NOTES    

ABBREVIATIONS

ADA	Archives départementales de l’Aisne (Laon, France)
ADM	Archives départementales du Morbihan (Vannes, France)
ADPC	Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais (Dainville and Arras, France)
ADSM	Archives départementales de Seine-Maritime (Rouen, France)
AN	Archives nationales (Paris, France)
ANOM	Archives nationales d’outre-mer (Aix-en-Provence, France)
BNF	Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, France)
CGH	Collection Gilles Henry (documents privately collected by Gilles Henry)
COARC	Conservation des oeuvres d’art religieuses et civiles (Paris, France)
MAD	Musée Alexandre Dumas (Villers-Cotterêts, France)
MAD Safe	Safe in the Musée Alexandre Dumas*
MM	Alexandre Dumas (père), Mes mémoires, Vol. 1
SHD	Service historique de la Défense (Vincennes, France)

PROLOGUE, PART 1: FEBRUARY 26, 1806

1 Alexandre at his uncle’s house: MM, p. 224.

2 “My cousin called to me”: Ibid., pp. 228–29. This and all other translations are my own, except in cases where I cite English-language publications.

3 General Dumas dies: Death certificate of Alexandre Dumas (“Acte de Décès de Monsieur Thomas Alexandre Davy Dumas Delapailleterie [sic][,] Général de Division”), February 27, 1806, MAD.

4 “I was four years old”: Alexandre Dumas (père), Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Vol. 5, p. 42.

PROLOGUE, PART 2: JANUARY 25, 2007

  1 “I am afraid the situation is most delicate” (and the entire dialogue that follows this): Deputy Mayor Fabrice Dufour, author interview, January 25, 2007, Villers-Cotterêts.

  2 “Adam and Eve nights” and “after the champagne”: Ernest Roch, “L’ancien château royal,” p. 249, quoting Madame de Tencin and the Duke de Richelieu. (Active as a local historian of Villers-Cotterêts and the region in the years before World War I, Roch was instrumental in helping create the Alexandre Dumas Museum. He had a personal reason: his mother, Louise Boivin, had had an affair with Alexandre Dumas, and it was always believed in town that Ernest himself was the novelist’s illegitimate son—hence the grandson of General Dumas.)

  3 “In addition to being a first-class soldier”: David Johnson, The French Cavalry, 1792–1815, p. 43.

  4 three duels in one day: MM, p. 28; Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution, p. 78; Placide David, “Le général Th. Alexandre Dumas,” p. 40.

  5 captured twelve enemy soldiers: Report by the National Convention on a letter from Dumas, December 4, 1792, cited in Le Moniteur, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 14 (1858), p. 651.

  6 “Such brilliant conduct”: Jean-Baptiste Courcelles, “Dumas (Alexandre Davy),” p. 502.

  7 “My dear Dumas, you make”: The officer is General Barthélemy Joubert, in the Tyrol. Report by Dermoncourt, cited in MM, p. 118.

  8 commanding thousands of troops: For example, Dumas led a division with three thousand men in the Bardonnèche and Cezanne valleys in the campaign to capture Mont Cenis. Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, May 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  9 general-in-chief: National Convention to Dumas, December 22, 1793, SHD 7YD91, and National Convention to Dumas, November 22, 1793, MAD.

10 four-star general today: According to an 1898 military dictionary that seems applicable even today, a général de division wears three stars, a général de corps d’armée four stars, and a général d’armée five. Dumas held the equivalent of all these ranks. Dictionnaire militaire, encyclopédie des sciences militaires cited in “Les grades,” French Ministry of Defense, website: http://www.defense.gouv.fr/terre/bloc-les-essentiels/les-grades.

11 spiked boots: Dumas to Citizen Guériot, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B107; Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 21, 1794, SHD 3B9.

12 He captured the enemy’s matériel: Dumas to Committee of Public Safety, May 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.

13 Horatius Cocles: Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” p. 161; Simon Linstant, Essai sur les moyens d’extirper les préjugés des blancs contre la couleur des Africains et des sang-mêlés, p. 78; Edmond Chevrier, Le Général Joubert d’après sa correspondance, p. 98; Henri Bourgeois, Biographies de la Vendée militaire, pp. 9–10.

14 Dumas went as Napoleon’s cavalry commander: Note from the office of commanding officers, January 8, 1800, SHD 7YD91; note from the Ministry of War, November 6, 1848, SHD 7YD91; director of the Avre Union Commission (Amiens) to the minister of war, October 23, 1880, SHD 7YD91.

15 “Among the Muslims”: René-Nicolas Desgenettes, Souvenirs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et du commencement du XIXe, Vol. 3, p. 124. To my knowledge, only two copies of this unpublished volume exist, one in the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France (Paris), the other in the Bibliothèque centrale du Service des Armées (Val de Grâce).

16 at over six feet: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH: “5 pieds 8 pouces.” (The modern conversion is 1.85 meters or 6 feet and 1 inch.)

17 to pay his passage back to France: Robert Landru, À propos d’Alexandre Dumas, pp. 65–66.

18 falling-out with his father: MM, pp. 21–22.

19 he enlisted as a horseman: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

20 first civil rights movement: Sue Peabody, “There Are No Slaves in France”: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Régime, pp. 5–6.

21 “so far inferior”: Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857).

22 the Black Legion: Report on the creation of the Free Cavalry Legion of the Americans and the South, September 15, 1792, SHD XK9.

23 Dumas promoted to general: Director of the Avre Union Commission (Amiens) to the minister of war, October 23, 1880, SHD 7YD91.

24 “horror of negroes” and next two quotations: Paul Thiébault, Mémoires du général baron Thiébault, Vol. 1, p. 60 and Vol. 2, p. 31.

25 offered Jews full civil and political rights: National Assembly decree of September 27, 1791, in Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860, Vol. 31 (1888), pp. 372–73.

26 “was a living emblem”: Chevrier, p. 98.

27 Dumas opposes the bloodshed: General Dumas, “Rapport sur l’état de la guerre de la Vendée,” October 8, 1794, cited in MM, pp. 41–45.

28 “generous republican”: Bourgeois, p. 16.

29 “I worshipped my father”: MM, p. 225.

30 Marie-Louise Labouret: (Hereafter “Marie-Louise.”) Birth certificate, July 4, 1769, MAD Safe.

31 Marie-Louise’s father, Claude Labouret: Marie-Louise’s marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

32 General Alexandre Dumas’s children: Alexandrine Aimée Dumas, b. 1793; Louise Alexandrine Dumas, b. 1796, d. 1797; Alexandre Dumas, b. 1802, d. 1870.

33 the standard account of the novel’s origin: Dumas’s version is repeated in, for example, David Coward, “Introduction,” in Alexandre Dumas (père), The Count of Monte Cristo, ed. David Coward (Oxford, 2008), pp. ix–xxi; Harry Ashton-Wolfe, True Stories of Immortal Crimes, pp. 15–33; Arthur Davidson, Alexandre Dumas, père: His Life and Works, pp. 258–61. An exception is Gilles Henry, Les Dumas: Le secret de Monte Cristo.

34 Dumas wrote in an essay: Alexandre Dumas (père), “État-civil du Comte de Monte-Cristo.”

35 influence on pop culture and Batman: See Luc Sante, “Introduction,” in Alexandre Dumas (père), The Count of Monte Cristo, p. xxv.

36 “that negro”: Philibert Audebrand, Alexandre Dumas à la Maison d’Or, pp. 49–50.

37 “Scratch Monsieur Dumas’s hide”: Eugène de Mirecourt, Fabrique de romans, p. 7.

38 One well-known caricature: “Nouvelle bouillabaisse dramatique par M. Dumas père” (about Dumas’s five-act play Les Gardes Forestiers), Le Charivari, 1858, Collection de la Société des Amis d’Alexandre Dumas.

39 “many self-proclaimed Nietzscheans”: Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg, Vol. 3 (2011), p. 382.

40 “dedicated to the life”: Brochure, Musée Alexandre Dumas.

41 looking into the matter, and following quotations: Conversations with Deputy Mayor Fabrice Dufour, February and March 2007, Villers-Cotterêts.

42 a little castle that General Dumas had rented: Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 105.

43 the house where Dumas died: Ibid., pp. 107–8.

44 “What’s an adventure”: Conversation with François Angot, March 2007, Villers-Cotterêts.

BOOK
ONE CHAPTER 1: THE SUGAR FACTORY

  1 Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie’s birth: Baptism certificate, parish of Bielleville, October 8, 1714, Registres paroissiaux, ADSM.

  2 “without ceremony”: Ibid.

  3 firstborn son: Document about Antoine’s property sales and the Count de Maulde, March 16, 1776, ADPC 10J34c.

  4 an old family: Alexandre Mazas, Histoire de l’ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis, Vol. 2, p. 58. Mazas cites a May 8, 1755, letter sent to the minister of the navy, referring to the Davy de la Pailleterie family as “a good noble family … [its] origins are also known by an ennobling under Louis XI, nearly 300 years ago.”

  5 “I loved war too much”: Voltaire, Histoire du siècle de Louis XIV, p. 81.

  6 family’s coat of arms: Testimony about the Davy family, 1770, BNF NAF 24641, refers to “French Armories, Volume I, Part I, pg. 183”; François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye Des Bois, Dictionnaire généalogique, héraldique, chronologique et historique, Vol. 4, p. 546; Gustave Chaix d’Est-Ange, Dictionnaire des familles françaises anciennes ou notables à la fin du XIXe siècle, Vol. 15 (1903–29), p. 31; Henri Gourdon de Genouillac, Recueil d’armoiries des maisons nobles de France, p. 171.

  7 provincial aristocrats … their fortune was not enough: Réginald Hamel, Dumas—insolite, p. 19.

  8 claim the title of “marquis”: The Count de Maulde’s legal claim mentions “Messire Alexandre Antoine Davy, Chevalier Marquis de la Pailleterie,” November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35. A judgment refers to “Alexandre Davÿ Marquis de la Pailleterie,” August 9, 1786, AN Y1787.

  9 limited prospects in Normandy: Fernand Gaudu, “Les Davy de La Pailleterie, seigneurs de Bielleville-en-Caux.”

10 Charles’s birth date: His baptism certificate, October 13, 1716, ADPC 10J26.

11 Louis’s birth date: His marriage certificate, June 18, 1753, ADPC 10J26.

12 sought their fortunes in the army: Louis is identified as a colonel in the Royal Artillery in Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35. Charles is identified as “ancien officier des troupes détachées de la marine à St Domingue” in a legal decision dated October 17, 1761, ADPC 10J35. Antoine joined the Corps Royal de l’Artillerie: Dumas’s marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe. See also Robert Landru, A propos d’Alexandre Dumas, les aïeux, le général, le bailli, premiers amis, pp. 56–57.

13 served at the front as a gentleman: Document discussing the dispute between Alexandre Dumas (then Thomas Rethoré) and his stepmother, November 22, 1786, AN LX465.

14 the king’s dashing, fabulously rich cousin: Jacques Levron, Le maréchal de Richelieu: Les trésors des princes de Bourbon Conti; Jacques Roujon, Conti: L’ennemi de Louis XIV; Jonas Boyve, Annales historiques du comté de Neuchatel et Valangin; Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and the Seven Years’ War, p. 23.

15 “perfect example of how not”: Karl von Clausewitz, On War, p. 403.

16 fleeing a royal arrest warrant: “Epitre XLV,” Voltaire, Oeuvres complètes, Vol. 2, p. 612.

17 Voltaire at Philipsburg: Frank Hall Standish, The Life of Voltaire, p. 141.

18 offering bon mots between bouts: “A Monsieur *** / Du camp de Philippsbourg, le 3 juillet 1734,” Oeuvres choisies de Voltaire: Poésies, pp. 234–35.

19 duel between Lixen and Richelieu: Emile Colombey, Histoire anecdotique du duel, p. 82; Levron; Jean Fougeroux de Campigneulles, Histoire des duels anciens et modernes, Vol. 1, p. 200; Augustin Grisier, Les armes et le duel, p. 47; Roger de Beauvoir, Duels et duellistes, pp. 21–22, 23; Andrew Steinmetz, The Romance of Duelling in All Times and Countries, Vol. 1, p. 221; Louis François Armand du Plessis de Richelieu, Mémoires historiques et anecdotiques du duc de Richelieu, Vol. 6, p. 5; MM, p. 17.

20 torchlit swordfight in the trenches: Hugh Noel Williams, The Fascinating Duc de Richelieu, pp. 124–25.

21 with Antoine watching: Colombey, p. 82; Steinmetz, p. 221.

22 the duke sank his blade: Louis-François Faur, Vie privée du Maréchal de Richelieu, pp. 309–11; Fougeroux de Campigneulles, p. 200; Alexandre Dumas (père), “Préface en forme de causerie ou causerie en forme de préface,” pp. 46–47; Colombey, p. 82; de Beauvoir, pp. 21–22.

23 a sort of poetic justice: Robert Baldick, The Duel: A History of Duelling, p. 79; Martine Debaisieux and Gabrielle Verdier, Violence et fiction jusqu’à la Révolution, p. 381.

24 the name Richelieu “appears so often”: MM, p. 16.

25 Antoine got out of the army: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

26 Charles settled in Saint-Domingue and Antoine followed: Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas, 1762–1806, p. 11.

27 Marie-Anne Tuffé and her family’s plantation: Marriage certificate, February 17, 1738, ADPC 10J26 (“marie anne Tuffé”); legal decision, dispute between Charles de la Pailleterie and M. Petit des Landes, October 17, 1761, ADPC 10J35 (“Marie Anne de Tuffé”).

28 sugar as medicine: Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power, pp. 96–99.

29 “two drams of fine sugar-candy”: Quoted in ibid., p. 107.

30 “like an apothecary without sugar”: Peter Macinnis, Bittersweet: The Story of Sugar, p. 18.

31 Columbus and sugar: Mintz, p. 32.

32 Hayti in the native tongue: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, p. 299.

33 artisans from the Canaries: Elizabeth Abbott, Sugar: A Bittersweet History, p. 25.

34 enslaving almost everybody else: Thomas R. Martin, Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times, p. 68.

35 Greek and Roman slavery: Thomas S. Burns, Rome and the Barbarians: 100 B.C.–A.D. 400, pp. 104–6.

36 slavery not based on race: David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage, pp. 56–58.

37 nearly all slaves imported into Europe were “slavs”: Ibid., p. 82.

38 Islam and slavery: W. G. Clarence-Smith, Islam and the Abolition of Slavery. (For a contrasting view of the racial aspect to Muslim slavery, see Robin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800, p. 79: “By the tenth century an association between blackness and menial slavery had developed in the Muslim and Arab world: the word ‘abd,’ or black, became synonymous with slave.”)

39 Ottomans diverted Europe’s supply: Davis, pp. 82–84.

40 blacks now came to be considered uniquely destined: Ibid., pp. 55, 73.

41 slaves in Madeira: Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade, p. 70.

42 bois d’ébène: Phillipe Haudrère and Françoise Vergès, De l’Esclave au Citoyen, p. 10.

43 two-thirds of France’s overseas trade: Christopher Miller, The French Atlantic Triangle: Literature and Culture of the Slave Trade, p. 26.

44 more sugar than the British West Indian colonies combined: Laurent Dubois and John Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789–1804, p. 11.

45 most valuable colony in the world: Robert Louis Stein, The French Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century, p. 23.

46 one-third of all slaves died: Dubois and Garrigus, p. 8.

47 the punishment: C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint l’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, pp. 252–53.

48 eighteen hours a day: Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635–1848, p. 39.

49 le Code noir (the Black Code): “Le code noir ou Édit du roy, touchant la Discipline des esclaves nègres des Isles de l’Amérique française. Donné à Versailles au mois de mars 1685,” in Le Code noir et autres textes de lois sur l’esclavage, pp. 11–37.

50 Charles marrying into money: Marriage certificate, February 17, 1738, and Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, both ADPC 10J35.

51 Cap Français: Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig, pp. 22–23.

52 Charles gets one half of the plantation: Marriage certificate, February 17, 1738, ADPC 10J26, and letter to the Count de Maulde mentioning the acquisition of the other half, March 17, 1789, ADPC 10J35.

53 sugar production: Mintz, pp. 19–22; Stein, pp. 60–61.

54 slaves for the brute fieldwork: Stein, p. 44.

55 plantations owned by people of color: John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue, p. 72.

