Chapter Summaries

Joseph II and Leopold II agreed to the Vienna Special Agreement, leaving Austria control of the Southern Netherlands’ coastal provinces while France gained influence over the Wallonia Special Trade Zone. After Madame Delvaux’s funeral, Joseph arranged to take Camellia to Paris, and Basel decided that going with the Crown Prince offered her a better future than fleeing with him.

• Leopold II confirmed that Wallonia’s sovereignty would remain with the King of the Southern Netherlands and that Ghent and Bruges were excluded from the Special Trade Zone.
• Joseph II agreed to the Vienna Special Agreement after Leopold II accepted its terms.
• Joseph visited Madame Delvaux’s grave, comforted Camellia, and asked her to travel with him to Paris; she agreed.
• Joseph left Camellia with servants and returned to Schönbrunn Palace for the celebration ball.
• Camellia told Basel that the Crown Prince would take her to Paris and asked whether she should go.
• Basel suppressed his wish to take Camellia away and resolved that Versailles offered her a better chance at a new life.

Basel urged Camellia to go to Paris and pursue the French Crown Prince, but she fled, unsettled by his advice. After returning home, she learned that the Court Guard had seized her family’s estate; Joseph recognized Baron Walter as the likely culprit.

• Basel told Camellia to seek a position near the French queen and become the Crown Prince’s mistress, but she rejected the idea and left.
• Basel watched Camellia depart, wishing her happiness while lamenting that he could not live without her.
• Camellia returned to find Court Guard soldiers expelling Eric and seizing the Delvaux estate over an alleged fraud case.
• Baron Walter bragged to his companions that he had arranged matters to force Camellia to accept him.
• Eric told Joseph that the Court Guard had seized the estate and that Baron Walter knew about the evidence, prompting Joseph to identify Walter as the instigator.

Joseph delayed his return to Paris until Austria investigated the false fraud accusation against Camellia and secured justice for Madame Delvaux. He accepted a settlement of 150,000 florins and a public apology, leaving Walter to face punishment while the Silesian alliance awaited Joseph’s return.

• Joseph promised Camellia that he would protect Madame Delvaux’s reputation and make the false accuser pay.
• Joseph refused to leave Vienna until the accusation was investigated, prompting Kaunitz to enlist the Secret Police.
• The investigation exposed the fabricated case, and the officials involved confessed and implicated Baron Walter.
• Leopold II summoned Walter and ordered him to apologize, while Joseph called for legal punishment and compensation.
• Ludovica offered compensation to spare Walter from prison, and Joseph demanded 150,000 florins and a newspaper apology to Madame Delvaux.
• Leopold II agreed to Joseph’s terms, and Joseph wondered whether he had asked for too little.

Joseph considered monetary reform to fund France’s expansion and industrial development as his convoy traveled toward Stuttgart. The chapter ended with Camellia flustered after preparing his bedroom and fleeing before she could finish her duties.

• Camellia massaged Joseph’s shoulder and served him coffee while he drafted plans for French investment and control in Wallonia.
• Joseph reviewed France’s growing ambitions and financial deficit, then considered replacing gold and silver coins with Paper Money.
• Joseph reasoned that Paper Money could raise funds through seigniorage, support investment, and circulate temporarily in neighboring countries.
• Camellia prepared Joseph’s bedroom, became embarrassed when he arrived, and hurried away.
• Camellia returned to her room, covered her cheeks, and wondered what she was supposed to do.

Joseph brought Camellia back to Paris, where Queen Mary took her into her service as a maid. He then learned that Tunisian tribes were obstructing his trade and development reforms, and began considering how to enforce them without stationing troops everywhere.

• Doctor Perna watched Camellia leave Joseph’s bedchamber and later found excuses to join Joseph and Camellia in his carriage.
• Joseph returned to Paris with Camellia and brought her to Queen Mary, who made Camellia her maid after Countess de Berninac objected to her serving as a lady-in-waiting.
• Brienne told Joseph that Tunisian tribes were blocking foreign goods, collecting road fees, and extorting merchants and farmers.
• Joseph rejected Brienne’s suggestion to limit the reforms to large cities and weighed the costs of improving roads or expanding the army.
• Joseph realized that troops might be used to intimidate the tribes without being stationed near them.

Joseph prepared a forceful campaign against Annaba, while Tunisian officials imposed new systems to curb tribal power and improve security. Joanne explained that prominent tribesmen were being sent to the front so the tribes would witness France’s destructive power.

