ney had led the defense.
• Joseph named the noble soldiers the God's Guidance Royal cavalry Regiment, promoted Moreau to Major and Ney to Captain, and granted them land in Tripoli.

Joseph arranged nationwide publicity for the victory at Tamirai and decided to declare war on Tripoli after Berthier questioned the estates he had awarded. He planned to send Moreau and Ney’s rising force southeast to conquer Tripoli, while France waited for Britain to stop supporting its North African allies.

• Joseph summoned Denico and ordered him to publicize Moreau and Ney’s victory at Tamirai across France.
• Denico proposed interviews, front-page reports, an essay contest, and serialized stories about the battle heroes.
• Joseph considered finding Moreau a suitable wife so he would avoid the disastrous marriage that had ruined his historical future.
• Berthier told Joseph that the estate he had awarded Moreau was in Tripoli, which was not French territory.
• Joseph cited Tripoli’s attacks on Tunisian villages and French merchant ships, declared that France would go to war with Tripoli, and said Moreau and the others would have to conquer their estates.
• Joseph planned for Sherer to defend northwestern Tunis while 5,000 soldiers joined Moreau and Ney’s force in the southeast, with a later counterattack against Algiers also in prospect.

Joseph decided to seize Tripoli as a route to Egypt and a future Suez Canal, arguing that France could occupy it before other powers intervened. Meanwhile, British Foreign Minister Wellesley arrived in Paris after Indian allies made costly demands, and he met Talleyrand soaked by the rain.

• Joseph judged that the European powers would not stop France from attacking Tripoli and resolved to take it quickly.
• Joseph told Berthier that the Ottomans would hesitate to defend distant Tripoli and predicted that more than 60,000 troops could be transferred there by year's end.
• Cornwallis informed Wellesley that the Marat Alliance demanded military aid and Hyderabad demanded territorial concessions in exchange for helping Britain against Mysore.
• Wellesley learned that Salah and Shah had offered the Marat Alliance and Hyderabad generous terms to win their support for Mysore, prompting both states to raise their demands on Britain.
• Wellesley arrived at Versailles Palace in the rain and met Talleyrand with his clothes soaked through.

Talleyrand negotiated with Marquess Wellesley, using Britain’s setbacks in India and its concern over French trade to secure room for French action in North Africa. Wellesley returned to London with a preliminary Non-Interference Treaty and expected to lose his post.

• Talleyrand diverted Wellesley from the Hall of Peace and distracted him with talk of Paris’s gas streetlights.
• Wellesley proposed cooperation against the so-called bandits, while Talleyrand asked about the East India Company and Britain’s losses in India.
• Wellesley offered British support for French action against Tripoli, but resisted Talleyrand’s demand for support against Algiers.
• Wellesley threatened French shipping and Pacific trade, but Talleyrand countered that Russian ships and the Maori made British intervention too costly.
• Talleyrand proposed limiting French action to Annaba, and Wellesley agreed to discuss it as a basis for a Non-Interference Treaty.
• Wellesley returned to London with the preliminary treaty and anticipated resigning, while considering a trip to India to confront the Mysore setback.

Joseph reviewed France and Britain’s negotiated terms, including British recognition of French influence in North Africa and a promise to reveal Oscar Paoli’s whereabouts. At Petit Trianon, he met Alexandra Pavlovna, who was playing the heroine in his play, as Queen Mary quietly promoted her as Joseph’s future consort.

• Talleyrand reported Britain’s demands that France stop supporting Mysore and deny involvement in the Southern Netherlands revolution, then outlined the concessions France had secured.
• Joseph praised Talleyrand for winning British recognition of French influence over Tunis, Tripoli, and Annaba, and for securing Carnatic’s neutrality and a promise to keep Russia out of the Silesian conflict.
• Joseph considered Britain’s agreement to disclose Oscar Paoli’s whereabouts, while forbidding his death on British soil, and thought that destroying Paoli’s reputation might be more effective than killing him.
• The theater troupe leader introduced Alexandra Pavlovna as the actress playing Anne, and Joseph greeted the Grand Duchess after she praised his amusement park.
• Queen Mary had arranged for Alexandra to play Joseph’s romantic partner so Versailles’s nobles would grow accustomed to the idea of a Russian Crown Princess Consort.