56 Antoine with his brother in Saint-Domingue: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

57 Charles buys the second half of his plantation: M. Tardivy to Marianne de Maulde, June 26, 1773, ADPC 10J26; letter to the Count de Maulde mentioning the acquisition of the other half, March 17, 1789, ADPC 10J35.

58 the old marquis swore: Gaudu, p. 46, referring either to a burial certificate in the Registre paroissial de Bielleville or to a tax document (“capitation des privilégiés de l’élection de Caudebec”), in ADSM C 2223.

59 Antoine was cut from a different: Gilles Henry, Les Dumas: Le secret de Monte-Cristo, p. 18; Dominique Fernandez, Jérémie! Jérémie!, p. 85.

60 “A stay in Saint-Domingue”: Michel-René Hilliard d’Auberteuil, Considérations sur l’état présent de la colonie française de Saint-Domingue, Vol. 2, p. 24, quoted in Garraway, pp. 219–26.

61 “given to amusement”: Moitt, p. 99.

62 “Creole” had a different meaning: Doris Lorraine Garraway, The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean, p. 248.

63 “contribut[ing] to the population”: Alexandre-Stanislas de Wimpffen, Haïti au XVIIIe siècle, p. 281 of the 1817 imprint, quoted in Garraway, p. 229.

64 “to debauch negresses”: “Reglement de M. de Tracy, Lieutenant Général de l’Amérique, touchant les Blasphemateurs et la police des Isles,” in Médéric Moreau de Saint-Méry, Loix et constitution des colonies françaises de l’Amérique sous le vent de 1550 à 1785, Vol. 1 (1784–90), pp. 117–22, quoted in Garraway, p. 201.

65 “abuse of intimacy” and next quotations: De Wimpffen quoted in Garraway, pp. 207–8, 228.

66 the brothers quarrel: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH. (Maulde later maintained that Antoine’s disappearance was mysterious and without obvious cause: see his legal request, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.)

67 parents owe money to Charles: Receipt, June 29, 1757, ADPC 10J34.

68 “full of honor”: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

69 Catin, Antoine’s mistress, and two other slaves: Document about debts and slaves, 1748, CGH; M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776 (describes Antoine taking Catin, Rodrigue, and Cupidon with him), CGH.

70 Antoine absent for nearly thirty years: Count de Maulde’s request at the Parliament, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

CHAPTER 2: THE BLACK CODE

  1 “Charles Edouard searched all the French possessions”: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

  2 Antoine had fled into the jungle: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

  3 marron communities: Richard Price, Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas, 3rd ed., pp. 107–12.

  4 marron derived from cimarrón: Carolyn F. Fick, The Making of Haïti: The Saint-Domingue Revolution from Below, p. 275.

  5 Antoine had left no trace: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

  6 Charles’s parents die: Tax document (“Capitation des privilégiés de l’élection de Caudebec”), ADSM C 2223, cited by Fernand Gaudu, “Les Davy de La Pailleterie,” p. 46.

  7 “it is not known” and “had married a wealthy woman”: M. Le Flamang, report, September 26,1760 (“Capitation des privilégiés de l’élection de Caudebec”), ADSM C 2223 (quoted in Gaudu, p. 60).

  8 Grand Anse (“Great Cove”): Médéric Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l’isle Saint-Domingue, Vol. 2.

  9 communications went by sea: Keith Anthony Manuel, Slavery, Coffee, and Family in a Frontier Society: Jérémie and Its Hinterland, 1780–1789, p. 10.

10 second-most-lucrative crop: Ira Berlin, Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas, p. 124.

11 largest coffee producer: James E. McClellan III, Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue and the Old Regime, p. 66.

12 capital to start up a coffee plantation: Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary Saint Domingue, p. 124.

13 arpent: Robert Leslie Ellis, The Mathematical and Other Writings of R. L. Ellis, ed. William Walton (1863), p. 389.

14 settled in the parish of Jérémie: Manuel, pp. 9–16.

15 Trou Bonbon: Ibid.

16 Highland planters lived off coffee: Ibid.

17 animals: McClellan, pp. 31–33.

18 feral beasts and buccaneers: John M. Street, “Feral Animals in Hispaniola.”

19 white immigrants from the lower classes: King, p. 123.

20 Antoine in La Guinaudée: Alex Dumas’s marriage contract and certificate mention that his mother died in La Guinaudée in 1772, so we can assume that it was where Antoine had settled. November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

21 “Antoine de l’Isle”: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH (spelled “de Lille”); Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

22 “The beginnings of Monsieur Delisle”: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

23 colonial records contain both assertions: Agreement between Dumas and his father’s widow, Marie Retou, November 22, 1786, AN LX465. Cessette is described as a négresse.

24 “for an exorbitant price”: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

25 Dumas’s birth: Minister of war to the Executive Directory, November 28, 1795, SHD 7YD91 (“dumas alexandre ne à jeremie en amerique le 25 mars 1762”). This is the first time Dumas’s date of birth is mentioned in a document. Dumas’s marriage certificate says that he was thirty years and eight months old on November 28, 1792 (abstract of the registry with the certificate of Alexandre Dumas and Marie-Louise’s marriage, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe). His certificate of enrollment in the dragoons says he was twenty-four years old in June 1786 (Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH). The exact date is given in military notes about Dumas’s career (November 6, 1848, SHD 7YD91; March 2, 1962, SHD 7YD91; March 19, 1962, SHD 7YD91).

26 “My father’s eyes”: MM, p. 14.

27 “Free men who have one”: Code noir (1685), article 9, in Le Code noir et autres textes de lois sur l’esclavage, pp. 15–16.

28 “an empire based on libertinage”: Michel-René Hilliard d’Auberteuil, Considérations sur l’état présent de la colonie française de Saint-Domingue, Vol. 2 (quoted in Victor-Emmanuel Roberto Wilson, Le Général Alexandre Dumas: Soldat de la liberté, p. 29).

29 rights of people of color: Jeremy D. Popkin, You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery, p. 64; Doris Garraway, The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean, pp. 205, 235.

30 “expel all the Jews who”: Code noir (1685), article 1, in Le Code noir et autres textes de lois sur l’esclavage, p. 12.

31 free women of color: Laurent Dubois and John Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789–1804, pp. 13–14; Garraway, pp. 230–35; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Vol. 1, p. 105.

32 slave women’s labor: Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635–1848, pp. xiv, 35–36, 45–46.

33 “concubinage with slaves”: “Ordonnance des Administrateurs, concernant le concubinage avec les esclaves, du 18 Décembre, 1713,” Moreau de Saint-Méry, Vol. 2, p. 406.

34 manumission taxes: John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue, p. 197.

35 no evidence of official marriage: Dumas’s marriage certificate identifies “Marie-Cessette” as Dumas’s mother and Antoine as his father but never mentions that they are married: Registry abstract with certificate of Alexandre Dumas and Marie-Louise’s marriage, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

36 life in Jérémie: Manuel, pp. 13, 23, 25.

37 “a courageous act”: Moreau de Saint-Méry.

38 defenses of Jérémie: Ghislaine Rey Charlier and Carrol F. Coates, “Memories of a Freedwoman,” p. 342; Moreau de Saint-Méry, Vol. 2, p. 788.

39 “slave pens”: Manuel, pp. 2–20.

40 “One isn’t admitted”: Moreau de Saint-Méry, quoted in Jean Fouchard, Le Théâtre à Saint-Domingue, p. 96.

41 Saint-Domingue fashion: Charlier and Coates, p. 343; Fouchard, p. 96; David M. Powers, “The French Musical Theater: Maintaining Control in Caribbean Colonies in the Eighteenth Century,” p. 230.

42 Opera and theater: Fouchard, pp. 95–96; Powers, p. 230.

43 Minette and Lise: Powers, p. 238.

44 “the barbarity of their origin”: “Mémoire concernant l’établissement d’un spectacle à Saint-Pierre de la Martinique,” 1780, AN, quoted in David M. Powers, “The French Musical Theater,” p. 232.

45 In the 1970s sociologists doing research in Haiti: Marlyn Walton Wilmeth and J. Richard Wilmeth, “Theatrical Elements in Voodoo.”

46 “We expressly forbid”: “Règlement provisoire des Administrateurs, concernant le Luxe des Gens de Couleur” (February 2, 1779), Moreau de Saint-Méry, pp. 855–56.

47 ban on “white” names: “Règlement des Administrateurs concernant les Gens de couleur libres” (June 24 and July 16, 1779), Moreau de Saint-Méry, pp. 448–50.

48 three mixed-race siblings: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH; agreement between Dumas and his father’s widow, Marie Retou, November 22, 1786, AN LX465. Cessette’s daughters Jeannette and Marie-Rose are mentioned.

49 “I remember hearing my father”: MM, pp. 14–15.

50 Dumas’s skills: Dumas himself says that in his “class” (i.e., social class), writing was not something that would be worked on or easily encouraged: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, January 4, 1794, SHD 3B9.

51 “as one learns in those new countries”: Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution, p. 12.

CHAPTER 3: NORMAN CONQUEST

  1 Charles buying his plantation: Record of property acquisition by Charles de la Pailleterie, March 3, 1755, ADPC 10J26.

  2 Charles’s gout: M. Tardivy to Marie-Anne de Maulde, June 26, 1773, ADPC 10J26; M. Leroux to Marie-Anne de Maulde, July 8, 1773, ADPC 10J26.

  3 Charles’s administrators: M. Monjal and M. Papillon are mentioned in the articles of association for a company in which Charles is an associate, January 16, 1760, ADPC 10J26; see also Charles de la Pailleterie to M. Monjal, June 4, 1761, ADPC 10J26.

  4 Charles leaving Saint-Domingue with his wife and daughter: As of July 1753, we know that Charles was in Saint-Domingue, where he writes his will (July 3, 1753, ADPC 10J26). In March 1755, Charles was in France (see property acquisition record, ADPC 10J26).

  5 Charles in La Pailleterie mansion in the early 1750s: Robert Landru, À propos d’Alexandre Dumas, p. 35; Gilles Henry, Les Dumas, pp. 23–24; Réginald Hamel, Dumas—insolite, p. 19.

  6 Charles sending money to his parents: Receipt for 7,000 livres from Jeanne and Alexandre de la Pailleterie to Charles de la Pailleterie, June 29, 1757, ADPC 10J34.

  7 “hit and bit a witness”: Henry, pp. 19–20.

  8 “not knowing whether their older brother existed”: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

  9 Charles in La Pailleterie castle: Charles de la Pailleterie to M. Monjal, June 4, 1761, ADPC, 10J26 (mentions that Charles lived at the Pailleterie castle).

10 Louis’s inheritance: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

11 Charles’s connections at Versailles: Without his connections, the company he started in 1760 could not have existed. See articles of association, January 16, 1760, ADPC 10J26, and M. Bulande to M. Papillon, March 7, 1760, ADPC 10J26b.

12 the Marquis de Mirabeau: Mirabeau provided guarantees when Charles bought a property. See legal decision in the dispute between Charles de la Pailleterie and M. Petit des Landes, October 17, 1761, ADPC 10J35.

13 Charles’s loans: The Marquis de Mirabeau provided guarantees when Charles bought a property. (Legal decision in dispute between Charles de la Pailleterie and M. Petit des Landes, October 17, 1761, ADPC 10J35.)

14 havoc on colonial shipping: Benjamin Rand, Selections Illustrating Economic History Since the Seven Years’ War, p. 98; Lucien Guillou, André Vanderheyde, courtier lorientais, et ses opérations (1756–1765), pp. 13–38.

15 demand for slaves during the war: Edouard Delobette, Ces Messieurs du Havre: Négociants, commissionnaires et armateurs de 1680 à 1830, p. 1607.

16 “white sugar of the highest quality”: M. Bulande to M. Papillon, March 7, 1760, ADPC 10J26b.

17 Charles formed a partnership: Articles of association for a company in which Charles is an associate, January 16, 1760, ADPC 10J26.

18 Charles in London: ADPC, 10J34, dossier A, cited in Delobette, p. 1608.

19 Charles in slave trading: Landru, p. 37; Henry, p. 30; Delobette, p. 1608.

20 “pieces of India”: Henry, p. 30.

21 Foäche’s slave-trading ships: Réginald Hamel, Dumas—insolite, p. 172, cited in Delobette, p. 1370.

22 Foäche brothers lending money to the king: Christiane Maubant, “Le ‘traité’ de traite de Stanislas Foäche, du Havre.”

23 Charles’s ship: ADPC 10Jc, Chartrier de la Buissière, 26 c: “Achats de nègres: armement de la Douce Marianne, 1763” and 34 a: “Affaire du navire négrier la Douce Marianne, 1763–1764.”

24 Charles’s ship: the Douce Marianne: ADPC 10J26c and 10J34a.

25 Douce Marianne to Sierra Leone: Delobette, pp. 695–96, citing ADPC, 10J34, dossier A.

26 “300 captives”: Agreement between Charles and the London banker Pierre Simond, in Delobette, pp. 695–96, citing ADPC 10J34, dossier A.

27 mutiny on the ship: ADPC 10J26 and 10J81 cited in Delobette, p. 590; Landru, pp. 40–42, and Henry, pp. 38–40.

28 Charles has more debt: Delobette, pp. 1201, 1239–40, 1607–8, citing ADM E 2373.

29 “demanding, unjust”: Foäche & Cie in Cap Français to Veuve Foäche & Fils in Le Havre, June 25, 1774, ADSM 4055, 1 Mi 664 R-2, quoted by Delobette, p. 1370.

30 “His plantations could produce”: Delobette, p. 4783, citing M. Bégouën Demeaux, p. 48.

31 wedding of Charles’s daughter: Gazette de France, April 18, 1764, p. 128, and May 4, 1764, p. 144.

32 Marie-Anne’s dowry: Marriage contract between Marie-Anne de la Pailleterie et Léon de Maulde, April 2, 1800, ADPC 10J35.

33 cream of French society: Landru, p. 46; Henry, p. 37.

34 Mirabeau as angry creditor: Legal decision, dispute between Charles de la Pailleterie and M. Petit des Landes, October 17, 1761, ADPC 10J35.

35 Charles’s slave trading: ADPC 10J26c and 10J34a.

36 “All your creditors”: Maulde to Charles, in Henry, p. 44.

37 Charles back in Saint-Domingue: M. Leroux to the Count de Maulde, July 8, 1773, ADPC 10J26.

38 Charles managing his properties: Landru, p. 49; Henry, p. 44.

39 “houses, stables”: M. Tardivy to Marie-Anne de Maulde, June 26, 1773, ADPC 10J26.

40 Charles dies: Many letters to the Maulde couple, including: M. Cabeuil to the Count de Maulde, July 16, 1773, ADPC 10J26; M. Leroux to the Count de Maulde, July 8, 1773, ADPC 10J26.

41 “M. de la Pailleterie just died”: Bégouën Demeaux, p. 48 (quoted by Delobette, p. 4783).

42 Louis involved in a scandal: Henry, p. 47.

43 Louis dies: Fernand Gaudu, “Les Davy de la Pailleterie, seigneurs de Bielleville-en-Caux,” p. 48, citing Louis’s burial certificate, Registres paroissiaux, Saint-Léger de Fécamp, ASM.

44 Reading court documents: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

45 the Pailleteries’ creditors: Landru, p. 55; Henry, p. 49.

46 “possessions are deteriorated”: M. Cabeuil to the Count de Maulde, July 16, 1773, ADPC 10J26.

47 Maulde plans to sell the château: Official document about Mme de Maulde’s inheritance from her husband, April 2, 1800, ADPC 10J35.

48 December 1775: The exact date is not known. Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35; Abbé Bourgeois to the Count de Maulde, December 11, 1775, CGH (mentions the return of M. de la Pailleterie).

49 “Antoine Delisle”: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH; Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, Archives ADPC 10J35.

50 Antoine at the inn: Landru, p. 61; Henry, p. 50.

51 “I am Alexandre Antoine”: Ibid.

52 Antoine convincing the Abbé: Henry, pp. 50–51.

53 “December 11, 1775”: Ibid., p. 51.

54 Mademoiselle Marie Retou: Judgment in the dispute between Marie Retou and Thomas Rethoré/Retoré, November 22, 1786, AN LX465.

55 1776 agreement between Antoine and the Mauldes: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

56 Chauvinault’s findings about Antoine (including quotations): M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

57 Future legal documents: Marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe; marriage contract, also November 28, 1792, ADA 304E268.