• Joseph asked Brienne about preparations for the operation against Annaba, and Brienne said the reinforced legion had arrived in Bizerte.
• Zhemile told a colonel that Paris had ordered tribal recruits to go to the front lines against Algiers.
• The Wakruma tribe sent four warriors to serve as officials in the Yobari tribe, then received an order banning tribes from keeping tribal soldiers.
• Joanne approved lists appointing Sheriffs among the tribes and told his assistant the system would boost trade and tax revenue.
• Joanne said the Crown Prince had arranged for prominent tribal members to go to Annaba so their tribes would witness the power of destruction.

Ishaq planned to use the punishment of tribes whose members killed Sheriffs as a warning, while Kehler faced the French at Annaba after English aid ended. When the hastily assembled Tunisian tribal army panicked under artillery fire and fled, Kehler was left wondering whether he had held the line.

• Ishaq told his subordinates that punishing one or two tribes for a Sheriff's murder would make the others respect Sheriffs.
• Kehler learned that the English had cut off all aid and decided to seek help from Pasha Said and Morocco's Black Guard Corps.
• Lefebvre waited impatiently in Tamirai for nearly five thousand tribal fighters before ordering them to the front.
• Kehler saw the French advance toward Annaba and ordered his forces and the Moroccan Guard Corps to prepare for defense.
• Algiers artillery hit the tribal fighters, who broke and fled through the Royal Guard Legion's advancing ranks.
• Kehler stood frozen, wondering whether the tribal rout meant he had succeeded in holding the line.

Lefebvre’s French forces crushed Kehler’s Algiers army in a brutal close-range battle while Sfik and the Tribal Warriors were forced to watch. As the Algerians collapsed, Said ordered Morocco’s Black Guard Corps to withdraw rather than reinforce them.

• Kehler mistook the French retreat for a rout and ordered the Golsa Legion, cavalry, and artillery to pursue.
• Lefebvre sent the Tunis Legion to escort the Tribal Warriors to the battlefield and told them to watch how a real army fought.
• French horse artillery destroyed the charging Algiers cavalry with grapeshot, then blasted the Algiers infantry with solid shot.
• The Royal Guard Legion advanced under drumbeats and volleys, routing the Algiers army’s first three defensive lines while Sfik watched in horror.
• Kehler called for Moroccan reinforcements, but Said ordered the Black Guard Corps to withdraw instead.

Lefebvre’s forces captured Annaba and seized British cannons and thousands of guns, while Count Segur imposed French terms on Algiers. In Susa Province, Sfik tried to stop his tribe from attacking a Sheriff, fearing the French army’s retaliation.

• Lefebvre learned that his troops had captured British-made heavy cannons and at least seven thousand Flintlock Guns in Annaba.
• Lefebvre ordered cannons moved to Constantine so the Tunis Legion could secure the route and garrison Annaba.
• Count Segur told Chandler that fighting in Annaba had ended and demanded reparations, French administration of Annaba, and a troop-free buffer zone at Constantine.
• Chandler protested the demands but agreed they could be discussed rather than risk the French advancing on Mitija.
• Sfik warned his tribesmen and the Tribal Chief not to attack the Sheriff, describing the French troops as powerful enough to destroy them.
• Men who had witnessed the Annaba battlefield hurried to drive the tribesmen away from the Sheriff.

Moreau and Ney lured Benjiul’s Ottoman army out of Tripoli with a fabricated merchant-cargo opportunity, then defeated it and advanced on the city. In Mysore, Lafayette prepared to return to France after arranging continued Ottoman supplies for Tipu Sultan and advising him to stockpile food and ammunition.

• Moreau persuaded Ney not to attack Remada immediately and proposed drawing Benjiul’s main force out of Tripoli.
• Moreau seized valuables in Medenine and sent a heavily laden caravan toward Remada, prompting the Ottomans to report a rich cargo shipment to Benjiul.
• Benjiul marched with 6,000 soldiers to join the 2,000 at Remada and raid Tataouine, where Ney’s infantry and Moreau’s cavalry ambushed and routed his army; Benjiul drew his pistol in despair.
• Moreau and Ney advanced on Tripoli, and their cannon arrived so they could attack the city’s Ottoman defenders.
• Lafayette told Tipu Sultan that Ottoman merchants would continue supplying Mysore with weapons and other goods, then advised him to stockpile food and ammunition.

