Chapter Summaries

Poland’s new Constitution passed after pro-Russian legislators were prevented from reaching the vote, and Count Potocki’s allies began plotting against it. In Slavonia, Serbian rebels seemed close to breaking the Austrian-Polish line before red-uniformed winged cavalry charged their flank.

• Ignacy Massalski disguised himself to reach the Great Sejm but was recognized and blocked by the crowd, keeping many pro-Russian and extreme Conservative legislators from voting.
• The Great Sejm passed Poland’s new Constitution by 268 votes to 31, and Stanisław II signed it before leaving for Saint Petersburg.
• Count Potocki gathered extreme Conservative nobles and announced a secret meeting in Targowica Town, while disguised members of the Bar Confederation listened in under surveillance arranged by Prince Poniatowski.
• In Slavonia, Serbian rebels and Bulgarian troops reached the Austrian-Polish defensive line after heavy casualties, and the Serbian commander prepared to attack.
• Red-and-white winged cavalry emerged from behind the eastern hills and charged the Serbian army’s right flank, while the rebels’ poorly trained cavalry hesitated to respond.

Kościuszko’s Polish forces defeated the Serbians and stopped short of annihilating them so the army could gain more combat experience. In Saint Petersburg, Stanisław II charmed Catherine II with music before facing her questions about Poland’s Constitution.

• Kościuszko ordered the Winged Hussars into battle, and Anthony Madalinski led them in scattering Serbian cavalry and charging the infantry.
• Kościuszko ended the pursuit after the Polish forces had killed or captured nearly a thousand Serbians, citing the danger of an ambush.
• The Winged Hussars returned to camp escorting more than three hundred prisoners as the battle-hardened Polish recruits showed their improved discipline.
• Stanisław II returned to the Winter Palace and played Catherine II his guitar composition, Forbidden Love, before entertaining her with more music and reminiscing.
• Catherine II asked Stanisław II about Poland’s Constitution, and he claimed its purpose was to give ordinary people security and encourage them to earn and pay taxes.

Stanisław II persuaded Catherine II that Poland’s nationalist campaign and military expansion served practical purposes, while Catherine set aside Potemkin’s warning and chose to trust him. In Ostend, Edmond Henry Demu Weier began a new life as a sailor to escape his inherited debts.

• Stanisław II told Catherine II that Polish nationalism was a tax-collecting tactic and that the new recruits were mercenaries hired for Austria’s campaign in Slavonia.
• Catherine II accepted Stanisław II’s assurances and warned him that Poland needed Russia’s protection.
• Potemkin warned Catherine II that Poland was moving toward sovereignty and urged her to prepare for war, but she put his letter away and decided to trust Stanisław II.
• Edmond Henry Demu Weier recalled how his father’s debts had burdened him and how his mother had died after trying to repay them.
• Martin directed Demu Weier to the Maritime Business School, where Demu Weier trained and qualified as an apprentice general hand.
• Demu Weier joined the Leisure, whose boatswain offered him an annual salary of 1,350 francs for six voyages a year.

The Puls Gang’s smuggling network secretly moved French goods into England, using coordinated ships, informants, and church contacts to evade the anti-smuggling fleet. As the trade expanded, British consumers and participating merchants benefited from cheaper goods, while tax revenues fell sharply.

• Demu Weier learned from Martin that the Leisure was carrying silk, alcohol, and cosmetics to England as untaxed private trade backed by the Puls Gang.
• Carriages from Bruges loaded goods onto the Leisure and two brigantines, which departed at dusk and sailed toward Norfolk.
• Martin and the third mate obtained a pass that revealed the Puls Gang’s system for tracking British anti-smuggling ships and guiding vessels around them.
• The Leisure reached a crude Norfolk dock, where workers transferred its cargo to a nearby church cellar and onward to British markets.
• Special Trade’s monthly trade volume reached five million francs, and no smuggling ship had been captured by the British Anti-smuggling Fleet.
• Smuggled goods undercut legitimate shops, lowered expenses for British consumers, and caused tax revenues in several cities to drop by thirty-five percent.

Demu Weier and the Puls Gang’s Norfolk operation faced a visit from an emissary of Lord George Hoon, who offered to help sell their goods through local connections. In Paris, Bayei and Major Gallard reviewed a growing network of British and colonial partners, while French goods also gained support in Brazil and Mysore.

• Demu Weier unloaded cargo at a church in Norfolk and went to sleep, but Jacques Barouin woke him when riders approached.
• Barouin learned the visitors were not police or anti-smuggling officers, and Lord George Hoon’s emissary proposed representing and selling the goods more efficiently.
• Bayei told Major Gallard that Lord George Hoon and other influential British figures had offered sales networks, protection, and access to colonial markets.
• Bayei reported that Baron Henry Graves, assistant Governor of United Kingdom Newfoundland, wanted to cooperate and had personally bought more than 350,000 Francs’ worth of goods.
• The Special Trade Association secured seven major partners in under a month, while José Xavier arranged sales and military-supply orders in Brazil and Mysore distributed French goods across the Indian Peninsula.