58 “wife, to whom he had”: MM, p. 15.

59 Thomas-Alexandre’s arrival: The Abbé Bourgeois to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, ADPC 10J34d.

60 “the slave Alexandre”: Landru, p. 65.

61 Thomas sold in Port-au-Prince: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

62 Antoine buys Thomas back: Ibid.

63 Abbé Bourgeois about Thomas: Abbé Bourgeois to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH.

64 “Monsieur and dear lord”: Ibid.

65 legal battle: Count de Maulde, legal claim, November 30, 1778, ADPC 10J35.

66 Antoine sells his properties: Document recording Antoine de la Pailleterie’s sale of the properties that the Count de Maulde is buying back, ADPC 10J35.

67 “Never has fortune”: Landru, p. 64.

68 “Thomas Retoré”: Baptism certificate, Lisieux, September 5, 1777, CGH.

69 other people in Saint-Domingue with the name Retoré: Ministère des finances, État détaillé des liquidations opérées à l’époque du Ier janvier 1829 par la Commission chargée de répartir l’indemnité attribuée aux anciens colons de Saint-Domingue, Vol. 4 (Paris, 1829), p. 498–99.

70 Saint-Germain-en-Laye: François Boulet, Leçon d’histoire de France, pp. 95, 110–12.

71 rue de l’Aigle d’Or: Marriage contract between Marie Retou and Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, February 13, 1786, CGH.

72 Davy coat of arms: Testimony about the Davy family, 1770, BNF NAF 24641; François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye Des Bois, Dictionnaire généalogique, héraldique, chronologique et historique, Vol. 4, p. 546.

73 La Boëssière academy: Henry Daressy, ed., Archives des maîtres-d’armes de Paris (Paris, 1888), pp. 169–70.

74 Antoine recognizing his son: Alexandre’s parents are identified in his marriage certificate (abstract of the registry with the certificate of the marriage between Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie and Marie-Louise Labouret, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe).

75 Count Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie: Gaudu, p. 46; Hauterive, p. 13.

CHAPTER 4: “THERE ARE NO SLAVES IN FRANCE”

  1 Antoine selling Thomas-Alexandre: M. de Chauvinault to the Count de Maulde, June 3, 1776, CGH and Sentence dated November 22, 1786; judgment in the dispute between Marie Retou and Thomas Rethoré/Retoré, AN LX465.

  2 aristocrats’ education: Daniel Roche, France in the Enlightenment, p. 651; Olivier Bernier, Pleasure and Privilege: Daily Life in France, Naples, and America, 1770–1790, p. 143.

  3 Dumas’s physical abilities: Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806), p. 12; Hippolyte Parigot, Alexandre Dumas Père, p. 9.

  4 Dumas meets Saint-Georges at the academy: MM, p. 15; Hauterive, p. 13; Paul Thiébault, The Memoirs of Baron Thiébault, trans. Arthur John Butler, Vol. 1 (1896), p. 52.

  5 his skin was light: Gabriel Banat, The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow, p. 83.

  6 Saint-Georges’s fight with the Italian: Ibid., pp. 95–96.

  7 Saint-Georges was born: Erick Noël, “Saint-Georges: Un chevalier de sang mêlé dans la société des lumières,” pp. 160–63; J.-C. Prod’homme, “Le chevalier de Saint-Georges, escrimeur et musicien,” pp. 38–41; La Boëssière (fils), Traité de l’art des armes à l’usage des professeurs et des amateurs, pp. xv–xvi; Jean Fougeroux de Campigneulles,Histoire des duels anciens et modernes, Vol. 1, p. 318; Pierre Bardin, Joseph de Saint Georges, le Chevalier Noir, p. 59; Banat, pp. 25, 36–40.

  8 Saint-Georges’s father: Fougeroux de Campigneulles, p. 318 (“fermier-général”); Prod’homme, pp. 38–41 (“contrôleur général” and planter); Noël, pp. 132–35.

  9 Saint-Georges’s mother: Fougeroux de Campigneulles, p. 318; Prod’homme, pp. 38–41.

10 title of “chevalier”: Erick Noël, Être noir en France au XVIIIe siecle, p. 159; Banat, p. 70.

11 Marie-Antoinette as patron: Banat, pp. 150–53, 158.

12 “is the most accomplished man in Europe”: Ibid., p. 232.

13 letter of protest: Roger de Beauvoir, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, p. 405.

14 “very rich young man”: Thiébault, Mémoires du général baron Thiébault, Vol. 1, p. 193.

15 “Man is born free”: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social, ou principes du droit politique, p. 4.

16 French parlements: Roland Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598–1789: Society and the State, Vol. 1, p. 256.

17 Parlement of Paris: Encyclopédie méthodique: Jurisprudence, Vol. 6, p. 384; Sue Peabody, “There Are No Slaves in France”: The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Regime, p. 5.

18 jurisdiction of Parlement of Paris: Peabody, p. 5.

19 Somerset decision: Seymour Drescher, Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery, pp. 99–105; Mark S. Weiner, Black Trials: Citizenship from the Beginnings of Slavery to the End of Caste, pp. 70–88.

20 “The King has been informed”: Peabody, p. 12.

21 “not found any ordinance”: Lucien Peytraud, L’Esclavage aux Antilles françaises avant 1789, d’après des documents inédits des archives coloniales, Vol. 2, p. 376, quoted in Peabody, p. 13.

22 “England was too pure”: Prince Hoare, ed., Memoirs of Granville Sharp, p. 77; Weiner, p. 361.

23 “Rule, Britannia!”: Helen Kendrich Johnson, Our Familiar Songs and Those Who Made Them: Three Hundred Standard Songs of the English-Speaking Race (1909), p. 577.

24 “The law takes no notice”: Smith v. Brown and Cooper, 2 Salkeld 666 (1706), in Peabody, p. 5.

25 1715 Nantes slavery case: Ibid., pp. 15–16.

26 Nantes as main transit port for slaves: Robert Harms, The Diligent: Worlds of the Slave Trade, p. 15.

27 Edict of October 1716: “Edit du roi, concernant Règlement au Sujet des Esclaves Negres qui seront amenés en France,” October 1716, in M. de Boug, Recueil des édits, déclarations, lettres patentes, arrêts du conseil d’état et du conseil souverain d’Alsace, Vol. 1 (1657–1725) (1775), pp. 483–84.

28 “If the masters fail”: Edict of October 1716, Article V.

29 refused to register the law: Peabody, p. 22.

30 “the God of the Christians”: Ibid.

31 Jean Boucaux case: Peabody, pp. 24–40; Léo Elisabeth, La société martiniquaise aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 1664–1789, p. 338.

32 marry only with owners’ permission: Edict of October 1716, Article VII.

33 “the object of Verdelin’s hatred”: Jean Mallet, Mémoire pour Jean Bocaux, p. 5.

34 Gauls and Franks: Mallet, pp. 2–3.

35 etymology of franc: Auguste Scheler, Dictionnaire d’etymologie française d’après les résultats de la science moderne, p. 143.

36 “The custom is such”: Peabody, p. 29.

37 Dred Scott: Dred Scott v. Sandford, U.S. 393 (1857).

38 “French, because he was born”: Peabody, p. 36.

39 an Anglo-American courtroom: Since America was a series of colonies, not directly analogous with England or France, it is hard to say what would have happened in England in a similar case. But the British colonies all had anti-miscegenation laws in place. Interracial marriage was outlawed in Maryland in 1661 (Kevin R. Johnson, Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, p. 11), in Virginia in 1691 (John Van Houten Dippel, Race to the Frontier: “White Flight” and Westward Expansion, p. 32), in Massachussetts in 1705 (first colony in New England), in North Carolina in 1741, and so forth. The attitude was not unique to North America. “In 1644 the Antigua Assembly passed a law forbidding ‘Carnall Coppullation between Christian and Heathen,’ the latter being defined as Negro or Indian,” writes Karen Woods Weierman in One Nation, One Blood, p. 45.

40 “whoever sets foot”: Peabody, p. 36.

41 “the infinite riches”: Ibid., p. 34.

42 4,200 livres in back pay, plus court costs and damages: Ibid., p. 36.

43 “terminate this affair”: Maurepas to M. Le Clerc du Brillet, April 25, 1739, cited in ibid., p. 40.

44 “the greater part of the negroes”: “Déclaration du Roi, Concernant les Esclaves Nègres des Colonies, qui interprête l’Edit du mois d’Octobre 1716.”

45 “confiscated for the profit of the King”: Peabody, p. 38.

46 new flood of freedom suits: Ibid., p. 55.

47 “Servitude, like a destructive volcano”: Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, Journal du palais, Vol. 1 (1840), p. 635.

48 “The introduction of too many blacks”: Guillaume Poncet de la Grave, quoted by Pierre Boulle, Race et esclavage dans la France de l’Ancien Régime, p. 90.

49 compulsory registration: Peabody, p. 74.

50 “disfigured” by mixed blood: Ibid.

51 “No one has ever deployed”: La Boëssière (fils), quoted in Banat, p. 67.

52 “La Boëssière’s mulatto” incident: Banat, pp. 68–70.

53 “a perpetual series of hits”: Ibid., p. 70.

54 gen d’armes: Banat, p. 74; Lucien Mouillard, Les régiments sous Louis XV; Charles Magnin, Histoire des marionnettes en Europe: Depuis l’antiquité jusqu’a nos jours, p. 61.

55 1762 ordinance: Ordonnances (de l’amirauté de France) … (Des 31 mars et 5 avril 1762) (Paris, 1762).

56 Nanon: Banat, pp. 40, 45, 72.

57 La Boëssière’s appearance at the registration tribunal: Banat, pp. 72–73.

58 “multiplies every day”: Peabody, pp. 85–86.

59 allowed to retain its colonial outposts in India: Jaswant Lal Mehta, Advanced Study in the History of Modern India, 1707–1813, p. 358.

60 “In the end, the race”: Peabody, p. 117.

61 Police des Noirs: “Déclaration du Roi, pour la police des Noirs, donnée à Versailles le 9 août 1777,” ANOM, F1B 1 à F1B 4; François-André Isambert, Decrusy, and Alphonse-Honoré Taillandier, Table du recueil général des anciennes lois françaises, depuis l’an 420 jusqu’à la révolution de 1789, vol. 29 (1833), p. 251.

62 certificate for “colored” subjects: Peabody, p. 129.

63 race laws poorly administered: Ibid., p. 124.

CHAPTER 5: AMERICANS IN PARIS

  1 “One of the handsomest men”: Author unknown, “Le général Dumas, homme de couleur,” n.d. [1797], BNF NAF 24641.

  2 “dark—very dark”: Arthur Davidson, Alexandre Dumas (père): His Life and Works, p. 4.

  3 “well built”: MM, p. 15.

  4 average height: Paolo Malanima, Pre-modern European Economy: One Thousand Years, p. 310.

  5 Dumas’s height: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

  6 Dumas’s hands and feet: MM, p. 15.

  7 Dumas’s youth in Paris: Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution, p. 13; Placide David, “Le général Th. Alexandre Dumas,” p. 39; Victor-Emmanuel Roberto Wilson, Le Général Alexandre Dumas: Soldat de la liberté, p. 57.

  8 “In the midst of the elegant youth”: MM, p. 15.

  9 Louis XVI’s passion for hunting, clocks, and locks: Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, p. 54; François Barrière and Mme Maigné, The Private Life of Marie Antoinette: Autobiographical Memoirs of Madame Campan, p. 164.

10 After a hunt: Michael Forsyth, Buildings for Music, p. 112.

11 Antoine spending money in Paris: M. Delisson to the Count de Maulde, June 25, 1786, ADPC 10J35.

12 men of color as “Americans”: John D. Garrigus, “ ‘Sons of the Same Father’: Gender, Race, and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue, 1760–1792,” p. 152.

13 alliance with the American colonies: Treaty of Amity and Commerce, February 6, 1778, in The Controversy over Neutral Rights Between the United States and France, 1797–1800, ed. James Brown Scott and John Chandler Davis, p. 441.

14 “electrical ambassador”: Schama, p. 44.

15 humiliation in French India: N. R. Madhava, Criminal Justice India Series: Pondicherry, p. 7.

16 free blacks at Siege of Savannah: Michael Lee Lanning, African Americans in the Revolutionary War, p. 85.

17 two wires hanging to the ground: American Footprints in Paris, ed. Frances Wilson Huard, p. 104.

18 “à la John Paul Jones” and sailing-ship hats: Guillaume Imbert de Boudeaux, Correspondance secrète, politique & littéraire, Vol. 8, p. 288; Gabriel d’Èze and A. Marcel, Histoire de la coiffure des femmes en France, pp. 166–68.

19 “France retained glory and ruin”: Jules Michelet, Histoire de France au dix-huitième siècle: Louis XV et Louis XVI, p. 247.

20 full-length portrait of Louis XVI: Catalogue, “The Final Sale of the Relics of General Washington,” p. 36, item 266.

21 “the protector of the rights of mankind”: Benson John Lossing, Harpers’ Popular Cyclopaedia of United States History from the Aboriginal Period to 1876, Vol. 2, pp. 1490–91.

22 Le Club de Boston ou des Américains: Fortnightly Review, Vol. 117 (London, 1922), p. 219.

23 “French affairs are harder”: Lafayette to Washington, quoted by André Maurois, A History of France, p. 270.

24 French optimism about American slavery: Edward Seeber, Anti-Slavery Opinion in France During the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, p. 117.

25 plays about idyllic life in Virginia: Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots, and Revolutionaries, 1776–1871, p. 19.

26 three-hour coach ride: François Boulet, Leçon d’histoire de France: Saint-Germain-en-Laye, p. 109.

27 candlelit lamps: Nicholas Papayanis, Planning Paris Before Haussmann, p. 44; Louis de Sivry and M. de Rolot, Précis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, p. 284.

28 “dazzle, but close to give”: Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Panorama of Paris (1999), p. 132.

29 lackeys: Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, Vol. 3: The Perspective of the World, p. 328.

30 Dumas lost his lackey at sea: Alexandre Dumas to Marie-Louise, June 18, 1798, MAD.

31 “long and brown”: Alexandre Dumas (père), Les trois mousquetaires, vol. 1, p. 6.

32 “so stunning [and] appalling”: Mercier, Panorama of Paris, p. 45.

33 fishwives and peddlers: Louis-Sebastien Mercier, Paris, Vol. 2 (1817), p. 151.

34 “M. le Marquis wasn’t living”: M. Delisson to the Count de Maulde, June 25, 1786, ADPC 10J35.

35 “France is to fashion”: Mrs. John Melville, “Point d’Alençon,” Overland Monthly 4 (Jan. 1870), p. 64.

36 “A carriage is the grand object”: Mercier, Paris, Vol. 2, p. 205.

37 “is necessarily filthy, black”: Mercier, Panorama of Paris, p. 41.

38 diamonds: Mercier, Paris, Vol. 2, pp. 295–96.

39 “No, no, this is not me” and “back from the dead”: Letter cited by Robert Landru, À propos d’Alexandre Dumas, pp. 66–70.

CHAPTER 6: BLACK COUNT IN THE CITY OF LIGHT

  1 rue Étienne: Certificate with Dumas’s address in Paris, rue Étienne (spelled “Estienne”), undated, BNF NAF 24641.

  2 Paris’s remodeling: Eric Hazan and David Fernbach, The Invention of Paris: A History in Footsteps, pp. 14–15; Colin Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City, p. 180.

  3 “The Palais Royal was the heart and soul”: Johannes Willms, Paris, Capital of Europe: From the Revolution to the Belle Epoque, p. 5.

  4 palace of Cardinal Richelieu: Jones, p. 222.

  5 went to the Orléans family: Henry Sutherland Edwards, Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, Vol. 1, p. 166.

  6 “In a single day”: Jones, p. 193.

  7 mesmerism: Robert Darnton, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France, p. 161.

  8 Philippe Curtius and Marie Tussaud: Pamela M. Pileam, Madame Tussaud and the History of Waxworks, pp. 17, 23–24.

  9 Parisian cafés: W. Scott Haine, The World of the Paris Café: Sociability Among the French Working Class, 1789–1914, pp. 209–10; Thomas Okey, Paris and Its Story, p. 334; Schama, pp. 135–36.

10 Marx and Engels at the Palais Royal: Karl Baedeker, Paris and Its Environs, 6th ed., p. 18.

11 “The chairs, which are placed”: Melchior von Grimm and Denis Diderot, Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique, Vol. 2, pp. 535–37, in Willms, p. 6.

