Chapter Summaries

Pagani explained that Metternich’s reforms had won over many former liberal supporters, leaving Lucas isolated and considering a return to Paris. In London, Pitt the Younger ordered the arrest of a theater troupe and agreed to retaliate against France with anti-French plays, then arrived at Downing Street to meet Lord Hawkesbury.

• Pagani told Lucas that reforms had ended serfdom, eased tariffs, weakened guild monopolies, encouraged industry and infrastructure, and opened civil service and education to more people.
• At the Stilz Society gathering, attendance and support for activism had dwindled, and Lucas went home considering a return to Paris despite still wanting political change.
• Lucas counted more than four thousand Florins left from his father’s money and wondered whether he should leave Austria.
• In London, John Reeves told Pitt the Younger that the theater troupe had been found with scripts insulting the royal family and Marquess Wellesley, and Pitt authorized the arrests.
• The Duke of Portland urged Pitt to commission plays that would embarrass France, and Pitt assigned him the task before meeting Lord Hawkesbury at Downing Street.

Pitt the Younger learned that civil war between Scindia and Holkar had weakened the Marat Alliance just as Britain faced a threat from Mysore. He proposed joining Mysore in an invasion and partition of Marat lands, leaving the final terms to be negotiated with Tipu.

• Lord Hawkesbury told Pitt the Younger that Scindia and Holkar were fighting with more than eighty thousand troops near Ujjain, while Bajirao II called for reinforcements.
• Pitt learned that the conflict threatened Britain’s supply of troops for its war against Mysore, and that the East India Company requested nine thousand soldiers and eight hundred thousand Pound Sterling in aid.
• Pitt weighed the cost of sending troops and funding the Company against Britain’s financial strain and Parliament’s resistance to more currency issuance.
• Pitt proposed allying with Mysore and offering it the Raichur River area and Desh region in exchange for attacking the Marat Alliance.
• Pitt said Britain could offer Tipu Bijapur and Gulbarga as well, and planned for Britain to enter the fighting later while Mysore took the lead.

Pitt the Younger managed Britain’s alliances and finances before attending the commissioning of the Engine70 Steam Engine. The ceremony revealed that Britain’s celebrated machine still lagged behind French technology, including a newer French design already in development.

• Pitt the Younger planned to exploit future tensions between Mysore and Hyderabad and agreed to coordinate with the East India Company.
• Pitt the Younger rejected new loans for Austria and Russia, offering Austria technical assistance and Russia uniforms and ammunition while seeking Ottoman troop withdrawals.
• Pitt the Younger traveled with Cabinet officials and Prince Adolphus to the London Steam Engine Company’s commissioning ceremony.
• James Watt introduced the Engine70, which was advertised as a seventy-horsepower engine despite producing only sixty-nine horsepower.
• Prince Adolphus asked whether the Engine70 surpassed French machines, and the manager agreed, though Watt knew it had copied the ninety-eight-horsepower French LJ98 and France was developing a 120-horsepower engine.

The United Kingdom celebrated the successful demonstration of Watt’s Engine70 and announced plans for a railway from Stockton to Darlington, though the engine remained less capable than French models. Pitt the Younger also secured approval for a Manchester gas-streetlight pilot and turned his attention to London’s drainage system.

• Watt demonstrated the Engine70 to British officials, who watched it run steadily and praised the breakthrough.
• Pitt the Younger opened the demonstration to reporters, and Henry Bathurst announced plans to build a train within a year and construct the Stockton-to-Darlington railway.
• Prince Adolphus offered Watt a reward, and Watt asked for help clearing his debts.
• Croker told Pitt the Younger that Parliament had passed the Manchester Lighting Improvement Bill, approving a gas-streetlight pilot.
• Pitt the Younger thanked Croker and instructed him to advance the London New Drainage System bill.

Pitt the Younger received news of Ottoman and Italian wheat shipments and coordinated British-backed plans in the Americas, while Russia faced mounting pressure in Transcaucasia. The chapter ended with Alexander I ordering Russia to offer the Ottomans Tbilisi and other territories to secure a ceasefire.

• Jenkinson told Pitt the Younger that the Ottomans had agreed to sell Britain 390,000 dan of wheat at a price 12% above the Levant market price, and that more than 100,000 dan from Two Sicilies would arrive in London next March.
• Pitt the Younger said Britain would eventually retake the Mediterranean, while the Navy planned to complete new battleships and repair steam frigates.
• Hammond told Pitt the Younger that Philadelphia would act next summer and Rio de Janeiro around next April, with Crown Prince João promising at least 13,000 soldiers.
• Hammond reported that the Americans wanted Britain to raise the advance payment for next year's smuggled cane sugar from 18% to 25%, and Pitt the Younger ordered Sir Liston to negotiate the sum below one million Pound Sterling.
• Alexander I, warned that Gudovich Corps was under pressure and Tbilisi might fall, ordered Vorontsov to secure a ceasefire by offering the Ottomans Tbilisi, Telavi, Gori, and the Imereti region.