Joseph’s plans strengthened Mysore’s defenses and arranged covert supply routes through Morocco, while he opened the Bastille as France’s new financial center and announced the Franc as official currency. The crowd celebrated the bank’s relocation as officials introduced safeguards for the new paper money.

• Lafayette advised Tipu Sultan to stockpile grain, target English supply lines during the rainy season, and avoid fighting English auxiliaries when possible.
• Count Segur persuaded Mohammed III to transport goods through Ottoman trade routes for two years, and then headed to Spain to procure additional supplies.
• Joseph arrived at the Bastille’s relocation ceremony in Paris and announced that the former prison would house the French Reserve Bank, the Stock Exchange, and the Royal Insurance Company.
• Brienne announced that the French Reserve Bank’s notes would become the Franc, exchangeable for silver or gold and required to be accepted in France.
• Brienne announced that the royal family, Treasury Department, French Reserve Bank, and French Chamber of Commerce would form a Currency Regulatory Council to supervise paper-money issuance.

Joseph announced a monetary system that tied French currency to gold and established a council to oversee it. With France’s overseas markets and industries expanding, he planned to use bank-issued Francs to finance factories and spread the new currency.

• Joseph announced a currency regulatory body involving banks and the Chamber of Commerce, reassuring the crowd in Bastille Square.
• Joseph introduced the Gold Standard, making French currency exchangeable for gold at a government-set rate and aiming to simplify trade across France.
• France strengthened its position in North Africa and Wallonia while industrial production expanded in Lyon, Paris, and other regions.
• Joseph planned for banks to issue Paper Money as loans so factories could fund production and immigrants could spend Francs on local goods and labor.

Joseph resumed stock trading in France and announced that the Bastille would become the Paris Financial Center, then prepared to host the First World Industrial Expo. In India, Marquess Wellesley studied Mysore’s fortifications and vowed to capture Tipu.

• Joseph reopened the French Stock Exchange under strict trading controls and announced plans for a Stock Trading Law and a Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Joseph renamed the Bastille the Paris Financial Center, and Walsh decided to shift his business focus from the United Kingdom to France.
• Walsh and his wife went to the Royal Palace to seek preview tickets for the First World Industrial Expo, which twelve countries had agreed to attend.
• Joseph prepared the Royal Palace as the expo venue and planned to illuminate 40 percent of Paris’s districts with gas streetlights on opening day.
• In North Kanara, Marquess Wellesley examined Mysore’s fortresses, and Cornwallis told him that at least fifty more lay ahead.
• Marquess Wellesley vowed to find a way through the fortifications and trap Tipu.

Marquess Wellesley captured Pa by exploiting the Mysore defenders’ limited ammunition, using successive waves of soldiers to keep them firing until their supplies ran out. He told Cornwallis that his aim was to show Tipu how quickly the English could breach fortresses, while the Hyderabad commander protested the heavy losses.

• English soldiers entered Pa through a cannon-blasted breach after rain prevented a Mysore defender from igniting the gunpowder.
• Wellesley noticed the small ammunition stores and concluded that Pa’s defenders had limited reserves.
• Wellesley sent successive groups of Hyderabad, Maratha, and English auxiliary soldiers to attack Pa and exhaust the defenders’ ammunition.
• After the Mysore guns fell silent, Wellesley sent nearly a thousand English soldiers into Pa, where they faced little resistance and raised their flag over the fortress.
• Wellesley explained his ammunition-exhaustion tactic to Cornwallis and said he only needed Tipu to learn that English forces could take fortresses quickly.
• The Hyderabad commander confronted Wellesley over the casualties, and Wellesley told him to accept that many more forceful assaults would follow.

Marquess Wellesley planned a two-pronged campaign against Tipu Sultan, who prepared to defend Salem as English forces advanced. In Paris, Queen Mary opened the World Industrial Exposition by unveiling bright Gas Streetlights, and Schmidt joined the crowds exploring the illuminated city.

• Marquess Wellesley ordered Cornwallis to continue attacking fortresses near Mangalore while he planned a surprise assault on Tiruchirappalli.
• Tipu Sultan received Ottoman guns, gunpowder, medicine, and uniforms in Salem, then sent Shah secretly to Hyderabad after checking the grain reserves.
• Marquess Wellesley, newly promoted to Major General, ordered a general assault on Salem for noon two days later.
• Queen Mary opened the World Industrial Exposition in Paris by unveiling Gas Streetlights that illuminated the streets.
• Schmidt left the ceremony and wandered through Paris's brightly lit streets as crowds and vendors filled the city.