12 “brown and mellow” eyes: MM, p. 23; Hippolyte Parigot, Alexandre Dumas Père, p. 9.

13 Nicolet’s Theater: F. W. J. Hemmings, Theatre and State in France: 1760–1905, pp. 2, 27–40.

14 replacing a sick leading man with a monkey: Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, Vol. 37.

15 incident at the Nicolet theater: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, testimony about the incident, September 15, 1784, BNF NAF 24641. See also Jean-Pierre Titon’s testimony, September 15, 1784, BNF NAF 24641. Dumas’s testimony provides details about the racial insults that cannot be found in M. Titon’s testimony.

16 Thomas-Alexandre attending a performance: Dumas, Nicolet incident testimony.

17 “a very beautiful Creole”: MM, p. 18.

18 two armed companions: Or only one? Dumas, in his testimony, mentions only one man with Titon, but Titon says he was with two men.

19 “You are quite beautiful”: Dumas, Nicolet incident testimony.

20 “I would be pleased”: Ibid.

21 M. Titon’s position in the West Indies: Several letters and military notes about him, 1779, ANOM COL E 379bis.

22 “like Americans?” and the following eight quotations: Dumas, Nicolet incident testimony.

23 “Oh, I beg your pardon”: MM, p. 18.

24 “every smile an insult”: Alexandre Dumas (père), Les trois mousquetaires, Vol. 1, p. 9.

25 declaration by the marshals; Thomas-Alexandre freed: The marshals’ testimony about the incident at the Nicolet theater, September 16, 1784, BNF NAF 24641.

CHAPTER 7: A QUEEN’S DRAGOON

  1 the marriage: Marriage contract between Marie Retou and Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, February 13, 1786, CGH.

  2 “marriage caused a cooling-off”: MM, p. 21.

  3 money problems with the new stepmother: Judgment in the dispute between Marie Retou and Thomas Rethoré/Retoré, November 22, 1786, AN LX465. See also Dumas to Marie-Louise, September 15, 1796, MAD Safe.

  4 “it is very dishonorable”: Horace Walpole to Richard West, in Eliakim Littell and Robert S. Littell, Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 78, p. 307.

  5 Thomas-Alexandre enlists: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

  6 “[My father] told him”: MM, pp. 21–22.

  7 first record of the name: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

  8 “Dumas, Alexandre”: Dumas signed his name “Alexandre,” but the military administration kept referring to him as “Thomas Alexandre” (either “Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie” or “Dumas”) well into the 1790s.

  9 “Thomas Retoré”: The name is spelled Rethoré in the transcription of a sentence dated November 22, 1786, AN LX465. It is spelled Rettoré in legal notes about a dispute between Dumas and Castillon, August 9, 1786, AN Y1787.

10 “son of Antoine and Cecette Dumas”: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

11 “Native of Jemerie”: Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, June 2, 1786, CGH.

12 “from Jeremie, in America”: Military certificate, September 9, 1792, SHD 7YD91.

13 “show proof”: “Règlement portant que nul ne pourra être proposé à des souslieutenances s’il n’a fait preuve de quatre générations de noblesse”—the so-called “Segur ordinance,” named after the Count de Segur, the minister who passed it on May 22, 1781.

14 Antoine died: Death certificate of Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, June 16, 1786, MAD Safe.

15 a letter to the Count de Maulde: M. Delisson to the Count de Maulde, June 25, 1786, ADPC 10J35.

16 “The death of M. le Marquis”: Document recording the sale of properties owned by the Count de Maulde, August 12, 1786, ADPC 10J35.

17 four-century-long connection: The Manoir de la Pailleterie in Bielleville was built in 1602. Jacques Vauquelin, Châteaux, manoirs, monuments et sites de la région bolbécaise, p. 92.

18 a serious sum: Document about the sale of properties owned by the Count de Maulde, August 12, 1786, ADPC 10J35.

19 dragoons: Commandant Bucquoy, Dragons et guides d’état-major; René Chartrand and Eugène Leliepvre, Louis XV’s Army (1): Cavalry and Dragoons; Erik A. Lund, War for the Every Day: Generals, Knowledge, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe, 1680–1740, p. 71.

20 got their name from carbine muskets: Auguste Scheler, Dictionnaire d’étymologie française d’après les resultats de la science moderne (1888), p. 162.

21 musketeers: Richard Mowery Andrews, Law, Magistracy, and Crime in Old Regime Paris, 1735–1789: The System of Criminal Justice, Vol. 1, pp. 38–39; André Corvisier and John Childs, eds., A Dictionary of Military History and the Art of War, p. 334.

22 they got poorer horses: Lund, p. 71.

23 dragoons battled smugglers: Joseph Tiré de Cléron, Abrégé de la vie de Louis Mandrin, chef de contrebandiers en France, pp. 28–30. Much as anti-drug agents sometimes fall victim to the temptation of trafficking, dragoons were sometimes implicated in salt-smuggling rackets (see Roland Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598–1789, p. 459).

24 France’s so-called iron belt: Michael Wolfe, Walled Towns and the Shaping of France, p. 151.

25 “The liberty that he had known” and the next two quotations: MM, pp. 23–24.

26 weight of a musket: Encyclopédie Didérot d’Alembert, Vol. 15 (1782), p. 568; Aide-mémoire à l’usage des officiers d’artillerie de France (1819), p. 562; Captain Gervais, À la conquête de l’Europe (1939), cited in Terry Crowdy, French Revolutionary Infantryman, 1791–1802 (2003), p. 13.

27 the dragoons’ Norman horses: Robert Landru, in À propos d’Alexandre Dumas (p. 80), mentions that the Queen’s Dragoons in Laon used “chevaux normands.”

28 weight of a Norman horse: “Site officiel du Syndicat national des éleveurs et utilisateurs de chevaux Cob Normand,” www.cobnormand.com.

29 “many feats”: Arthur Davidson, Alexandre Dumas (père): His Life and Works, p. 4.

30 it seems impossible: By comparison, the current world record for lifting weights is 580 pounds hoisted by Rezazadeh Hossein, in a clean and jerk lift during the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. International Weightlifting Federation, http://www.iwf.net.

31 duels illegal: Philippe-Antoine Merlin, Répertoire universel et raisonné de jurisprudence, Vol. 5 (1827), p. 492; Fougeroux de Campigneulles, Histoire des duels anciens et modernes, Vol. 1, p. 310.

32 gashed twice in the head: MM, p. 54.

33 “My father had hardly rejoined”: Ibid., p. 28.

34 crowds in Grenoble pelted royal troops: J. A. Félix Fauré, Les assemblées de Vizille & de Romans en Dauphiné durant l’année 1788, pp. 102–15.

35 freakish weather returned: Charlotte Julia von Leyden Blennerhassett, Madame de Staël: Her Friends and Her Influence in Politics and Literature, Vol. 1, p. 273.

36 French Guards: Andrews, pp. 38–41, 520.

37 population of 650,000: Colin Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City, p. 177.

38 fewer than ten thousand men: Andrews, p. 38.

39 “We are Citizens before Soldiers”: Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, p. 375.

40 “The ferment at Paris”: Arthur Young, Travels During the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789 …, Vol. 1, pp. 249–50.

41 Charleville muskets: Schama, pp. 388–89.

42 king met the new Paris municipal government: Louis Blanc, Histoire de la Révolution Française, Vol. 2, pp. 418–22.

43 dragoons stationed in Laon: “Régiments de dragons,” L’Union Nationale de l’Arme Blindée Cavalerie Chars website, http://unabcc.free.fr/historique/régiments-de-dragons.

44 Claude Labouret with the National Guard: Labouret is identified as “Commandant de la Garde, Nationale de Villers-Cotterêts & propriétaire de l’hôtel de l’Ecu” when his daughter marries Dumas. Dumas’s and Marie-Louise’s marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

BOOK TWO CHAPTER 8: SUMMERS OF REVOLUTION

  1 Great Fear: David Andress, The French Revolution and the People, pp. 68–69, 94, 113–15; Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, pp. 428–33; Donald M. G. Sutherland, The French Revolution and Empire, pp. 65–68.

  2 famine pact: Andress, p. 205. There were also theories that nobles were behind the alleged brigands (see Sutherland, p. 67; Schama p. 429).

  3 destitution and bread prices: Sutherland, pp. 46, 50–51.

  4 raised expectations: François Furet, Interpreting the French Revolution, pp. 110–11.

  5 backstory of opportunism: Sutherland, pp. 46, 65–68; Schama, p. 433.

  6 brigands and village bells: Lefebvre, The Great Fear of 1789, p. 156.

  7 brisk aristocratic tourist trade: Ernest Roch, “L’ancien château royal” and “Le Général Alexandre Dumas”; André Moreau-Néret, “L’Hostellerye de l’Escu de France,” p. 136.

  8 best hunting in France: Louis-Ferdinand-Alfred Maury, Les forêts de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France, p. 165.

  9 brief family embarassment: Roch, “L’ancien château royal,” pp. 306–7.

10 sent for the dragoons: Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” pp. 89–90.

11 twenty dragoons: Roch, “La Reine Dragons,” pp. 74–76.

12 One in particular: Letter from a citizen of Villers-Cotterêts to another from Pierrefonds, cited in Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” pp. 90–91.

13 nearly half a head taller: See physical descriptions in Pierre Nougaret, Anecdotes militaires, anciennes & modernes de tous les peuples, Vol. 4, p. 260; Jean-Baptiste Courcelles, “Dumas (Alexandre Davy),” p. 502; René-Nicolas Desgenettes, Souvenirs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et du commencement du XIXe, Vol. 3, p. 124.

14 “Dear Julie”: Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 91.

15 Hôtel de l’Ecu: Moreau-Néret, “L’Hostellerye de l’Escu de France,” p. 92.

16 Viscount de Noailles: “Séance du 4 août 1789,” La Tribune Française (August 4–13, 1789), p. 47.

17 to consider abolishing slavery: “Assemblée Nationale, Séance du 27 Juin 1789,” Journal des débats, des lois du pouvoir legislatif et des actes du gouvernement (1971), p. 69.

18 Society of the Friends of the Blacks: Marcel Dorigny and Bernard Gainot, La Société des Amis des Noirs, 1788–1799.

19 a “moment of patriotic drunkenness”: Marquis de Ferrières, Correspondance inédite, p. 114.

20 “the representatives of the French people”: Declaration of Human and Civic Rights of 1789. The Declaration has become the preamble to the current French Constitution.

21 Jefferson and the Rights of Man: William Howard Adams, The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 284–85; Harlow G. Unger, Lafayette, pp. 233–34.

22 “Where is that villain?”: James de Chambrier, Marie-Antoinette, reine de France, Vol. 1, p. 62.

23 performance space for the Comédie-Française: Francis Miltoun, Royal Palaces and Parks of France, p. 112.

24 National Assembly in the Manège: Armand Brette, Histoire des édifices où sont siégé les assemblées parlementaires, pp. 158–68.

25 “I have always been afraid”: Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine, July 11, 1789, in Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 2, p. 496.

26 a delegation of free men of color and the “Club Massiac”: Dubois, Avengers of the New World, pp. 75–77, 80–85.

27 “the terror of the colonists”: Florence Gauthier, L’aristocratie de l’épiderme, p. 90.

28 “to lose everything”: Journal encyclopédique ou universel, Vol. 8, part 2 (1790), p. 248.

29 parlement courts were suspended and abolished: Lynn Avery Hunt, Revolution and Urban Politics in Provincial France, p. 130.

30 “active citizens”: Law of December 22, 1789, “De la formation des assemblées pour l’éléction des représentants à l’Assemblée nationale,” in Leopold Georges Wickham Legg, ed., Select Documents Illustrative of the History of the French Revolution, p. 161. Approximately 4.3 million men, or two-thirds of the adult male population, became citizens in this way (Sutherland, p. 83).

31 women and Republican citizenship: David A. Bell, The Cult of the Nation in France, p. 127; Susan G. Bell and Karen M. Offen, Women, the Family, and Freedom: 1750–1880, pp. 97–109.

32 Nearly a million positions: Sutherland, p. 82.

33 Alexandre and Marie-Louis were engaged: Claude Labouret to Jean-Denis Leroy, in Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 92.

34 Dumas left Villers-Cotterêts: Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 92.

35 Fête de la Fédération: Henri Gourdon de Genouillac, Paris à travers les siècles, p. 175; Henriette Dillon, Journal d’une femme de cinquante ans, Vol. 1, pp. 241–43.

36 “The Nation, the Law, the King”: Gazette Nationale, no. 197, July 16, 1790, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 5, p. 129.

37 “King of the French”: Ibid., p. 131.

38 “Frenchmen, we are free”: Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture, Vol. 26, p. 381.

39 first American flag displayed outside the United States: Unger, p. 266.

40 feasting and public balls: Gourdon, pp. 178–79; Rebecca L. Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, pp. 100–103.

41 Louis’s apparent enthusiasm: Schama, p. 506.

42 hundreds of thousands of aristocratic émigrés: Colin Jones, The Longman Companion to the French Revolution, p. 199.

43 “done their business for us as rivals”: Edmund Burke, The Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. 1, p. 451.

44 cover story to explain Louis’s flight: Schama, p. 555.

45 petition was drafted denouncing Louis: François-Alphonse Aulard, La Société des Jacobins: Juillet 1791 à juin 1792, Vol. 3, p. 20.

46 royal plot to destroy republicanism: Andress, p. 191.

47 Alex Dumas and the Sixth Dragoons also rode: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, January 4, 1794, SHD 3B9.

48 Champ de Mars Massacre: Andress; Wickham Legg, pp. 110–14.

CHAPTER 9: “REGENERATION BY BLOOD”

  1 “Remember those crusades”: Patriote françois, no. 857, December 13, 1791, reprinted in Albert Mathiez, La révolution et les étrangers: Cosmopolitisme et défense nationale, p. 61.

  2 “the forces necessary”: The Pillnitz Declaration, signed by the Austrian emperor and the king of Prussia on August 27, 1791. Text reprinted in Raymond Williams Postgate, Revolution from 1789 to 1906, p. 39.

  3 “It is a cruel thing to think”: Jeanne-Marie Roland to Bancal des Issarts, June 25, 1791, in Charles-Aimé Dauban, Ètude sur Madame Roland et son temps, p. ci.

  4 “simplicity, goodness, and that dignity”: Eloise Ellery, Brissot de Warville: A Study in the History of the French Revolution, p. 72.

  5 Washington demurred: Ellery, p. 80.

  6 slaves, pitted against the land of liberty: The rhetoric of slavery could apply to internal enemies as well, e.g., Brissot at the National Assembly on June 1, 1792: “Slaves of the Austrian system, the Montmorins and Lessarts have never been more than puppets whose main string was in Vienna; this same string controlled the committee at Versailles while the people were toppling the Bastille.” Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860, Vol. 44 (May 22–June 8, 1792), p. 445.

  7 “The War Song for the Army of the Rhine”: François Le Roy de Sainte Croix, Le chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin, ou la Marseillaise, pp. 38–39.

  8 “What do they want, this horde of slaves”: Second verse of the “Marseillaise” as published on September 4, 1792, in the Courrier de Strasbourg, in Le Roy de Sainte Croix, p. 15.

  9 “We cannot be at ease”: Robert Roswell Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolutions, Vol. 2 (1959–64), p. 60.

10 “It is because I want peace”: Baron Cloots quoted in David A. Bell, The First Total War, p. 115. (See Bell’s excellent description of Cloots and the international revolutionary warmongers.)

11 Louis de la Pailleterie military service: An official document dated 1766 refers to Louis as “Lieutenant Colonel commandant l’artillerie a Dieppe Chevalier de l’ordre royal est militaire de St Louis,” ADPC, file 26; Edouard Delobette, Ces Messieurs du Havre, p. 1243; Alexandre Mazas, Histoire de l’ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis, p. 57 (giving Louis’s ranks in the Registre des Officiers supérieurs d’artillerie avant 1789).

12 “I lead a gang of thieves”: Count de Saint-Germain to Joseph Pâris du Verney, November 11, 1757, cited in Claude Louis, Correspondance particulière du comte de Saint-Germain, p. 1.

13 nearly a third of central Europe: Cathal J. Nolan, The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650 (2006), p. 857.

14 “Now suppose there arises”: Jacques de Guibert, Essai général de tactique, Vol. 2, p. 16.