France’s smuggling trade brought prosperity to Ostend and the Southern Netherlands, while Calonne and Styler fled London after sabotaging the Coal Gas Streetlight project. The lighting ceremony failed, and Mayor Herbert began investigating Lightning Company.

• French Minister of Trade saw exports rise as smuggling revived French factories and boosted construction and employment around Ostend.
• Ostend’s population surged past fifty thousand, and the Walloon Chamber of Commerce expanded its influence in the Southern Netherlands.
• Mesmer complained that Calonne would not wait three days for Sir Enfield-Gipp to invest, but Styler said the London project could no longer be delayed.
• Herbert held a ceremony to light London’s streetlights, but none of the lamps worked and he postponed the event.
• Herbert went to Lightning Company the next morning, but Styler and the other executives were gone and the technicians found no Coal Gas in the main pipeline.

Herbert discovered that Lightning Company’s gasworks were a sham, exposing a massive bond fraud that reached Prime Minister Pitt the Younger. The scam triggered bankruptcies, protests, and the collapse of Britain’s gas streetlight industry, leaving London without contractors for basic infrastructure repairs.

• Herbert ordered Lightning Company’s workshop opened, and scholars confirmed its equipment could produce almost no coal gas.
• Pitt the Younger learned Lightning Company had issued at least seven hundred thousand pounds in bonds through Commercial Credit Bank and ordered an investigation and asset inventory.
• Sir Elvis, who had invested his entire fortune in Lightning Company bonds, threw himself from a church bell tower.
• Subcontractors demanded payment from London City Hall, but the city refused responsibility, prompting a wave of bankruptcies among contractors and suppliers.
• Workers protested outside City Hall, and Herbert sent the Police to disperse them, leading to arrests and injuries.
• Herbert discovered that companies across the gas streetlight supply chain had collapsed, leaving London without contractors for sewer and pipe repairs.

Pitt the Younger sought George III’s support as the Gas Streetlight scandal triggered bank runs and a political crisis in London. George III approved a plan to raise emergency funds and limit the government’s response, leaving Pitt to act on those decisions.

• Pitt the Younger traveled to Windsor Castle after bank runs at Manor Investment Bank and Lloyd's Bank threatened to spread across London.
• Sir Stewart reassured Pitt the Younger before introducing him to George III, and their private romantic relationship was revealed.
• Pitt the Younger told George III that at least seven hundred thousand Pound Sterling was needed to keep the first bank from failing.
• Pitt the Younger proposed seizing the assets of Mr. Henry Hope and Vankiewicz by handing them over to Leopold II, and George III approved the diplomatic arrangement.
• Pitt the Younger said the government would accept the dead Commercial Credit Bank owner's suicide note as an explanation for the scandal and bring charges against officials involved.
• George III ordered Pitt the Younger to dismiss Herbert rather than prosecute him, saying Herbert had been deceived.

Pitt the Younger reassured George III that he would contain the Gas Streetlight unrest, while George urged him to distract the public with foreign affairs if necessary. At France’s Cabinet meeting, Brienne announced a historic 1791 budget surplus, and Joseph privately recognized that exceptional one-time revenues had driven much of the result.

• Pitt the Younger told George III he would quell the Gas Streetlight unrest, and George instructed him to draw public attention abroad if necessary.
• Queen Mary opened the French Cabinet meeting and asked Archbishop Brienne to present the annual reports.
• Brienne reported that France had collected 740 million Francs in revenue, spent 640 million, and achieved a 98 million Franc surplus in 1791.
• Brienne credited Joseph’s financial and taxation reforms, while Joseph praised Brienne’s stewardship and the ministers congratulated them both.
• Brienne said France’s national debt would fall to 1.98 billion Francs and that the debt replacement plan could reduce annual interest payments to 84 million Francs.
• Joseph reflected that the surplus was unlikely to recur because confiscations from Tax Farmers and the rise of Special Trade had provided exceptional revenue.

Joseph considered how France could sustain rapid growth to prevent resentment among groups harmed by reforms from erupting, while ministers reported sharp gains in industry and agriculture. The chapter left France expanding production through coal, soda ash, sugar beet, and fertilizer, with Joseph focused on keeping the country’s economic momentum going.