Schmidt visited the Paris exposition and discovered that its national pavilions combined live manufacturing demonstrations with convenient business services. After marveling at the Austria, Netherlands, and France pavilions, he left with a heightened impression of the exposition and France.

• Schmidt explored Paris late into the night, bought numerous goods, and was impressed by the city’s streets and luxury hotel.
• Schmidt entered the Royal Palace exposition through the distinguished guests’ passage and examined Austria’s glassmaking and other industrial demonstrations.
• Schmidt watched shipbuilding demonstrations in the Netherlands Pavilion and signed a letter of intent to buy inland cargo ships, paying a deposit through the exposition’s business hall.
• Schmidt returned to the exposition and marveled at how the displays and commercial services surpassed earlier exhibitions he had visited.
• Joseph reflected that his carefully planned exposition had astonished its visitors, and Schmidt was further impressed by France’s steam-powered sightseeing cars and displays of new machinery and products.

Joseph reviewed the World Expo’s strong commercial results and ordered France to accelerate industrial development, while preparing to lead French forces into Silesia. In Saint Petersburg, Catherine II responded to France’s proposed investment in Donbas by granting it mining rights to a vast tract of land.

• Joseph reviewed Bayei’s Expo report, noted that orders exceeded six million Francs, and told Bayei to support the factories fulfilling them.
• Berthier reported that the Lefebvre Legion had reached Brünn and that the Royal Guard Legion in Silesia would soon assemble; Joseph ordered the troops to rest in Austria and said he would join them after the Expo.
• Joseph explained to Berthier that France needed to seize part of Silesia to prevent Prussia from accepting an easy ceasefire, despite the prospect of facing 120,000 Prussian troops.
• Talleyrand told Catherine II that French companies would invest in developing Donbas, including the Silk Steel Company, and Catherine asked what France expected in return.
• Catherine II granted the Crown Prince mining rights to twenty thousand Russian mu of land in the Donbas Region as a response to France’s goodwill.

Talleyrand negotiated Catherine II’s share in the Donbas mineral profits and secured her promise not to interfere in the war over Silesia. Back at Petit Trianon, Queen Mary enjoyed Camellia’s Viennese pastries before Joseph announced he might travel to Austria.

• Talleyrand rejected Catherine II’s demands for a third of the Donbas profits and offered her 10 percent, along with French investment in Kherson Port if a large deposit was found.
• Catherine II negotiated for a 15 percent share, and Talleyrand sought concessions on mining taxes in return.
• Talleyrand asked Catherine II not to interfere in the war over Silesia, and she agreed to stay out of it.
• Queen Mary returned from the World Expo closing ceremony and praised Paris’s success while sampling Camellia’s Vienna Vanilla Crisp Cakes.
• Joseph arrived at Petit Trianon and told Queen Mary that he might travel to Austria.

Joseph agreed to take Camellia with him on his journey to Austria, where he planned to support the campaign in Silesia. Meanwhile, Viscount Olivier began developing the Donbas coal and iron region with a force of laborers.

• Queen Mary urged Joseph to avoid danger in Silesia and bring servants to look after him on his journey.
• Queen Mary asked Camellia to accompany Joseph and care for his daily needs, and Joseph reluctantly agreed.
• Joseph's convoy departed for Austria, while Berthier reported that twelve thousand sets of Bulletproof Inserts had been sent to Silesia and warned of Prussian defenses at Liegnitz.
• Viscount Olivier inspected the camp at Yekaterinoslav as more than a thousand laborers arrived to work on developing Donbas.
• Lemair ordered the laborers to expand the camp and build shelters before receiving food.

French prospectors discovered a vast, shallow anthracite coalfield in Donbas, prompting Viscount Olivier to plan large land purchases. At a Vienna ball, Joseph assured Leopold II that his army could carry out their risky campaign plan.

• A geologist reported to Viscount Olivier that prospectors had found extensive, high-quality anthracite deposits near Jubene.
• Viscount Olivier and the Development Group shareholders celebrated the discovery and agreed to keep it secret.
• Viscount Olivier went to Kursk to buy land in Donbas, following Talleyrand's advice.
• At Schönbrunn Palace, Joseph told Leopold II that his army could win despite the risks of their plan.
• Leopold II recognized that Joseph had genuine battlefield experience and a strong grasp of military affairs.