15 maps: William McNeill, The Pursuit of Power, pp. 161–62.

16 strike at the Austrian Netherlands under Biron and Dillon: Ernest d’Hauterive, L’armée sous la Révolution, 1789–1794, pp. 197–98; Edward Baines, History of the Wars of the French Revolution, Vol. 1, p. 25; Heinrich von Sybel, History of the French Revolution, Vol. 1, pp. 447–50.

17 recently promoted to corporal: Executive Council to Dumas, September 2, 1792, SHD 7YD91, and note of the Historical Service, November 6, 1848, SHD Y7D91.

18 recommended for court martial: d’Hauterive, p. 198.

19 the Austrian-Prussian coalition issued another threat: The Coblentz Declaration, or “Brunswick Manifesto,” written by the Duke of Brunswick, a commander in the Prussian army, July 25, 1792, in Adolphe Thiers, The History of the French Revolution, 1789–1800, Vol. 1, pp. 296–300.

20 Dumas at Maulde: Le Moniteur Universel, reprinted in Réimpression de l’Ancien Moniteur, Vol. 13 (1842), p. 434; Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” p. 160; Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 93.

21 Dumas’s charge: Arnault et al., p. 160.

22 “Spotting them”: MM, p. 30.

23 “cut [the enemy riders] off so deftly”: Le Moniteur Universel, August 18, 1792, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 13 (1842).

24 “Citizen Dumas, American”: Dumas, letter about the event in Maulde, Gazette nationale, no. 341, December 6, 1792, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 13 (1842).

CHAPTER 10: “THE BLACK HEART ALSO BEATS FOR LIBERTY”

  1 Verdun commander committed suicide: Colonel Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire took his own life rather than face the indignity of handing over the fortress to the Prussians. See Arthur Chuquet, La première invasion Prussienne, and “The Campaign in France,” in Miscellaneous Travels of J. W. Goethe, ed. L. Dora Schmitz (1884), p. 93, in which Goethe discusses how, in Beaurepaire’s suicide, “a trait of a republican character was presented to us … [an] example of the highest patriotic devotion.”

  2 “ardently pray”: London Times, Monday, September 10, 1792.

  3 Lafayette was arrested by the Prussians: Harlow G. Unger, Lafayette, p. 290.

  4 “Here and now a new epoch”: Richard Friedenthal and Martha Friedenthal-Haase, Goethe: His Life and Times, p. 313.

  5 Edict of Fraternity: “Décret qui promet secours et fraternité à tous les peuples qui voudront recouvrer leur liberté,” November 19, 1792, in A Collection of Addresses Transmitted by Certain English Clubs and Societies to the National Convention of France, p. 19.

  6 “free legions”: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, pp. 22–33.

  7 their own legions: Belgian legion and Germanic legion: Gainot, p. 32; English legion: Adam Zamoyski, Holy Madness, p. 79.

  8 legion of “Vandals”: Marita Gilli, Le Cheminement de l’idée européenne dans les idéologies de la paix et de la guerre, p. 43.

  9 The group was led by Julien Raimond: Gainot, pp. 33–38.

10 “Free Legion of Americans”: “Formation du Régiment d’hussards américains et du Midy, d’après le décrêt du 7 septembre,” 1792, SHD XK9.

11 Saint-Georges: Jean Fougeroux de Campigneulles, Histoire des duels anciens et modernes, pp. 300–303; J.C. Prodhomme, “Le chevalier de Saint-Georges, escrimeur et musicien,” Les annales coloniales, no. 51 (March 1936), pp. 38–41; Gainot, pp. 43, 49; Erick Noël, “Saint-Georges, Un chevalier de sang mêlé dans la Société les Lumières,”pp. 131–53; Gabriel Banat, The Chevalier de Saint-Georges; Pierre Bardin, Joseph de Saint George, le Chevalier Noir, pp. 59–61.

12 Hussars of Liberty and Equality: Executive Council document, September 2, 1792, SHD 7YD91.

13 Dumas’s commission with the Hussards of the South: Ibid.

14 Dumas joined up with the Americans: Approval of Dumas’s nomination as lieutenant-colonel in the Legion, September 15, 1792, SHD XK9; also see Léon Hennet, État militaire de France pour l’année 1793, p. 222.

15 Dumas’s commission with the Black Legion: Military report dated September 15, 1792, SHD XK9; minister of war to Dumas, October 10, 1792, MAD Safe.

16 law reaffirming the freedom principle: Declared by the National Assembly, September 18, 1791, “sanctioned” by the king on October 16. Collection générale des décrets rendus par l’Assemblée Nationale, Mois de Septembre 1791, deuxième partie, p. 725.

17 lobbyists to work the deputies: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, pp. 85–90.

18 Julien Raimond: On Raimond’s life and his efforts on behalf of free blacks, see Dubois, pp. 60–83, and John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue.

19 “new whites”: Garrigus, p. 220.

20 “that there will be no change”: Abbé Grégoire, Lettre aux philantropes sur les malheurs, les droits et les réclamations des gens de couleur de Saint-Domingue, p. 12.

21 French colonies received word: Dubois, pp. 80, 98.

22 ten insurgents killed for every white death: Jeremy D. Popkin, A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution, p. 42.

23 “The black heart also beats”: Brissot, December 1, 1791, in Claude Wanquet, La France et la première abolition de l’esclavage, 1794–1802, p. 27.

24 full citizenship to freed blacks: “Décret relatif aux moyens d’apaiser les troubles des colonies,” April 4, 1792, in J. B. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, réglements, avis du conseil-d’état, Vol. 4, pp. 90–91.

25 “sale, impression, or distribution”: Dubois, p. 103.

26 “If Nature, inexhaustible”: Gainot, p. 35.

27 “Sirs, Virtue in Honor”: Ibid.

28 “The future marriage between citizen”: Marriage contract, November 28, 1792, ADA 304E268.

29 “Citizen” and “Citizeness”: Gabriel Demante, Définition légale de la qualité de citoyen, pp. 25–26.

30 “will not suffer the title”: Excerpt from the Patriote François, printed in Le Moniteur Universel, no. 270, September 26, 1792, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 14 (1858), p. 39.

31 The couple were married: Marriage contract, November 28, 1792, ADA 304E268.

32 Dumas père’s baptism: Alexandre Dumas to General Brune, July 26, 1802, BNF NAF 24641; baptism certificate, Registres d’état civil, Commune de Villers-Cotterêts, ADA.

33 “Citizen Louis Augustin”: Dumas’s and Marie-Louise’s marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

34 Espagne rising to Count of the Empire: Charles Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, Vol. 1, pp. 497–98.

35 “widow of the late Anoine”: Dumas’s and Marie-Louise’s marriage certificate, November 28, 1792, MAD Safe.

36 reconciliation between Dumas and Retou: Judgment in the dispute between Thomas Rethoré/Retoré and Marie Retou, November 22, 1786, AN LX465.

37 financial conditions of the marriage, including quotation: Marriage contract, November 28, 1792, ADA 304E268.

38 The honeymoon was brief: The town gave Dumas a certificate verifying that he was a “good citizen,” dated December 15, 1792, which suggests he left on that day—or at the very least shortly after (certificate, December 15, 1792, SHD 7YD91). According to Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 94, Dumas left seventeen days after his wedding.

39 first child: Alexandrine Aimée’s birth certificate, September 10, 1793, ADA.

40 evolution of the Legion: Jacques de Cauna, Haïti: L’éternelle révolution (2009), p. 211; Bardin, p. 153; Banat, p. 380; Gainot, pp. 51–54; and Erick Noël, “Une entreprise originale—La Légion Noire de a Révolution,” p. 233.

41 “As the head of the regiment”: MM, p. 34.

42 “[Dumas] led his young warriors”: Antoine-Vincent Arnault, “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” pp. 160–61. The [correct] name of the city is “Mouvaux.”

43 Saint-Georges going to Lille: Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806), pp. 32–33.

44 Saint-Georges going to Paris: Erick Noël, “Saint-Georges: Un chevalier de sang mêlé dans la société des Lumières,” p. 143.

45 Saint-Georges accused: Banat, pp. 380–81 (citing a letter from General Dufrenne, May 2, 1793, SHD, 2Y); Noël, “Saint-Georges …,” p. 175.

46 “As Saint-Georges’s books” and following three quotations: MM, pp. 55–56.

47 neither a reprimand nor a summons: d’Hauterive, p. 32; Banat, p. 381.

48 Alex Dumas promoted to brigadier general: Provisional Executive Council, letter signed by the minister of war, July 30, 1793, MAD Safe.

CHAPTER 11: “MR. HUMANITY”

  1 Dumas promoted to general of division: Administrative note from the Ministry of War, November 6, 1848, SHD 7YD91.

  2 civilian “commissioners”: Established by decree on April 9, 1793. See Henri Wallon, Histoire du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris, Vol. 4, p. 95; Gunther Erich Rothenberg, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon, p. 111.

  3 “to encourage the others”: Biographie universelle et portative des contemporains, Vol. 4 (1834), p. 464. During 1793–94, 84 generals were executed and 352 fired (David Bell, The First Total War, p. 151).

  4 “You no longer have any reason”: “Rapport sur la nécessité de déclarer le gouvernement provisoire de la France révolutionnaire jusqu’à la paix,” in Alexis Eymery, Choix de rapports, opinions et discours prononcés à la Tribune Nationale depuis 1789 jusqu’à ce jour, pp. 118–30.

  5 “the Organizer of Victory”: On Carnot, see A. Picaud, Carnot: L’organisateur de la victoire; and Marcel Reinhard, Le Grand Carnot. (For more on Carnot’s important contributions to mathematics, see Gert Schubring, Conflicts Between Generalization, Rigor and Intuition, Section V, pp. 309–69.)

  6 levée en masse: Bell, pp. 148–51. (Essentially every other Western power would institute conscription during the Napoleonic wars.)

  7 increased France’s troop strength: Colin Jones, The Longman Companion to the French Revolution, p. 147–55, 156; Gregory Freemont-Barnes, The French Revolutionary Wars, p. 33.

  8 “The pike is the arm of liberty”: John A. Lynn, “French Opinion and the Military Resurrection of the Pike, 1792–1794,” p. 4. Carnot was a vehement propagandist on behalf of pikes; see his July 25, 1792, speech to the Legislative Assembly encouraging the distribution of pikes to all soldiers and citizens (Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860, Vol. 47, p. 122).

  9 “Pikes began the revolution”: Etienne Cabet, Histoire Populaire de la Révolution Française, Vol. 2, p. 511.

10 pikes: On French attitudes about pikes, see Lynn; on pikes as a medieval battlefield weapon, see J. F. Verbruggen, The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages.

11 “If we have not been either Spartans”: Bell, p. 139.

12 “Strike en masse”: From the “general rules” regarding military operations issued by Carnot and the Committee of Public Safety on February 2, 1794 (Journal des sciences militaires, Vol. 13 [1902], p. 354).

13 many letters signed by Carnot: The extant letters from Carnot and the Committee of Public Safety can be found in SHD 3B9, SHD 7YD91, and in MAD.

14 “has given up his profession”: Oscar Browning, Napoleon, the First Phase, p. 178.

15 “What a fool!”: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Mémoires de M. de Bourrienne, p. 51.

16 Dumas’s general politics: For Dumas’s expressions of republicanism, see Dumas to the Municipality of Ferrera, August 19, 1797, SHD V3B118; Dumas to the Directory, September 24, 1797, BNF NAF 24641; and Dumas to Marie-Louise, May 12, 1801, MAD.

17 Alexandrine Aimée: Birth certificate, Registres d’état civil, Villers-Cotterêts, ADA.

18 Dumas rode to Villers-Cotterêts: Claude Labouret, letter to a friend, September 20, 1793, cited in Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dubois,” p. 95.

19 Dumas appointed commander-in-chief: Alex Dumas to Minister of War Bouchotte, September 15, 1793, SHD 7YD91; Minister of War Bouchotte to the Convention, September 9, 1793, published in Le Moniteur, September 10, 1793, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur (1840), p. 17.

20 “This appointment”: Minister of War Bouchotte to Alex Dumas, September 11, 1793, cited in MM, p. 35.

21 “The General”: Claude Labouret, letter to a friend, September 20, 1793, cited in Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 95.

22 memo about the Army of the Pyrenees: Ministry of War to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.

23 “the most important passes”: Executive Council, memo to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.

24 “must maintain”: Ministry of War to Alex Dumas, September 24, 1794, MAD Safe.

25 the new commander-in-chief could not enter: Decree by the People’s Representatives for the Army of the Pyrénées, October 22, 1793, in MM, p. 35.

26 “When the terrible hour”: MM, p. 40.

27 command of the Army of the Alps: National Convention decree, December 22, 1793, SHD 7YD91, and memo published in Le Moniteur, December 24, 1793, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 19 (1863); Executive Council decree, December 28, 1793, MAD.

28 “live up to his reputation”: Executive Council decree, December 28, 1793, MAD.

29 “in the midst of the army”: Pierre Chépy, Un agent politique à l’armée des Alpes, p. 246.

30 fourth commander-in-chief: Jones, p. 147.

31 Dumas taking Piston and Espagne along: Alex Dumas to the minister of war, January 11, 1794, SHD 3B9, and April 4, 1794, SHD 3B10.

32 both men were happy: Piston was promoted to brigadier general (2 Vendémiaire, Year II); later he was sent to the Pyrenees (A. Lievyns, Fastes de la Légion-d’honneur, Vol. 3, p. 486). Espagne was a lieutenant colonel at the end of 1793; he served in the army of the Western Pyrénées (Charles Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, Vol.1, pp. 497–98).

33 “My father passed through the village”: MM, p. 53.

34 Dermoncourt would stay: At the end of his military career Dermoncourt was a brigadier general (Mullié, pp. 406–10). He was also rewarded with a Legion of Honor medal in 1813 and the title of baron. (Mullié, pp. 406–10; Tony Broughton, “Generals Who Served in the French Army During the Period 1789–1815.”)

35 “popular” societies: Michael L. Kennedy, The Jacobin Clubs in the French Revolution, 1793–1795.

36 Dumas passing through Lyon: Dumas to the minister of war, January 11 and 21, 1794, SHD 3B9.

37 the People’s Representatives warned Dumas: Dumas to the minister of war, January 21, 1794, SHD, 3B9.

38 –58: Dumas’s response to the denunciation, including quotations: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, January 4, 1794, SHD 3B9.

39 “My father took no part”: MM, p. 29.

40 Dumas was allowed to go on: Ernest d’Hauterive, in Un soldat de la Révolution (p. 69), speculates that this was because the “Thermidorian Reaction,” a revolt against the Terror’s excesses, took place right after Dumas was denounced by the People’s Commission (June 24).

41 Saint-Georges and ten officers arrested: Gabriel Banat, The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow, p. 401.

42 “renew[ed] their oath”: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, p. 57.

43 three-man delegation: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, pp. 168–70. For Dufay’s speech to the Convention, see Léon-François Hoffman et al., Haïti 1804: Lumières et ténèbres, p. 93.

44 In fact, slavery had already been abolished: Dubois, pp. 163, 167.

45 “Your comrade, a soldier”: Dumas to his “brothers in arms,” March 6, 1794, SHD 3B9.

CHAPTER 12: THE BATTLE FOR THE TOP OF THE WORLD

  1 Dumas was supposed to dislodge: Committee of Public Safety, decree, January 25, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  2 approximately fifty-three thousand men: Army summary of the situation in the Alps, January 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  3 “The enemy he needed to get”: MM, p. 50.

  4 set about to whipping his army into shape: See, for example, letters from Dumas to the chief of staff, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B107.

  5 elite company of Mont Blanc guides: Dumas to the chief of staff, February 13, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  6 “Mont-Cenis is currently”: General Dours to Dumas, January 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  7 “I cannot procure”: Dumas to the minister of war, January 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  8 rifles, cannon, saddles, gunpowder, bandoliers: Dumas wrote a number of letters to the chief commissary of the artillery about all of these supplies, for example, on March 1 and March 20, 1794, SHD 3B107. See also Dumas to the commissioner general, March 24, 1794, SHD 3B9.

  9 the mountain’s best guides: For example, letters from Dumas to the captain of the guides, March 24 and 25, 1794 (SHD 3B9 and 3B107), among many others.

10 –62: an elaborate operation: General Petitguillaume to Adjutant General Sandos, February 4, 1794, SHD 3B107.