Alexander I planned to surrender most of Georgia to the Ottomans and Persia while keeping Gori, then considered a risky strategy against Poland. In Paris, Joseph dismissed the idea of paying Constantinople to stop grain exports to Britain, calling the trade an excellent deal.

• Alexander I ordered Russia to give Tbilisi to the Ottomans and Kartli and Imereti to Persia while retaining the area north of Gori.
• Alexander I learned that Gudovich Corps could send about twelve thousand troops west and that new recruits and British supplies would support the front.
• Arakcheyev warned that Poland's war could last years and proposed abandoning the defensive line from Vitebsk to Mstislav.
• Joseph prepared to leave for Brest with Queen Mary in disguise while Talleyrand and General Berthier briefed him.
• Talleyrand suggested a three-million-Franc loan to persuade Constantinople to halt grain exports to Britain, but Joseph said he considered the trade an excellent deal.

Joseph planned to use the pound sterling and gold payments to drive inflation in the United Kingdom while responding to Ottoman actions and setbacks in France’s foreign operations. He heard reports of Ottoman victories near Tbilisi, delays in Mysore, and the weakening of French-backed groups in Vienna, then asked for more details about Austria’s reforms.

• Joseph told Talleyrand to publicize the pound sterling’s depreciation, threaten to reject it in trade, and spread word in Constantinople that France would pay above market price for gold reserves.
• Joseph ordered Talleyrand to let the Two Sicilies sell wheat if they required gold, but to intercept their ships if they accepted British paper money.
• Berthier reported that Mustafa’s Ottoman forces and the Persian army had won major victories near Tbilisi and might capture the city before year’s end.
• Lavalette reported that most French weapons shipments to Mysore had not arrived and that Tipu Sultan was waiting as conflict divided the Marat Alliance; Joseph ordered an investigation and more weapons sent.
• Lavalette reported that Franz II’s reforms had sharply weakened French-backed organizations in Vienna, and Talleyrand described the reforms in taxation, law, industry, and serfdom.

Joseph told Lavalette to exploit opposition to Metternich’s Austrian reforms, especially Germanization and Vienna’s plans to control Hungary, and to use French support and trade ties to inflame unrest. He then asked when Austrian troops would enter St. Gallen Pass.

• Lavalette reported that Metternich’s reforms and expanded Secret Police had quieted Austria’s merchants, serfs, and other opposition groups, and suggested ending the funding.
• Joseph argued that the reforms had only buried Austria’s discontent and instructed Lavalette to find a larger spark rather than merely provoke small riots.
• Joseph identified Germanization, restrictions on the Hungarian Parliament, and Vienna’s control of tariffs and currency as policies likely to anger Hungarians.
• Joseph explained that the Security Bureau had helped the Exiled Kuruc organization return to Hungary and had fostered French-Hungarian trade that would be threatened by Vienna’s plans.
• Lavalette said that about six thousand Austrian troops would enter St. Gallen Pass within the next few days.

Joseph reviewed preparations in Basel and Augsburg, then redirected his journey to Saint-Malo after storms delayed The Decisive’s maiden voyage. There, he showed Queen Mary the vast coastal cannery and explained that it processed all the cod caught along the Armor Coast.

• Berthier reported that Basel had trained more than eight hundred militiamen, and Joseph ordered contingency plans in case the city fell quickly.
• Lavalette identified retired Captain Clément Pelletier as a capable backup officer for Augsburg, while Joseph told Augsburg to withdraw if it had misgivings.
• Eman informed Joseph that strong winds would delay The Decisive’s maiden-voyage ceremony, so Joseph decided to visit the Saint-Malo Coastal Cannery instead.
• Queen Mary saw the enormous factory complex at Saint-Malo and asked whether it was all used to make canned food.
• Joseph confirmed that the cannery could process every cod caught along the Armor Coast.

Joseph and Queen Mary toured Saint-Malo’s expanded Canned Food Factory, where new pressure cookers and tinplate seaming machines increased production and eliminated the use of lead solder. The factory still could not process the city’s entire fish catch, and local officials planned to encourage more fishing and expand the docks.