• Joseph judged that Special Trade could benefit France for at most another year and worried that groups such as former Tax Farmers, Old Nobles, and the Old Military Group would stir up trouble if economic growth slowed.
• Joseph concluded that France had to keep growing its economy through domestic development and foreign expansion so a new balance of interests could form.
• Mirabeau reported that France’s industrial scale had expanded by 76%, highlighting rapid growth in mechanical production, steel, coal, and chemicals.
• Mirabeau explained that gas streetlights and the new railway from the Nancy Coal Mine had driven coal production and lowered transport costs.
• Mirabeau reported that France’s Royal Soda Process factory had lowered soda ash production costs and helped French goods capture markets across Europe.
• Venio reported that the Valois sugar beet refinery had produced 80,000 pounds of white sugar and that output could reach 600,000 pounds per month; he also described France’s fertilizer production and olive cultivation in Tunis.

Venio reported that phosphate fertilizer and composting had stabilized French agriculture, while olive plantations and oil presses had rapidly expanded Tunis’s economy and lowered olive oil prices in France. The other ministers described growing exports and additional achievements, and Queen Mary resolved to support Joseph as France continued to develop.

• French farmers widely adopted phosphate fertilizer and composting, raising wheat and potato output by around 14% and extending the fallow cycle from three years to four.
• Venio promoted olive plantations in Tunis, where French immigrants and local nobles established more than a hundred plantations and Tunisian workers found employment.
• Four oil press factories helped increase olive oil shipments to France by 190%, and Tunisian plantations and towns continued to expand.
• Bayei reported that French industrial exports were gaining ground in Germany, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire, while the Minister of Census discussed Corsican identification cards and Castelli described new warships and naval training.
• Queen Mary admired Joseph’s accomplishments and decided to give him more support.

After the Crown Prince ordered extra naval funding and stockpiling, ministers suspected conflict with the United Kingdom but could not understand his plans. In Saint-Domingue, Vincent Auge prepared an abolitionist uprising and learned from Brisot that the French King had agreed to sign an abolition decree.

• Bayei, Mirabeau, Venio, and Talleyrand discussed the Crown Prince’s additional naval funding, supply orders, and plans for Talleyrand to negotiate trade with the Ottoman Empire.
• Vincent Auge gathered Saint-Domingue abolitionist representatives and planned to seize Port-au-Prince and force Parliament to pass an abolition bill.
• Auge told the concerned Troc that a foreign country had promised monthly supplies worth thirty thousand Pound Sterling.
• Auge met the French envoy Brisot, who confirmed that the French King had agreed to sign the abolition decree.

Brisot told Auge that the King had abolished slavery in Saint-Domingue, but the edict had to remain secret while Parliament passed its own resolution. Their talks revealed English support for an uprising and set out conditions for abolition, while Brisot reconsidered the Crown Prince’s plans for Auge’s army.

• Brisot presented the Emancipation Edict to Auge and explained that the abolition could not yet be publicly announced because of international pressure.
• Auge accepted the secret approach and revealed that the Duke of Leeds had supplied weapons and promised monthly provisions worth 30,000 pound sterling for an armed protest.
• Brisot began to tell Auge that his army should remain in place, then reconsidered the Crown Prince’s plan after learning that the English were involved.
• Brisot told Auge that plantation owners’ property must be protected and that freed Black workers must remain on their former plantations for two years in exchange for wages; Auge accepted.
• Brisot said plantations damaged in the Boukman Riot should receive compensation and that the rioters should be punished.

Saint-Domingue abolished slavery, and the French-backed forces moved to defeat the Booker rebels. Booker escaped by ship with help from an English merchant working for the Duke of Leeds, who urged him to take his rebellion to the United States.

• Brisot and Auge agreed that the Abolitionist Organization would help the Governor’s troops defeat the Booker rebels after the abolition bill passed.
• Saint-Domingue’s Parliament passed the abolition bill, and Major Rochemore’s troops maintained order as the freed slaves celebrated.
• Marquis Lafayette and Major Jonas’s forces cornered Booker’s underarmed rebels near Tortuga’s northern harbor.
• Troc persuaded Booker that an English merchant could help him escape, and Booker led his soldiers west to board the merchant ship.
• The English merchant supplied Booker with weapons and ammunition and persuaded him to lead his forces to the United States to fight slavery there.

Booker landed in Georgia with weapons and supplies, led the Boukman Movement in a series of plantation raids, and defeated a militia force as his army advanced toward Savannah. Meanwhile, Brisot began talks with Auge, Governor Mabli, and influential legislators in Saint-Domingue.

• Booker brought his men ashore in Georgia, collected cannons from Deep Cargo, and received a map and guidance from Mr. Robin.
• Booker and his officers chose the Ale-Plant Plantation as their first target, and his soldiers routed its white inhabitants and freed nearly two hundred enslaved people.
• Booker’s army attacked three more plantations over the next week and grew to nearly a thousand soldiers.
• The Savannah City Militia sent four hundred men against the rebels, but Booker’s forces ambushed and defeated them near Merry Town.
• Mayor Michael Haydn received word that the militia had suffered more than one hundred and eighty deaths and that the rebels were advancing on Savannah.
• In Saint-Domingue, Brisot held talks with Auge, Governor Mabli, and several influential legislators.