11 long letters on organizing: For examples, see three letters from Dumas to the chief of staff, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B107; Dumas to Brigadier General Pouget, February 5, 1794, SHD 3B9; Dumas to Commissioner Misson, February 15, 1794, SHD 3B107.

12 Dumas mastered every detail: Among dozens of examples, see orders from Dumas, January 28, 1794, SHD 3B9, and Dumas to the commissaire ordonnateur, February 28, 1794, SHD 3B107; also Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, February 20, 1794, SHD 3B9.

13 “four thousand iron cleats”: Dumas to Citizen Guériot, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B107.

14 desertion had been a problem: Committee of Public Safety, decree, mentioned in Dumas to the chief of staff of the Army of the Alps, May 29, 1794, SHD 3B107.

15 Dumas received an order: Minister of war to Dumas, January 27, 1794, SHD 3B9.

16 “We want the conquest”: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, January 1794, quoted in Claude Schopp, “Préface générale,” in Joseph Balsamo, p. viii.

17 “these parts are very difficult”: Dumas to the minister of war, February 7, 1794, SHD 3B9.

18 “The snow’s massive quantities”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.

19 Dumas’s alternative suggestion: Dumas to the minister of war, February 3, 1794, SHD 3B108, and February 7, 1794, SHD 3B9.

20 “The Republic can count on me”: Dumas to the minister of war, February 3, 1794, SHD 3B108.

21 “I never imagined”: Minister of war to the Committee of Public Safety, February 7, 1794, SHF 3B9.

22 “You say that the Republic”: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, February 8, 1794, SHD 3B9.

23 Dumas called a council of war: Decisions of the war council (“arrêté pris en conseil de guerre”), February 26, 1794, SHD 3B9.

24 “Each general”: Dumas to Generals Basdelaune and Sarret, March 2, 1794, SHD 3B108.

25 it snowed hard: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.

26 a careful letter, including quotations: Dumas to the minister of war, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B108.

27 “cannons firing”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 1, 1794, SHD 3B9.

28 “In speaking to the Minister”: Ibid.

29 Dumas’s belief that the émigrés: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, March 14 and March 15, 1794, SHD 3B9; Dumas to General of Division d’Ours, April 19, 1794, SHD 3B108.

30 the threat of the Jacobin clubs: Dumas, letter, June 26, 1794, SHD 3B11, and letter from the local Jacobin society to the Committee of Public Safety, June 7, 1794, SHD 7YD91.

31 the impression they made on all the locals: Dumas to the minister of war, March 30, 1794, SHD 3B9.

32 Dumas a diplomat: Dumas to the minister of war, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B10.

33 “An enlightened society”: Dumas to the Société de Chambèry, May 8, 1794, quoted in d’Hauterive, p. 49.

34 Gaston likes Dumas: Dumas to Sergeant-Major Pelet, March 26, 1794, BNF NAF 24641 (Dumas describes Gaston as his friend).

35 “The General in Chief and I” and next quotation: Gaston to the Committee of Public Safety, March 13, 1794, SHD 3B9.

36 Dumas ordered preparations: Dumas to squadron chief of the Gendarmerie Grandemaison, March 22, 1794, SHD 3B107.

37 operation on Mont Cenis: Except where indicated, the following account of the attack on Mont Cenis, including quotations, relies on Brigadier General Gouvion, report, April 7, 1794, SHD 3B10.

38 subordinate generals take the field: Dumas to Generals Basdelaune and Sarret, March 2, 1794, SHD 3B108.

39 “Two Piedmontese deserters”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, April 16, 1794, SHD 3B108.

40 “The enemy was not surprised” and the next two quotations: Representative Gaston to the Committee of Public Safety, April 11, 1794, SHD 3B10.

41 “the artillery General Buenaparte”: Dumas to an artillery commander, March 30, 1794, SHD 3B107.

42 “Victory, my dear Piston!”: Dumas to General Piston, April 24, 1794, SHD 3B108.

43 force of approximately three thousand: Thomas Mante, The Naval and Military History of the Wars of England, Vol. 8, p. 36.

44 “Dumas, commander in chief” and “ascended the mountain”: Mante, pp. 36–37.

45 “How harmless”: John Scottish Young, A History of the Commencement, Progress, and Termination of the Late War Between Great Britain and France, pp. 208–9.

46 “Torrents of fire”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, May 14, 1794, SHD 3B9.

47 “fled before the brave”: Ibid.

48 “We took 900 prisoners”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, May 15, 1794, SHD 3B9.

49 “from position to position”: Alphonse Rabbe, et al., “Dumas (Alexandre-Davy),” pp. 1469–70.

50 “At each place” and next quotation: Commander Rougier to Representative of the People Ysabeau, June 28, 1794, BNF NAF 24641.

51 “Glory to the conquerors”: Carnot to the People’s Representatives, May 22, 1794, quoted in d’Hauterive, pp. 64–65.

CHAPTER 13: THE BOTTOM OF THE REVOLUTION

  1 Dumas received a letter: Committee of Public Safety to Dumas, June 24, 1794, MAD.

  2 “enemies of the people”: “Loi du 22 prairial an II,” in Henri Wallon, Histoire du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris, Vol. 4, pp. 541–45.

  3 “national razor”: Albert Marie Victor Barrère, Argot and Slang, p. 389.

  4 “I have received, Citizens”: Dumas to the Commission on the Organization and Movement of the Armies, July 4, 1794 (draft), SHD 3B108.

  5 “I anticipate”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, July 4, 1794, SHD 3B108.

  6 8th of Thermidor: On the fall of Robespierre, see David P. Jordan, The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre, pp. 211–25; and Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, pp. 347–58.

  7 To his chagrin: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, August 10, 1794, SHD 7YD91.

  8 the Committee decided: Report of the National Convention’s session, published in Gazette Nationale ou le Moniteur Universel, August 18, 1794 (the session took place on August 17).

  9 bloody rebellion in the Vendée: See David Bell, The First Total War, pp. 155–85.

10 “brigand army”: A derogatory term used by the government in Paris to describe the peasants. See, for example, the Moniteur’s account of the September 25, 1793, meeting of the Convention. Barrère refers to “l’armée des brigands” in the region (Gazette National au le Moniteur Universel, no. 271, September 28, 1793, p. 756); and the January 21, 1795, Moniteur refers to “l’armée des brigands de la Vendée” (Gazette Nationale au le Moniteur Universel, no. 119, p. 608).

11 “Invisible battalions lay in wait”: Victor Hugo, Quatrevingt-treize, p. 77.

12 “exterminating angels of liberty”: Georges Jacques Danton, Oeuvres de Danton, edited by Auguste Vermorel (1866), p. 20.

13 “We burned and broke heads”: Bell, p. 156.

14 one out of four residents: Ibid.

15 “Women and men are tied together”: Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History, Vol. 2, p. 298.

16 mass drownings: Alfred Lallié, Les noyades de Nantes, pp. 40–41.

17 Dumas arrived in the Vendée: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 7, 1794, SHD 3B118.

18 Dumas was appalled: Alphonse Rabbe, et al., “Dumas (Alexandre-Davy),” p. 1470.

19 “The Vendéeans no longer needed”: Jean-Baptiste Courcelles, “DUMAS (Alexandre Davy),” p. 502.

20 “The chief of staff will”: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 7, 1794, SHD 3B118.

21 “The officer must provide” and next two quotations: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 9, 1794, SHD 3B118.

22 “Any soldier who crosses”: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 11, 1794, SHD 3B118.

23 he inspected thousands: Dumas to the chief of staff, September 17, 1794, SHD 3B118.

24 “I have delayed”: Dumas to the Committee of Public Safety, October 8, 1794, quoted in MM, p. 42.

25 Dumas transferred out of the Army of the West: Charles Clerget, Tableaux des armées françaises pendant les guerres de la Révolution, p. 41.

26 “deploying a character of justice”: Le Moniteur Universel, no. 36, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 22 (1847), p. 342.

27 An 1834 biographical dictionary: Courcelles.

28 “Fearless and irreproachable”: Henri Bourgeois, Biographies de la Vendée militaire, p. 23.

29 leave to return home: Committee of Public Safety, decree, December 7, 1794, SHD 7YD91; Commission for the Organization and Movement of the Armies to Dumas, December 9, 1794, MAD Safe.

30 exempt peasants from normal draft laws: Treaty of La Jaunais, February 18, 1795. See Paul-Marie du Breil de Pontbriand, Un Chouan, p. 97.

31 “attached to the topographical bureau”: Napoleon to Joseph Bonaparte, August 20, 1795, in Albert Sorel, L’Europe et la révolution française, Vol. 4, p. 385.

32 with the Army of the Rhine: Minister of war, note, November 28, 1795, SHD 7YD91.

33 Jean-Baptiste Kléber: Hubert N. B. Richardson, A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times, p. 244.

34 Dumas and Kléber: Dumas to Jean-Baptiste Kléber, September 15, 1798, BNF NAF 24641.

35 Dumas crossing the Rhine: Article in Le Moniteur, September 8, 1795, reprinted in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 26 (1854), p. 65.

36 “The loss of Frenchmen”: Le Moniteur Universel, no. 9, in Réimpression de l’ancien Moniteur, Vol. 26, p. 65.

37 Marie-Louise pregnant: Marie-Louise to Dumas, January 17, 1796, cited in Ernest Roch, “Le Général Alexandre Dumas,” p. 98.

38 “My good friend”: Ibid.

39 hyperinflationary cycle: See François Crouzet, “Politics and Banking in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France,” in The State, the Financial System, and Economic Modernization, pp. 20–52.

40 “whiff of grapeshot”: Thomas Carlyle, The Works of Thomas Carlyle, Vol. 4 (1896), p. 320.

41 black and mixed-race legislators: Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804, p. 119; Marcel Dorigny and Bernard Gainot, La Société des Amis des Noirs, 1788–1799.

42 the National Colonial Institute: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, pp. 156–63.

43 “every year, in each department”: Ibid., p. 159.

CHAPTER 14: THE SIEGE

  1 Dumas arrived in Milan: Dumas to “General in chief Buonaparte,” November 26, 1796, SHF 3B118.

  2 “The Cisalpine Republic was”: Constitution des républiques françaises, cisalpine et ligurienne, 1799, pp. 3–5.

  3 most demoralized of all the French armies: Robert B. Asprey, The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, pp. 125–26.

  4 one company had renamed itself “Dauphin”: Ida Tarbell, A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 26.

  5 “Soldiers, you are badly fed”: Gustave Molinari, L’évolution politique et la révolution, p. 342.

  6 “The art of making war”: Jacques de Guibert, Essai général de tactique, Vol. 2, p. 210.

  7 took organized theft to a new level: on Napoleon’s systematic pillage in Italy, see Philip G. Dwyer, Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769–1799, pp. 225–26, 235–38; and Timothy C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787–1802, pp. 158–64.

  8 “The watchmakers and jewelers”: Dwyer, p. 226.

  9 Dumas clashing with Napoleon: Dumas to Generals Miollis and Davin, December 29, 1796, SHD 3B118.

10 “constantly going to the inns”: Dumas to Chief of Squad Maupeou, March 14, 1797, SHD 3B118.

11 “unworthy to be called a Frenchman”: Dumas to the commander of the 7th Regiment of Hussars, May 6, 1797, SHD 3B118.

12 “P.S. You will also warn”: Ibid.

13 Mr. Humanity bristled: Dumas to Napoleon, January 2, 1797, SHD 3B118.

14 “soften the order” and “you will appoint”: Dumas to Brigadier General Davin, December 30, 1796, SHD 3B118.

15 “Where will these women”: Dumas to General Motte, February 25, 1797, SHD 3B118.

16 letter to “General-in-Chief Bonaparte”: Dumas, January 3, 1797, SHD 3B118.

17 To Dumas, the Republic’s generals: Dumas to General Victor, January 8 and 9, 1797, SHD V3B118.

18 “The French Revolution stamped”: MM, p. 124.

19 The Austrian Empire’s main line of defense: Robert Bowman Bruce, et al., Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age, p. 20.

20 Dumas assigned a division at Mantua: Letters from Dumas to General Kilmaine and Napoleon, December 17, 1796, SHD 3B118.

21 Dumas’s strategy: Dumas to General Dallemagne, December 26, 1796, SHD 3B118.

22 arrested three men: Dumas to General Kilmaine, SHD 3B118.

23 son of a Veronese lawyer: Dumas to General Dufresne, December 25, 1796, SHD 3B118.

24 Dumas accused him: Paul Thiébault, Mémoires du général baron Thiébault, pp. 30–31.

25 “Among my father’s favorite books”: MM, p. 73.

26 “then they took him”: Ibid., p. 74.

27 “if he did not want” and “he abided by my orders”: Dumas to Napoleon, December 25, 1796, BNF NAF 24641.

28 “his valor and his zeal”: Austrian emperor “François” to “Allvintzy” [Alvinczy], November 13, 1796, MAD.

29 a reason to attack the Vatican: On the deterioriating relations between France and the Papal States, see Frederick C. Schneid, Napoleon’s Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition, p. 16.

30 “the dispatch might be in German”: MM, p. 75.

31 Napoleon sent Dumas congratulations: Ibid., pp. 79–80.

32 a favorable note: Napoleon to the Executive Directory, December 28, 1796, in Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 4, pp. 202–4.

33 Dumas’s division at San Antonio: Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” p. 161.

34 oddly spaced cannon fire: Dumas to Brigadier Chief Carvin and to General Davin and circular letter to Generals Miollis and Carvin, December 31, 1796, SHD 3B118.

35 “Venetian scoundrels”: General of Division Joubert to General Guillaume, December 25, 1796, SHD 3B211.

36 firing of their weapons: Dumas to Serurier, January 2, 1797, and to Napoleon, January 3, 1797, SHD 3B118.

37 barely sleep through the racket: Dumas to Napoleon, January 3, 1797, SHD 3B118, and several letters to Serurier, December 30 and 31, 1796, and January 2, 1797, SHD 3B118.

38 dozens of letters Dumas wrote: These letters are in SHD 3B118.

39 He requested thousands of soup rations: Dumas to Serurier, January 6, 1797, SHD 3B118.

40 “Citizen”: Dumas to Commissary of War Bouquet, December 25, 1796, SHD 3B118.

41 43,000 crack troops: On the Battle of Rivoli, see Bruce, pp. 20–27; Dwyer, pp. 268–71.

42 Serurier’s desperate letters: Berthier’s report, January 19, 1797, SHD 3B37; Dumas to Chief of Brigade Carvin, January 13, 1797, SHD 3B118.

43 Dumas and his men were not moving: Dumas to General Serurier, January 8, 1797, SHD 3B118.

44 “I am about to mount my horse”: Dumas to Serurier, January 8, 1797, SHD 3B118.

45 “Ah! There you are”: MM, pp. 89–90.

46 Dumas fighting multiple opponents: Jean-Baptiste Courcelles, “DUMAS (Alexandre Davy),” p. 503.

47 Dumas’s horse killed under him: General of Division Joubert to Napoleon, March 27, 1797, SHD 3B211.

48 Dumas’s new horse killed: Statement by the Twentieth Dragoon Regiment, January 18, 1797, MAD.

49 Dumas’s actions in beating: General of Division Joubert to Napoleon, March 27, 1797, SHD 3B211.

50 official report of the battle, including “in observation at San Antonio”: General Berthier’s report, January 19, 1797, SHD 3B37.

51 “January 18, 1797”: Dumas to Napoleon, January 18, 1797, quoted in MM, p. 96.

52 I made my way through: Berthier’s report, January 19, 1797, SHD 3B37.

53 he was to command a subdivision: General of Division and Chief of Staff Berthier to Dumas, January 17, 1797, BNF NAF 24641.

54 “On Nivôse 28”: Dumas to Napoleon, January 17, 1797, SHD 3B118.

55 “We, Commander, officers”: Statement by the Twentieth Dragoon Regiment, January 18, 1797, MAD.

56 Napoleon’s praise: Napoleon to the Executive Directory, January 18, 1797, cited in Oeuvres de Napoléon Bonaparte, Vol. 1, pp. 272–79.

CHAPTER 15: THE BLACK DEVIL

  1 “[Dumas] flies from one city to another”: André Maurel, Les trois Dumas, p. 15.

  2 the “Black Devil”: Deputazione toscana di storia patria, Archivio Storico Italiano, 5th ser., Vol. 21 (1898), p. 231; Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806), pp. 138–40.