• Joseph and Queen Mary arrived in Saint-Malo, where the mayor, Speaker, and Delat welcomed them while keeping Joseph’s visit from the workers.
• Delat showed Joseph the factory’s Papin Pots, which could sterilize fish quickly, and explained that the plant could stew more than fifty tons of cod each day.
• The mayor said Saint-Malo’s fleet caught nearly seventy tons of fish daily, while Delat expected the factory to process an average of sixty-five tons a day by the following spring.
• Delat showed Joseph and Queen Mary the tinplate seaming machines, which sealed cans without lead solder and produced twelve thousand empty cans daily.
• The mayor told Joseph that the City Council would cut fishing taxes by one-third and expand the docks as Saint-Malo’s population and fishing industry grew.

Queen Mary and Joseph toured Saint-Malo’s enormous canning factory, where Joseph learned that a steam-powered Oil Press he had helped develop was supporting production. After he paid for a young worker’s broken machine part and urged the factory to insure its equipment, the press resumed work and Delat explained how it supplied oil for the canned fish.

• Queen Mary marveled at the canning factory’s capacity, while Joseph discussed a future railway and the growth it could bring to Saint-Malo.
• When a young worker accidentally damaged an Oil Press part, Delat explained that the machine had been invented by Schramm and was used to produce linseed oil for canned fish.
• Joseph learned that the Oil Press part cost thirty-two Francs and paid the factory on the worker’s behalf so the youth would not face ruinous compensation.
• Joseph told Delat to insure major machinery through the Royal Insurance Company of France and considered requiring insurance under the Factory Act.
• Technicians repaired the Oil Press, and Delat explained that its clean oil could be stored in sealed bottles for several months.

Joseph explained how Schramm’s Steam Oil Press had transformed edible-oil production and proposed linking Brittany’s oil pressing and canning industries into a supply chain. As his convoy continued toward Brest, he promised Queen Mary a beachcombing trip before the warship launching ceremony.

• Joseph explained that the Steam Oil Press extracted oil quickly and cleanly, lowering prices and making long-distance oil sales practical.
• Joseph proposed that Brittany fund an oil-pressing plant linked to the Canned Food Factory, with shared supplies, packaging, and transport.
• Delat praised the proposal and suggested the factory could use linseed oil in canned goods, while Joseph predicted the industries might attract railway investment.
• Joseph’s convoy departed Saint-Malo for Brest as the local officials discussed raising funds for the plant.
• Queen Mary discussed industrialization and Joseph’s machinery patents with him, and he invited her to go beachcombing in Brest.

A brother and sister skipped class to gather shellfish on Brest's White Beach so they could afford tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean. They encountered Joseph and Queen Mary beachcombing, and the boy showed them how to catch crabs and razor clams.

• The boy persuaded Karin to keep gathering shellfish instead of confessing to Mr. Waku that they had skipped class.
• The siblings headed toward their usual foraging spot but found the beach closed because a royal party was there.
• Joseph and Queen Mary struggled to catch crabs and other creatures in the sand.
• Karin advised Queen Mary to dig beside a crab's air hole, and the boy demonstrated how to catch one.
• At Joseph's invitation, the boy showed Queen Mary how to draw a razor clam from its hole using powder.

Queen Mary and Joseph met Roan Morvan and Karin while gathering seafood, and the children showed them how to find and catch creatures in a reef they called their secret treasure vault. As they roasted their catch on the beach, Roan told them his father had sailed to Saint-Domingue with The Town’s adults, leaving the family hopeful for his safe return and a better life.

• Roan Morvan taught Queen Mary how to catch razor clams with Stinky Salt, and she gave him a pearl hair ornament in return.
• Roan and Karin led Queen Mary, Joseph, and their companions to their secret reef, where the group caught octopus, a catshark, lobster, starfish, and other sea creatures.
• Queen Mary asked whether Roan and Karin’s parents would worry, and Roan explained that his father had sailed to Saint-Domingue with the adults from The Town.
• Roan described the voyage insurance and said he hoped his father would return safely so the family could renovate their house and buy new beds.
• Roan told Queen Mary that he hoped to sail to the Caribbean Sea himself in a few years, like Captain Jacques.

Joseph and Queen Mary shared a beach feast with Luo An and his sister, then Joseph narrowly prevented the queen from eating a deadly blue-ringed octopus. Three days later, a fleet of steam-powered frigates and a heavily armed battleship passed Poseidon during a naval review.

• Joseph grilled barnacles and octopus for Luo An and his sister, then arranged for Mr. Curtis to take them home and asked about schools and medical care in their town.
• Queen Mary admired the beach and asked Mr. Seznec to grill her large octopus, but Joseph recognized it as a deadly Blue-Ringed Octopus and ordered it thrown away.
• Second Lieutenant Curtis brought Luo An and Karin home, where they told their mother about dinner with Lady Mary and Mr. Joseph and showed her the Pearl Hair Ornament.
• Three days later, five Light of the Mediterranean-class frigates passed Poseidon during a naval review, followed by a black-and-gold battleship that fired twenty-six heavy cannons.