Alexandra joined Joseph’s play as Anne Xun'er, earning his praise while drawing hostility from the noble actresses who had hoped to win the female lead. After one of them tried to trip her, Alexandra stomped on the woman’s foot and sharply defended herself, leaving the nobles appealing to Joseph.

• Alexandra learned that Joseph would act opposite her and eagerly accepted the role of Anne Xun'er.
• Joseph revised the script to include advertisements, and Alexandra performed her product-placement scenes naturally during rehearsal.
• The noble actresses mocked Alexandra behind her back as she continued rehearsing.
• A noble actress secretly stuck out her foot to trip Alexandra, but Alexandra stamped on it instead.
• The noblewomen accused Alexandra of deliberately hurting and humiliating Triss, and one appealed to Joseph.

Alexandra drove the noble young ladies from Joseph’s rehearsal after they tried to blame her for Triss’s injury, and the rehearsal resumed with replacement performers. Meanwhile, Marianne and Lavoisier tested their new Soda production equipment, which promised to make Soda Ash and many French goods cheaper.

• Alexandra challenged the noble young ladies’ claims and exposed their desire to attract Joseph’s attention, prompting them to leave the theater.
• Alexandra apologized to Joseph for disrupting the rehearsal, and he reassured her before the rehearsal resumed half an hour later.
• At the Antoine Industrial Development Zone, Lavoisier praised Marianne for directing the construction of the equipment for the Royal Soda Process.
• Marianne told Lavoisier that a six-hour trial had produced seven hundred kilograms of high-purity Soda, though raw-material utilization remained below Joseph’s target.
• Lavoisier and Marianne anticipated that large-scale Soda Ash production would lower the costs of soap, glass, paper, and dyes, strengthening France’s export industries.

Lavoisier learned that he would receive a baron’s title, while Queen Mary signed a treaty favorable to France during her birthday preparations. Meanwhile, Wellesley worried about the Mysore fortresses, and Lord Grenville took over as Britain’s Foreign Secretary amid political pressure.

• Marianne celebrated the news that Lavoisier would become a baron and urged him to help produce an heir.
• Queen Mary signed the treaty that Brienne brought to her, securing British concessions in North Africa and other gains for France.
• Queen Mary admired the mechanical nightingale Louis XVI had given her and went to her birthday celebration at Versailles Palace.
• Marquess Wellesley studied Cornwallis’s report aboard the Ajax and feared he would be unable to overcome Mysore’s fortresses.
• Lord Grenville told his uncle that he had accepted the Foreign Secretary post as Pitt sought to appease the Whig Party.

Lord Grenville proposed that Britain abandon its Southern Netherlands strategy and use Austria and other powers to counter France’s diplomatic advantage. At Versailles, Joseph promoted Paris Cola and synthetic-board furniture during a performance, and Louis XVI and Queen Mary praised him and Alexandra.

• Lord Grenville told Old Grenville that France’s favorable international position had helped it prevail over Britain.
• Joseph performed a revised scene promoting Paris Cola and synthetic-board furniture, while nobles sampled the drink and watched.
• Lord Grenville advised Pitt the Younger to abandon Southern Netherlands, draw Austria away from France, and use other countries to contain French influence.
• Pitt the Younger worried that the Whig Party would criticize him for abandoning the strategy, and Grenville offered to persuade party leaders.
• Louis XVI offered Joseph a drink after the performance, and Queen Mary praised Joseph and Alexandra.

Joseph's birthday-theater product placements made soda and furniture popular but earned them the nickname "Crown Prince Time," while Karl II withdrew Hanoverian troops from Brussels under George III's orders. In Pozztan, Lord Grenville pressed William II to focus on ending the Silesian War as Prussia's investment in the Southern Netherlands collapsed.