  3 honorary swords: Gustav Fiebeger, The Campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of 1796–1797, pp. 84–85.

  4 “I have no less impatience”: General of Division Joubert to Dumas, December 31, 1796, SHD 3B211.

  5 Dumas in Tyrol: Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” p. 161. See also General of Division Joubert to Napoleon, March 20, 1797, SHD V3B118.

  6 Joubert briefed Dumas: General of Division Joubert to Dumas, January 18, 1797, cited in MM, p. 102.

  7 “great gate” of Italy: On the history of the Brenner Pass, see F. Baillie-Grohman, “The Brenner Pass and Its Traffic in Old Days.”

  8 Dumus led a small force: Dumas, report to General of Division Joubert, March 27, 1797, MAD Safe.

  9 Over and over again Dumas charged: See Dumas’s correspondence of February 22 and March 5 and 6, 1797, in SHD 3B118 and V3B211, as well as orders from General of Division Joubert to General Dumas, March 20, 1797, SHD 3B211.

10 “The battle was uncertain”: General of Division Joubert to Napoleon, March 24, 1797, SHD 3B21.

11 Dumas went on to save General Joubert: Ibid.

12 “I charged” and “The adjutant general Blondeau”: Dumas, report to General of Division Joubert, March 27, 1797, MAD Safe.

13 “more like a race”: Dermoncourt’s report, cited in MM, p. 108.

14 “My beloved”: Dumas to his wife, March 3, 1797, BNF NAF 24641.

15 “To the only one I care about”: Dumas to his wife, March 5, 1797, MAD.

16 “in a terrible position”: Dumas, report to General of Division Joubert, March 27, 1797, MAD Safe.

17 “crossed Clausen under enemy fire”: Joubert to the general-in-chief (Napoleon), March 24, 1797, SHD 3B211.

18 Dumas “did more alone”: Dermoncourt’s report quoted in MM, p. 109.

19 dragoons panicked: Dumas to Representative Garnot, September 2, 1797, CGH.

20 Dumas and Dermoncourt found themselves alone: Or was it Dumas alone? Several accounts of the incident mention Dumas but not Dermoncourt on the bridge, including Oeuvres de Napoléon Bonaparte, Vol. 1; Arnault et al., p. 161; and Edmond Chevrier, Le Général Joubert d’après sa correspondance, p. 98. However, Dermoncourt’s long and colorful description of the incident places him squarely alongside his hero, General Dumas (MM, pp. 109–14).

21 “lift his saber” and “continued to hack at me”: General Dermoncourt’s report quoted in MM, p. 113.

22 horse shot: Dumas, report to General of Division Joubert, March 27, 1797, MAD Safe.

23 “The Black Devil is dead!”: General Dermoncourt’s report quoted in MM, p. 116.

24 “I managed to turn toward the general”: Ibid., p. 113.

25 “I must make a full report,” “we have taken fifteen hundred,” and “[Dumas] has received”: General of Division Joubert to Napoleon, March 24, 1797, SHD 3B211.

26 “these victories were necessary”: Dumas to his “best friends,” April 1, 1797, MAD Safe.

27 “General Dumas at the head of the cavalry”: Napoleon, report to the Executive Directory, April 1, 1797, Correspondance, Vol. 2, pp. 572–75.

28 “as the General-in-Chief wants”: Napoleon to Dumas, April 3, 1797, BNF NAF 24641.

29 “I request that General Dumas”: Napoleon to the Executive Directory, April 5, 1797, cited in Le Moniteur, Vol. 28 (1863), p. 666; and in Correspondance, Vol. 2, pp. 456–57.

30 “Rome was in great hazard”: Plutarch, Lives of Illustrious Men, Vol. 1, p. 163.

31 Dumas appointed military governor of Treviso: General Berthier to Dumas, May 21, 1797, BNF NAF 24641.

32 “In this state of revolution”: Municipality of the Asolo canton, May 29, 1797, MAD.

BOOK THREE CHAPTER 16: LEADER OF THE EXPEDITION

  1 “He had no sooner”: In this sole instance, I am not translating from the French edition of Mes Memoires but rather using the translation of E. M. Waller. Alexandre Dumas (père), My Memoirs, Vol. 1, p. 136.

  2 after leaving his post: Clément de la Jonquière, Expédition d’Égypte, Vol. 1, p. 225; minister of war to Dumas, probably April 1798, SHD 7YD91. Judging by the fact that the stream of letters to Dumas from Italian municipalities ended on December 29, 1797 (MAD), one can surmise that Dumas left Italy following the treaty of Campo Formio of December 20, 1797. A letter from Dumas to his secretary shows that by April 13, 1798 (MAD), Dumas was in Toulon.

  3 Dumas now rewrote his will: Gilles Henry, Les Dumas: Le secret de Monte-Cristo, p. 95.

  4 French armada figures: La Jonquière, Vol. 1, pp. 513–19, 524–25.

  5 “The object of this grand voyage”: Dropmore Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), IV, British Library, p. 193, as translated and cited by Christopher Lloyd, The Nile Campaign, p. 12.

  6 Dolomieu’s identity: Charles-Vallin; Alfred Lacroix, ed., Déodat Dolomieu.

  7 the Dolomite Mountains: Jacques Delille, Dithyrambe sur l’immortalité de l’âme (1801), p. 93; Thérèse Charles-Vallin, Les aventures du chevalier géologue Déodat de Dolomieu, p. 255.

  8 “geographical engineers, military engineers, mathematicians”: Dropmore Papers, p. 193, as quoted by Lloyd, p. 12.

  9 Rear Admiral Nelson: Roger Knight, The Pursuit of Victory, 231.

10 fear of German invasion proved inspirational: Tom Reiss, “Imagining the Worst: How a Literary Genre Anticipated the Modern World”; I. F. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War.

11 rumors the French government had planted: J. Christopher Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, p. 35.

12 London’s preparations for invasion: Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt, p. 43.

13 Napoleon’s serious plans to conquer Britain: Harold Wheeler and Alexander Broadley, Napoleon and the Invasion of England, and Tom Pocock, The Terror Before Trafalgar.

14 commander of the dragoons and “Chief of Staff of the Cavalry”: La Jonquière, Vol. 1, pp. 99, 365.

15 Alexander the Great’s pharaonic dynasty, the Ptolemies: Karol Myśliwiec, The Twilight of Ancient Egypt, pp. 178–79.

16 rise of literacy: Jacques Houdailles and Alain Blum, “L’alphabétisation au XVIIIe et XIXeme siècle.”

17 “The Nile is as familiar”: Abbé Le Mascrier, Description de l’Égypte, p. iv.

18 “to replace the [French] colonies”: Charles Roux, Origines de l’Expédition d’Égypte, p. 40; Herold, p. 12.

19 products like indigo: Carl Ludwig Lokke, France and the Colonial Question, p. 97.

20 utopian philosopher “Volney”: Michael Heffernan, “Historical Geographies of the Future,” pp. 136–46.

21 In Volney’s view: Lokke, pp. 99–100.

22 toast of English Romantic poets: Ann Wroe, Being Shelley, pp. 59–60; John Keane, Tom Paine, pp. 477–78.

23 Jefferson translated Volney: Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, Many-Headed Hydra, p. 410.

24 Volney and Napoleon in Corsica: Philip G. Dwyer, Napoleon: The Path to Power, p. 61.

25 Napoleon’s early identification with Egypt: Herold, p. 33.

26 “I dreamed of many things and I saw”: Napoleon, quoted in Madame le Rémusat, Mémoires de Madame de Rémusat, 1802–1808, p. 274.

27 “Even our officers would take”: Constantin-François Volney, Oeuvres complètes (1837), p. 773.

28 transport to Paris of Venice’s artistic treasures: Alistair Horne, Age of Napoleon, p. 88.

29 Napoleon’s thoughts while in Venice: Claude Desprez, Desaix, pp. 46–47.

30 Arabic printing press: Robert B. Asprey, Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 252.

31 meetings with the government in Paris: Herold, p. 18.

32 Napoleon’s dreams of empire: Ibid., pp. 15–16.

33 Tippoo Sahib: Henry Laurens, L’Expédition d’Égypte, pp. 47–48.

34 Napoleon’s message to Tippoo Sahib: Napoleon, A Selection from the Letters and Despatches of the First Napoleon, p. 245.

35 Tippoo’s rocket fire: Richard Bayly, Diary of Colonel Bayly, 12th Regiment, 1796–1830, p. 84.

36 “So pestered were we”: Ibid., p. 81.

37 Congreve rockets: A. Bowdoin Van Riper, Rockets and Missles: The Life Story of a Technology, pp. 14–18.

38 “Soldiers, the eyes of Europe”: Napoleon, speech, May 10, 1798, in Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 4, p. 96.

39 six acres of land: William Lodewyk Van-Ess, Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, p. 307.

40 “Voilà—the six acres of land”: Dominique Vivant Denon, Voyage dans le Basse et le Haute Égypte, pp. 38–39; and René-Nicolas Desgenettes, Souvenirs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et du commencement du XIXe, Vol. 3, p. 132.

41 “Where the devil are you off to”: MM, p. 137.

42 Dumas and Dermoncourt boarded: Henry, p. 95; Claude Schopp, Dictionnaire Dumas, p. 179.

43 William Tell section of Paris: Eli Sagan, Citizens & Cannibals: The French Revolution, the Struggle for Modernity, and the Origins of Ideological Terror, p. 127.

44 largest ship of any navy on earth: Robert Gardiner, Warships of the Napoleonic Era, p. 101.

45 Nelson loses his frigates: Brian Lavery, Nelson and the Nile: The Naval War Against Bonaparte, 1798, pp. 68–74.

46 twenty miles visible: Ibid., pp. 126, 140.

47 Nelson’s Dolland telescope: Hugh Barty-King, Eyes Right: The Story of Dollond & Aitchison Opticians, 1750–1985, pp. 79–82.

48 history of the Knights of Malta: H. J. A. Sire, Knights of Malta.

49 “Maltese falcon”: Barnaby Rogerson, The Last Crusaders, ch. 13.

50 prostitutes in Malta: Herold, p. 46.

51 the Knights of Malta were ruined: Dennis Castillo, Maltese Cross, p. 96.

52 overtures to ally with France’s enemies: Desmond Gregory, Malta, Britain, and the European Powers, p. 51.

53 four ships at a time: La Jonquière, Vol. 1, p. 585.

54 Dolomieu as a young man: Lacroix, ed., Déodot Dolomieu, Vol. 1, pp. xix–xxii.

55 “Tell the Knights I will grant them” and next quotation: Déodat de Dolomieu, “Mémoire,” published in Spectateur militaire, Vol. 2 (1826), p. 52, quoted in La Jonquière, Vol. 1, pp. 612–14; translated in Lloyd, p. 18.

56 “No one who has seen Malta”: Louis-Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Private Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Vol. 1 (1831), p. 136.

57 who had appraised the Vatican: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 147.

58 1,227,129 francs’ worth of loot: William Hardman, A History of Malta During the French and British Occupations, 1798–1815 (1909), p. 75.

59 Napoleon’s social engineering in Malta: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, pp. 143–77.

60 Napoleonic Code: Martin Lyons, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution, pp. 94–99.

61 “the island fortress of Malta”: James Holland, Fortress Malta, p. 267.

62 “one tiny bright flame in the darkness”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vol. 12 (1950), p. 543.

63 “more like a deportation” and following quotations: Dumas to Marie-Louise, June 18, 1798, MAD.

64 “General Dumas will command the cavalry”: La Jonquière, Vol. 1, p. 365.

65 By now Admiral Nelson had learned: Lavery, p. 125.

66 “I think their object is”: James Harrison, Life of the Right Honourable Horatio, pp. 249–50.

67 Nelson and Napoleon nearly cross paths on June 22: Lavery, pp. 126–29.

68 Ragusan neutrality and trade: Hugh Chisolm, ed., Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 7 (1910), p. 775.

69 on June 23, a day after almost bumping into Nelson: La Jonquière, Vol. 2, p. 16.

70 Saint Louis: Jill N. Claster, Sacred Violence, pp. 260–62.

71 Nelson in Alexandria: Lavery, p. 129.

72 seamen could not swim: Steven E. Maffeo, Most Secret and Confidential, p. 76.

73 transported only about 1,200 horses: La Jonquière, pp. 349, 364–66, 410–12; Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, pp. 188–89, 202–3, 323, Vol. 5, pp. 12–13, 89.

74 “My lord, the fleet which has just appeared”: Herold, p. 62.

75 attack on Alexandria: Ibid., p. 66.

76 “I want you to be the first”: MM, p. 141.

77 “Among the Muslims”: Desgenettes, Vol. 3, p. 132.

CHAPTER 17: “THE DELIRIUM OF HIS REPUBLICANISM”

  1 “The French people, may God thoroughly destroy their country”: Pierre Dominique Martin, Histoire de l’expédition française en Égypte, Vol. 1, pp. 243–51. Cited by Paul Strathern in Napoleon in Egypt, p. 233.

  2 Napoleon, Kléber, and Breuys: J. Christopher Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, p. 75; Clément de la Jonquière, L’expédition d’Égypte (1798–1801), Vol. 2, pp. 61, 80; Napoleon, Correspondance de Napoleon Ier, Vol. 4, pp. 195 and 224–25.

  3 the savants’ brutal entry: Strathern, p. 76; Herold, p. 73.

  4 “I was assailed by packs”: Dominique Vivant Denon, Voyage dans le Basse et le Haute Égypte pendant les campagnes du Général Bonaparte, pp. 58–59, translated in Strathern, p. 77.

  5 the savants homeless in Alexandria: Strathern, pp. 77–78; Herold, p. 73.

  6 the French would unleash storms that are still igniting conflict: Henry Laurens, Orientales 1: Autour de l’expédition d’Égypte.

  7 French throats slit in Alexandria: Juan Cole, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East, p. 25.

  8 calculated lunacy was one of Napoleon’s favorite tactics: Frank McLynn, Napoleon: A Biography, p. 169.

  9 “Leaving that city behind”: Adjutant-General Boyer, quoted in MM, p. 152.

10 carrying their saddles: Napoleon to Louis-Alexandre Berthier, June 16, 1797, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 203.

11 “a pile of huts”: Jean-Pierre Doguereau, Journal de l’expédition d’Égypte, p. 58.

12 “remains etched in the minds”: M. Vertray, Journal d’un officier de l’armée d’Égypte, p. 40.

13 “When someone shouted in distress”: René-Nicolas Desgenettes, Souvenirs de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et du commencement du XIXe, Vol. 3, p. 132.

14 “seeing two dragoons”: Napoleon’s 1815 spoken recollections transcribed and edited by Emmanuel Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, Vol. 1, p. 189.

15 French revolutionary anthem: Jean Lombard, Un volontaire de 1792, pp. 71–81.

16 “blew his brains out”: Devernois, Mémoires du Général Baron Desvernois, quoted by La Jonquière, Vol. 2, pp. 136–38. Or perhaps Mireur’s death was not suicide (see accounts by Savary, Belliard, and Sulkowski, discussed by La Jonquière, Vol. 2, pp. 136–38).

17 “This kind of warfare was even harder”: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 24, p. 446.

18 “threw [his] trimmed hat”: Desgenettes, Vol. 3, pp. 132–33.

19 “Saint Watermelon”: Louis Reybaud, Histoire de l’expédition française en Égypte, in Xavier-Boniface Saintine, ed., Histoire scientifique et militaire de l’expédition française en Égypte, Vol. 3, p. 183; see also Cole, p. 61; Denon, p. 70; Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 253.

20 invited some of his fellow generals: Las Cases, p. 221; Reybaud p. 165; Desgenettes, Vol. 3, p. 132; Ernest d’Hauterive, Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806), ch. 15.

21 there was talk: Las Cases, p. 165; Abel Hugo, France militaire, p. 247; Desgenettes, Vol. 3, pp. 132–33; Maurel, Les Trois Dumas, pp. 29–32; d’Hauterive, ch. 15.

22 informants somehow heard everything: Desgenettes, Vol. 3, p. 132; Maurel, pp. 29–32.

23 “Eating three watermelons”: MM, pp. 145–46.

24 Egyptian blindness: La Jonquière, Vol. 2, p. 533. Called Egyptian ophthalmia, trachoma, or granular conjunctivitis, this illness remains one of the major health problems of Egypt. R. M. Feibel, “John Vetch and the Egyptian Ophthalmia.”