Joseph oversaw the Decisive’s demonstration and inspected the new Steam Battleship, while arranging to hide its development by publicly condemning plans for Fourth-rate Ships. He reviewed France’s expanding steam fleet and the Decisive’s guns and iron defenses, then questioned why some lower-deck cannons were only 24-pounders.

• The Decisive demonstrated its speed and maneuverability, and Joseph explained to Queen Mary and Kexer how it outperformed Britain’s battleships in those areas.
• Joseph told Marquis Leissard to stage Brigadier General Silwa’s arrest over a corruption case and use it to conceal shipyard workers and engineers building more Decisive-class ships.
• Vauclair presented plans for improved Tunis-class cruisers powered by a single LJ115 Steam Engine, and Leissard announced plans to build twenty-six new ships and refit twelve existing ones.
• Joseph boarded the Decisive and inspected its Carronades and iron ribs before ordering Vauclair to cover the ribs with wooden planking.
• Joseph noticed that the Decisive’s lower gun deck had 24-pounders at the bow and stern and asked Vauclair why they were not 32-pounders.

Joseph discussed ways to improve The Decisive’s stability and firepower with its designers, proposing steam-powered adjustable ballast tanks that could allow the ship to carry more heavy guns. Meanwhile, Queen Mary wondered how to keep people from focusing on the King’s absence from Paris.

• Sane explained that The Decisive could not safely fire eighteen 32-pounder Cannons because its narrow hull rolled too much in rough seas.
• Joseph suggested anti-rolling fins and adjustable ballast tanks, and Sane revealed that The Decisive already had Bilge Keels.
• Joseph proposed using a Steam Engine to pump water between side ballast tanks, and Sane calculated that a twenty-horsepower Water Pump could adjust them in under a minute.
• Sane proposed sacrificing four gun positions for the pump and its protection so the remaining twenty-two guns could be upgraded to 32-pounders.
• Joseph ordered construction to begin with the existing plans, reserving the improved design for later ships and suggesting that the first ships trade some cannons for stronger protection.
• Queen Mary wondered how to stop people from paying attention to whether the King was in Paris when Louis did not handle daily government or court affairs himself.

Queen Mary considered making Joseph Regent so Louis could slip away, but realized the plan violated convention and wondered how Joseph would handle the obstacle. In Berlin, Charles reunited with Queen Louise, who persuaded him to seek French help converting Prussia’s overdue reparations into loans.

• Queen Mary proposed to Pauline that Joseph become Regent, then reconsidered when Pauline pointed out that Louis was healthy and the appointment would break convention.
• Charles hurried to Berlin and met Queen Louise at her villa, where the two embraced and declared their longing for each other.
• Louise told Charles that William III took out his frustrations on her and threatened to seize her dowry to pay Prussia’s reparations.
• Louise asked Charles to use his influence at Versailles to turn some of Prussia’s overdue reparations into loans, and Charles agreed to try.

Louise manipulated Charles into arranging a coal supply for Madam Gerhard’s struggling ironworks through his shares in the Alphonse-Boutin Ironworks. The scheme would bypass French export restrictions and undermine Joseph’s plan to keep Prussia agrarian, while Louise and her allies prepared a French shell company to conceal the arrangement.

• Louise seduced Charles but left before the ball, then claimed she had to guarantee the debts of her friend Madam Gerhard, whose ironworks faced bankruptcy.
• Charles offered to help, and Louise explained that the factory needed affordable coal more than investment money.
• Charles agreed to divert coal from the Alphonse-Boutin Ironworks’ mines, despite restrictions on exporting coal outside its place of origin.
• Louise proposed disguising the coal shipments as internal company transfers by making Baron Marechal a shareholder in Charles’s ironworks.
• Louise planned for Marechal to register a shell coking plant in Cologne to buy the coal and conceal the foreign ownership from French investigators.

Ottoman envoy Chandler Halil revealed that his delegation was stalling negotiations while Ottoman forces fortified their positions in Georgia. Persian prince Mirza planned a coordinated assault on Tbilisi with Georgian allies, and nearly thirty thousand Persian troops appeared in western Armenia as the negotiations continued.

• Chandler Halil told Semiz that the Ottomans were delaying negotiations to strengthen their defenses and secure Georgia.
• Mirza learned from a secret letter that the Ottomans were stalling and discussed their unpopular policies in Tbilisi.
• Mirza planned to attack Tbilisi with Reza Afshar’s forces, Prince Parnaoz’s uprising inside the city, Zhu Long’s strike from the west, and General Lutfullah’s feint at Razdan.
• Mirza said the Russians would let Parnaoz’s army pass through Gori and provide supplies.
• On October 12, nearly thirty thousand Persian troops appeared in western Armenia while the negotiations continued.