• Joseph praised Alexandra's performance, and Louis XVI and Queen Mary decided she could become the Crown Prince's future consort.
• Louis XVI showed Queen Mary a mechanical birdcage hair ornament he had spent two and a half months making, and Joseph realized his father had neglected work on the new Rifled Gun.
• Queen Mary's celebration boosted sales of soda and furniture, while Paris audiences began calling theater product placements "Crown Prince Time."
• George III ordered Karl II to stop supporting the Southern Netherlands rebels, so Karl II withdrew most Hanoverian troops from Brussels and left the rebels scrambling to defend the city.
• Lord Grenville told William II that Prussia's strained finances made ending the Silesian War more urgent than protecting its investment in the Southern Netherlands.

Lord Grenville persuaded William II to end Prussia’s campaign in Southern Netherlands by promising a British loan and support in Silesia, while British agents prepared Austria to demand France’s withdrawal. In Paris, Queen Mary asked Joseph to go to Vienna on her behalf after learning that her former wet nurse was gravely ill and needed help with her granddaughter.

• Lord Grenville offered William II a loan of 700,000 Pound Sterling and persuaded him that Prussia could leave Southern Netherlands while continuing the Silesian Wars.
• A British officer told Count Franz that Britain and Prussia had agreed to abandon the Southern Netherlands rebels, and Count Franz promised to urge the Emperor to expel the French.
• Queen Mary read a letter from Madame Delvaux, her sick former wet nurse, who asked for help protecting her only granddaughter.
• Joseph and Talleyrand discussed Austria’s likely demand that French forces withdraw from Southern Netherlands and considered traveling to Vienna for talks.
• Queen Mary asked Joseph to go to Vienna in her place, explaining that Madame Delvaux had run into a problem.

Joseph traveled to Vienna to bring Madame Delvaux’s granddaughter Camellia to Paris and discovered that Leopold II was publicly claiming Austrian victories that had not happened. Talleyrand then warned him that Austria’s diplomacy could leave French forces in the Southern Netherlands dangerously isolated.

• Queen Mary told Joseph that Baron Walter was harassing Camellia, Madame Delvaux’s granddaughter, and asked him to bring her from Vienna to Paris for protection.
• Joseph arrived at Schönbrunn Palace, where Leopold II welcomed him and claimed Austria and France were winning in the Southern Netherlands and Silesia.
• At a banquet, Leopold II celebrated supposed victories despite Joseph having received no reports of decisive battles on either front.
• Talleyrand told Joseph that Count Kaunitz urgently wanted to see him and reported that Karl II might withdraw to Hanover while Prussia planned to stop intervening in the Southern Netherlands.
• Talleyrand suspected someone other than Count Frenz was behind the diplomatic maneuver and warned that French forces in the Southern Netherlands could become isolated.

Joseph learned that Emperor Joseph II planned to sign a ceasefire with Prussia, ending Austria’s campaign to retake Silesia. He promised Kaunitz continued French support, arranged to publish reports in Vienna, and went to visit Madame Delvaux.

• Kaunitz told Joseph that Franz had persuaded Emperor Joseph II to pursue a ceasefire in Silesia after Hanover and Prussia withdrew from the Southern Netherlands rebellion.
• Kaunitz asked Joseph for French troops and loans to help persuade the Emperor to continue the war, and Joseph promised France would support Austria against Prussia.
• Joseph asked Kaunitz to coordinate matters at Schönbrunn Palace, then told Ambassador Alphonse to get reports past Vienna’s censorship and publish them within a week.
• Joseph instructed Talleyrand to visit ministers who favored war against Prussia, then went to Madame Delvaux’s residence.
• Madame Delvaux’s household hurried to receive Joseph after learning that the French Crown Prince had arrived.

Joseph visited the dying Madame Delvaux in Vienna and learned that Baron Walter was threatening her granddaughter, Camellia. He promised to take Camellia to Paris and protect her, then left after arranging to visit again the next day.

• Camellia nervously welcomed Joseph and told him that her grandmother was gravely ill.
• Madame Delvaux woke to see Joseph and wept when he said Queen Mary had sent her blessings.
• Doctor Richter warned that Madame Delvaux was unlikely to recover and suggested calling a priest.
• Madame Delvaux told Joseph that Baron Walter had harassed Camellia and would threaten her after her death.
• Madame Delvaux placed Camellia's hand in Joseph's and begged him to take her away from Vienna.
• Joseph promised to protect Camellia in Paris, comforted her, and left after agreeing to return the next day.