Brisot offered Saint-Domingue independence in exchange for abolishing slavery across the Caribbean and helping Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the West Indies gain independence. Auge and Mabli accepted, and Brisot and Major Daelman outlined a secret plan to disguise French support and use the English to arm the abolitionists.

• Brisot urged Saint-Domingue's Parliament to extend abolition throughout the Caribbean, then offered independence if it met the King's conditions.
• Auge and the other parliamentarians welcomed the royal decree, and Brisot explained that independence required Caribbean-wide abolition and support for a confederation, with French weapons and funding.
• Auge and Mabli agreed that Saint-Domingue would lead the abolitionist cause, then met Brisot that evening to discuss how to carry it out.
• Major Daelman proposed publicly portraying France as hostile to abolition while Auge sought a large payment and aid from England, after which staged defections and victories would supply the abolitionist army.
• Brisot described plans for the abolitionists to ambush the French expeditionary force and drive it back to Jamaica, seizing weapons, supplies, and possibly warships.

The Duke of Leeds returned to Port-au-Prince after learning France planned to send troops to Saint-Domingue, and he sought funding to keep the rebellion going. In Paris, Joseph learned of British interference and set a plan in motion to tie British abolitionists to the crisis before news from the United States arrived.

• The Duke of Leeds left Saint-Domingue for Britain, but returned to Port-au-Prince after receiving instructions to support the Abolitionist Organization and keep the rebellion alive.
• The Duke of Leeds tore up the translated message and wrote to Lord Grenville requesting 300,000 Pounds Sterling.
• Joseph rejected expanded cavalry courses at the Paris Military Technical School and prioritized training infantry and Jägers while preparing to add fifty thousand soldiers.
• Fouche briefed Joseph on Saint-Domingue, and Joseph decided to protest to Britain and broaden the incident's international impact.
• Joseph told Fouche to involve British abolitionists in the crisis, and a journalist later secured an interview with Wilberforce through Earl Middleton.

A French Intelligence Bureau scheme used Wilberforce’s interview to make it seem as if Britain knew about the Saint-Domingue revolt in advance. After Boukman Riot members reached Georgia and accused the Duke of Leeds of arming and transporting them, American Envoy Connor Tristan confronted Lord Grenville, while French Envoy Segur arrived in the palace in a fury.

• A reporter arranged by the French Intelligence Bureau persuaded Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson to praise the abolition bill, then published an interview implying they knew details of Saint-Domingue’s recent events.
• News reached Europe that Boukman Riot members had devastated plantations in Georgia, besieged Savannah, and claimed the Duke of Leeds had supplied them with weapons and passage to America.
• American Envoy Connor Tristan accused Britain of involvement and demanded an explanation and compensation from Lord Grenville.
• Lord Grenville denied Britain’s responsibility and dismissed Tristan’s evidence, leaving the American envoy to depart in anger.
• French Envoy Segur arrived at St. James’s Palace and hurried into the hall with fury on his face.

Segur persuaded Tristan to deepen the Franco-American Alliance with French cotton purchases and investment, while a French-led group secretly landed guns in Jamaica to arm an uprising. The chapter ended with Major Auriol planning to join forces with Jamaica’s Dignity Movement against the Plantation Owners.

• Segur told Tristan that the United Kingdom had undermined United States interests and urged the two countries to unite against it.
• Segur offered at least eight million francs in cotton purchases and plantation investment to reduce United States dependence on United Kingdom trade.
• Tristan promised to report the offer to Parliament and backed the Franco-American Alliance.
• Near Kingston, Major Auriol’s group unloaded Brown Bess Flintlock Guns for a planned revolt in Jamaica.
• Auriol proposed joining forces with the Dignity Movement, whose Patrol had more than four hundred members.

Auriol prepared a Caribbean-wide slave uprising for the fifteenth, while Lord Whitworth arranged for Stanisław II to become Catherine II’s lover to undermine his influence. Zubov discovered the affair and alerted Potemkin, who learned that the King of Poland had promised thirty thousand troops for his attack on Silistria.

• Auriol convinced the leaders in Jamaica to begin an uprising on the fifteenth, anticipating that Saint-Domingue’s victory over the French would inspire rebels across the Caribbean.
• Lord Whitworth and Joss plotted to make Stanisław II’s relationship with Catherine II more official after learning that Zubov did not consider him a rival.
• Zina followed Whitworth’s instructions, keeping Zubov away while Catherine II spent the night with Stanisław II.
• Zubov found out that Catherine II was with Stanisław II and wrote to Potemkin in anger.
• Potemkin received Zubov’s letter and learned that Stanisław II had told Catherine II Poland would send thirty thousand troops to help him attack Silistria.