Talleyrand left Schönbrunn Palace after Austria agreed to arrangements with France, while French agents forged Viscount Malte’s approval to spread a report of an Austrian victory at Liegnitz. By the next morning, Vienna was abuzz with the news, though the report’s claims had not yet been officially announced.

• Baron Thugut told Talleyrand that Austria would send a diplomatic note to Paris and hold a banquet for French troops leaving Brussels.
• Talleyrand went to meet Baron Ferrari as he worked to unite anti-Prussian ministers in Vienna.
• Mr. Kugel got Viscount Malte drunk at Red Boots, and Malte sent Erich to deliver his news-review authorization to Harper.
• French agents ambushed Erich, destroyed the authorization, and had Mr. Baudouin copy Malte’s signature onto a slip of paper.
• A Life and Truth Newspaper agent used the forged approval to persuade Harper to approve a report claiming Austria had routed Prussian troops at Liegnitz.
• The Life and Truth Newspaper sold the report to other newspapers, and nearly half of Vienna’s newspaper offices printed it that afternoon; the city was shaken by the news the next morning.

A fabricated report that Marshal Lacy had defeated the Prussians at Liegnitz stirred Austrians to celebrate and donate to the army, forcing Leopold II to reconsider plans for a ceasefire. The Austrian Secret Police traced the forged news to a newspaper acquired by Kugel and suspected Hungarian involvement.

• Leopold II learned that crowds outside Schönbrunn Palace were celebrating a supposed Austrian victory at Liegnitz and ordered the rumor refuted.
• Baron Ferrari promoted the false report inside the palace, prompting nobles to praise Lacy and donate money to his army.
• Baron Thugut warned Leopold II that publicly denying the victory could provoke unrest, so Leopold called a council to discuss the rumor and the ceasefire.
• Marquess Hartmann reported that the fake news originated at the Life and Truth Newspaper, which Kugel had acquired, and that the men who robbed Viscount Malte appeared to have Hungarian accents.
• Leopold II heard Hartmann's preliminary findings and was told that the affair seemed connected to the Hungarians.

The ministers at Schönbrunn Palace argued over whether Austria should make peace with Prussia, but Kaunitz recited a poem that stirred them to support recovering Silesia with French aid. Joseph considered how to use the war to Austria’s advantage, then learned that Madame Delvaux had died.

• Leopold II and Marquess Hartmann discussed the Hungarian separatists’ role in the Liegnitz rumor as Austrian ministers gathered to debate the war.
• Count Lecam and the peace faction urged an end to the fighting, while Kaunitz and the pro-war faction argued that Austria should continue pursuing Silesia.
• Kaunitz recited a patriotic poem Joseph had given him, shifting the meeting against peace and inspiring the ministers to demand victory.
• Joseph II ordered Austria to seek French aid and send reinforcements to the front, and the ministers shouted for the Emperor and the recovery of Silesia.
• Joseph considered how France could help Austria seize one province of Silesia before Eman brought Madame Delvaux’s old butler, who reported that she had died.

After Madame Delvaux’s funeral, Joseph instructed Talleyrand to negotiate French military support for Austria in Silesia while keeping France non-belligerent and securing Wallonia as a special trade zone. Leopold II welcomed France’s promised aid, though he believed Austria could later keep France involved in the war.

• Joseph attended Madame Delvaux’s funeral and comforted the grieving Camellia.
• Joseph told Talleyrand that France would send the Royal Guard Legion to Silesia, remain non-belligerent, and keep Russia from intervening.
• Joseph made Wallonia France’s sole demand and proposed turning it into a special trade zone.
• Leopold II learned from Thugut that France would send troops and cover most of their costs, while promising a strategic breakthrough in Silesia.
• Thugut explained that the proposed trade zone would permit French and Austrian investment, be administered by the Chamber of Commerce, and have no permanently stationed troops.