25 helped found ophthalmology: R. Sigal and H. Hamard, “Larrey and Egyptian Ophthalmia”; M. Wagemans and O. P. van Bijsterveld, “The French Egyptian Campaign and Its Effects on Ophthalmology.”

26 “the Mamelukes are your enemy”: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 235.

27 troops began to ignore the orders against looting: La Jonquière, Vol. 2, p. 162; Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, pp. 235–36.

28 “You cannot imagine the fatigue” and “harassed during the whole march”: Dumas to General Kléber, July 27, 1798, quoted in MM, p. 148.

29 General Berthier himself witnessed: Cole, p. 60.

30 the French army soon encountered; La Jonquière, Vol. 2, p. 154–61.

31 their decisive battle: The following account of the “Battle of the Pyramids” is largely drawn from Strathern, ch. 7; Herold, ch. 3; and La Jonquiére, Vol. 2, ch. 6.

32 “The Mamelukes have a great deal of spirit”: Dumas to General Kléber, July 27, 1798, quoted in MM, p. 148.

33 the Mameluke sword: Edwin Simmons, The United States Marines: A History (2003), pp. 23–24.

34 “covered in sparkling armor”: Desvernois, Mémoires du Général Baron Desvernois, p. 118.

35 Mameluke military training: Strathern, p. 111.

36 The “flaming wads”: Vertray, p. 59, translated in Strathern, p. 122.

37 pyramids not visible during the battle: Ibid, p. 128.

38 “carpets, porcelain, silverware”: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 29, p. 451, translated in Strathern, p. 127.

39 “the infidels who come to fight”: Vertray, p. 64, quoted in Herold, p. 65.

40 “the French soldiers walked the streets”: Al Jabarti, quoted in Herold, p. 157.

41 the French organized garbage collection, established hospitals: Strathern, p. 141.

42 measuring the Sphinx, exploring the Great Pyramid: Ibid., pp. 284, 145.

43 Four thousand copies: La Jonquière, Vol. 2, p. 102. Though issued in Alexandria on July 3, this text reached Cairo by July 9 (André Raymond, Egyptiens et français au Caire, 1798–1801, p. 87).

44 “that gang of slaves”: Herold, p. 69.

45 “Tell the people that the French are … true friends”: Ibid.

46 Arabist savants, who had trouble: Cole, pp. 29–36.

47 Cairo clergy offered to issue a fatwa: Ibid., pp. 127–29.

48 “We have arrived at last”: Dumas to General Kléber, July 27, 1798, quoted in MM, p. 147.

49 made beer and distilled spirits: Terry Crowdy and Christa Hook, French Soldier in Egypt, 1798–1801, pp. 21–22.

50 “You have preached sedition”: Las Cases, p. 222.

51 over six feet tall: Charles-Vallin, Les aventures du chevalier géologue Déodat de Dolomieu, p. 224.

52 “General, you conduct yourself poorly”: MM, pp. 155–57.

53 A different recollection: Desgenettes, Vol. 3, pp. 201–2.

54 “That he shows a mixture” and following quotations: Ibid.

55 “It is a remarkable circumstance”: Christopher Hibbert, Nelson: A Personal History, p. 138.

56 Nelson already despised Napoleon: Jack Sweetman, The Great Admirals: Command at Sea, 1587–1945, p. 212.

57 On July 28, tracking false rumors: Except where noted, this account of the Battle of the Nile relies essentially on Brian Lavery, Nelson and the Nile: The Naval War Against Napoleon, 1798, pp. 166–99.

58 Nelson cared little for caution: Roger Knight, The Pursuit of Victory, pp. 238–39, 247, 554.

59 less about conventional tactics: Knight, xxxiv; Lavery, p. 180.

60 “The Orient had nearly demolished”: Sir George Elliot, Memoir of Admiral the Honourable Sir George Elliot, quoted by Christopher Lloyd, The Nile Campaign: Nelson and Napoleon in Egypt, p. 41.

61 “When the Orient went up”: Lieutenant Laval Grandjean, Journaux sur l’Expédition d’Égypte, quoted in Crowdy and Hook, p. 17.

62 exploration of the Orient’s wreckage: Angela Schuster, “Napoleon’s Lost Fleet,” pp. 34–37.

63 was it ever there?: Tom Pocock, “Broken Promises, Sunken Treasure, and a Trail of Blood”; Claire Engel, Les chevaliers de Malte (1972), p. 285.

64 the Guillaume Tell: Lavery, p. 297.

CHAPTER 18: DREAMS ON FIRE

  1 “We now have no choice”: Napoleon, Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 29, pp. 457–58.

  2 they awarded Admiral Nelson: James Clarke and John MacArthur, Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, p. 538.

  3 a new deference for the savants: Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Memoir of the Campaigns of General Bonaparte in Egypt and Syria, pp. 48–49.

  4 Nicolas Conté: Alain Quérel, Nicolas-Jacques Conté, 1755–1805.

  5 loss of balloons in the Battle of the Nile: Marc de Villiers du Terrage, Les aérostatiers militaires en Égypte, pp. 9–10.

  6 “had all the sciences in his head”: Gaspard Monge, quoted by Vagnair, “Le colonel des aérostatiers militaires d’il y a cent ans,” p. 294.

  7 Egyptians were curious about the first launch: de Villiers du Terrage, pp. 9–10.

  8 “The machine was made of paper”: Le Courrier d’Égypte, no. 20, p. 2, quoted by Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt, p. 258.

  9 fire on second balloon: de Villiers du Terrage, p. 13.

10 “The French were embarrassed”: Abd al-Rahman Jabarti (Al Jabarti), Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation of Egypt, p. 113.

11 “progress and the propagation of enlightenment”: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 383.

12 Napoleon and the Institute of Egypt: Ibid., pp. 390–91.

13 the Institute caught fire: “L’incendie de l’Institut d’Égypte, ‘une catastrophe pour la science,’ ” Le Monde, December 18, 2011.

14 Description de l’Égypte: Commission des Arts et Sciences et d’Égypte, Description de l’Égypte, 24 vols. (1809–28).

15 Dumas in the weeks after the disaster: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 322.

16 “Cairo, the 30th Thermidor”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, August 17, 1798, MAD Safe.

17 Kléber’s opinion of Napoleon: Henry Laurens, “Étude historique,” in Jean-Baptiste Kléber, Kléber en Égypte, Vol. 1, pp. 86–101.

18 “the General who costs 10,000 men”: Jean-Baptiste Kléber, Mémoires politiques et militaires, Vendée, 1793–1794, p. 16.

19 “Is he loved?”: Kléber, Kléber en Égypte, Vol. 2, p. 545.

20 “The caravan from Ethiopia arrived in Cairo”: Antoine Bonnefons, Un soldat d’Italie et d’Égypte, pp. 19–20.

21 army’s stated mission: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, pp. 182–83.

22 “We have seen how slavery”: Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, “Discours prononcé par le citoyen Chaumette.”

23 French soldiers buying slaves: Juan Cole, Napoleon’s Egypt, pp. 177–80.

24 the procurement of two thousand slaves: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, pp. 148–52.

25 Napoleon’s decree on Mamelukes joining army: Ronald Pawly and Patrice Courcelle, Napoleon’s Mamelukes, pp. 12, 16–38.

26 Dumas discovers treasure: Louis Reybaud, Histoire de l’expédition française en Égypte, in Xavier-Boniface Saintine, ed., Histoire scientifique et militaire de l’expédition française en Égypte …, Vol. 3, p. 347. Dumas’s son quotes the same letter in his memoir, claims it was “reproduced by the newspapers of New York and of Philadelphia,” and even remembers how an American diplomat once repeated the quotation to him, word for word (MM, pp. 160–62).

27 “The leopard cannot change”: Reybaud, p. 347.

28 Napoleon to Citizen Poussielgue, August 23, 1798: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 4, p. 391.

29 the Cairo Revolt: André Raymond, Égyptiens et français au Caire, 1798–1801, pp. 131–38.

30 dispersing the main rebel groups: Antoine-Vincent Arnault was the first author to mention Dumas’s role in stopping the revolt. Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” pp. 161–62.

31 “The Angel! The Angel!” and the next quotation: MM, p. 164.

32 the Angel of Death from the Koran: “The angel of death who is given charge of you shall cause you to die, then to your Lord you shall be brought back” (Holy Koran, surah [chapter] no. 32.11).

33 “ ‘Bonjour, Hercules,’ he said”: MM, p. 165.

34 The Revolt of Cairo: Darcy Grigsby, Extremities, p. 131.

35 In another painting of the incident: Henri Lévy’s “Bonaparte à la grande mosqué du Caire” (1890), as seen in Gérard-Georges Lemaire, L’Univers des orientalistes, p. 109.

36 Napoleon would leave Cairo: Napoleon to Kléber, August 22, 1799, in Clément de la Jonquière, L’expédition d’Égypte, Vol. 5, p. 593.

37 “That bugger has left us here”: Louis-Marie Larevellière-Lépaux, Mémoires, Vol. 2, p. 348.

38 assassination of Kléber: Raymond, pp. 215–19.

39 the assassin’s skull: Laurens, “Étude historique,” in Kléber, Vol. 1, p. 86.

40 General Dumas got out of Egypt: Except where noted, this chapter’s account of General Dumas’s departure from Egypt, including quotations, relies on his official report cited in the first note of chapter 19.

41 the Belle Maltaise: An 1894 study of Louis Cordier, a minerology student who accompanied Dolomieu, describes the ship as a “corvette,” a small gunship or cruiser (M. J. Bertrand, “Notice historique sur M. Pierre-Louis-Antoine Cordier, lue dans la séance publique annuelle du 17 décembre 1894,” in Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences de l’Institut de Frances, Vol. 47 (1904), p. cii). An August 11, 1799 letter from Marie-Louise to Minister of War Bouchotte (SHD 7YD91) identifies it as a felucca—a small craft propelled by oars or lateen sails, this one specifically for transporting mail (“felouque courrière”)—but this seems impossible given the number of passengers it carried. Most likely it was a retired military ship.

42 “I have decided to return”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, March 1, 1799, BNF NAF 24641.

CHAPTER 19: PRISONER OF THE HOLY FAITH ARMY

  1 voyage of the Belle Maltaise from Alexandria to Taranto: Except where noted, this chapter’s account of the voyage and imprisonment, including quotations, relies on Dumas’s official report to the French government, “Rapport fait au gouvernement français par le général de division Alexandre Dumas, sur sa captivité à Tarente et à Brindisi, ports du Royaume de Naples,” May 5, 1801, MAD Safe.

  2 Dolomieu would later blame Dumas: Dolomieu to Doctor de Lacépède, June 5, 1799, in Lacroix, ed., Déodat Dolomieu, Vol. 2, p. 186.

  3 based on a later inventory: Inventory by di Giuseppe (notary), Taranto, April 1, 1799, MAD.

  4 on the equinox in late-18th-century meteorology: Joseph Toaldo Vicentin, Essai météorologique, trans. Joseph Daquin (1784).

  5 “it had been a long time since”: Dolomieu to Doctor de Lacépède, June 5, 1799, in Alfred Lacroix, ed., Vol. 2, p. 187.

  6 ruins of the temple of Poseidon: Trudy Ring, ed., International Dictionary of Historic Places, Vol. 3 (1995), p. 686.

  7 Kingdom of Naples and French-inspired revolt: John A. Davis, Naples and Napoleon, pp. 78–80.

  8 News of the event had reached Egypt: Déodat de Dolomieu, “Le livre de la Captivité,” in Lacroix, éd., Vol. 1, p. 28; Clément de la Jonquière, Expédition d’Égypte, Vol. 4, pp. 141, 148, 343–44.

  9 “After a series of extremely violent gales”: Dolomieu, in Lacroix, ed. Vol. 1, p. 28.

10 plague epidemic in Alexandria: La Jonquière, Vol. 4, pp. 20–41.

11 a passenger had just become its latest victim: Louis Cordier (Dolomieu’s student) to Louis Ripault (librarian for the Institut d’Égypte), May 1800, in Lacroix, ed., Vol. 2, p. 288.

12 “Instead of the tricolor flag”: Dolomieu, in Lacroix, ed., Vol. 1, p. 28.

13 the fleur-de-lis superimposed on a cross: Davis, p. 117.

14 “We were interrogated, searched, disarmed”: Dolomieu, in Lacroix, ed., Vol. 1, p. 28.

15 “If the plague hadn’t claimed one of us”: Louis Cordier to Louis Ripault, May 1800, in Lacroix, ed., Vol. 2, p. 288.

16 history of the Kingdom of Naples: Pietro Colletta, History of the Kingdom of Naples, Vol. 1.

17 the tomato in South America and Italy: Philip Stansley and Steven Naranjo, Bemisia: Bionomics and Management of a Global Pest (2010), p. 291; David Gentilcore, Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy (2010).

18 became a center of Italian Enlightenment: Girolamo Imbruglia, “Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Naples.”

19 one of the high points of the European Grand Tour: Judith Harris, Pompeii Awakened, p. 2.

20 Maria Carolina and Acton: Davis, pp. 23–24.

21 tree of liberty in Rome’s Jewish ghetto: Ray Hutchison and Bruce Haynes, eds., The Ghetto: Contemporary Global Issues and Controversies (2012), p. xvi.

22 “has now after many years”: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey, p. 208.

23 Nelson and the Kingdom of Naples: Davis, p. 78.

24 “My dear child, dress them”: Alexandre Dumas (père), Sketches of Naples, p. 33.

25 Ferdinand’s flight to Sicily: Colletta, pp. 259–71.

26 Republican revolution in the Kingdom of Naples: Christopher Duggan, Force of Destiny, pp. 20–21; Davis, pp. 102–6.

27 Republicanism in Taranto: G. C. Speziale, Storia militare di Taranto negli ultimi cinque secoli, pp. 128–33.

28 “ignorant, highly superstitious, fanatically loyal”: Davis, p. 82.

29 one of the grisliest events: Steven Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers.

30 insurgency sponsored by Ferdinand and led by Ruffo: Davis, ch. 6.

31 “whatever was necessary”: Hilda Gamlin, Nelson’s Friendships, Vol. 1, p. 102.

32 Holy Faith Army in Taranto: Speziale, p. 134.

33 the very day the unlucky ship: Ibid.

34 Ruffo’s background: Davis, p. 116.

35 “assassins and robbers driven by the hope of plunder”: Ibid., p. 117.

36 a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe: Speziale, p. 136.

37 Despite his rogue behavior: Colletta, pp. 316–17 and 323.

38 order for “the departure of all French and Genoan prisoners”: Statement by representatives of the people of the city of Taranto, May 4, 1799, AST.

39 “member of almost all the European Academies”: Notarized document, May 15, 1799, AST.

40 Sicilian Knights of Malta blamed Dolomieu: Dolomieu, in Lacroix, ed., Vol. 1, p. 29.

41 An international “republic of letters” mobilized: Lacroix, Vol. 1, pp. xxxix–xli.

42 “You have no idea how much sensation”: Joseph Banks to William Hamilton, November 8, 1799, in G. R. Beer, “The Relations Between Fellows of the Royal Society and French Men of Science When France and Britain Were at War,” p. 264.

43 “When Citizen Dolomieu signed on”: Institut d’Égypte (represented by David Le Roy, Nicolas-Jacques Conté, and Joseph Fourier) to General-in-Chief Jean-Baptiste Kléber in Alfred Lacrois, ed., Dolomieu en Égypte, 30 Juin 1798–10 Mars 1799 (Manuscrits retrouvée par A. Lacroix), p. 136.

44 Dolomieu’s pen and ink: Déodat de Dolomieu, Surla philosophie minéralogique et sur l’espèce minéralogique, p. 7.

45 a landmark work of geology: Dolomieu, Sur la philosophie minéralogique et sur l’espèce minéralogique; Charles Gillespie, Science and Polity in France, p. 175.

46 Dolomieu’s death: Rabbe et al., “Dumas (Alexandre-Davy),” pp. 1469–70.

47 “When you visit my cell” and following quotation: Alexandre Dumas (père), Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Vol. 1, pp. 215–17.

48 “to His Eminence Cardinal D. Fabrizio Ruffo”: Record and order of the governor of Taranto, May 8, 1799, AST.

49 he slept on straw: Admiral Francesco Ricci, present-day commander of the fortress at Taranto, interview, April 10, 2008. (All descriptions of the prison conditions are based on this interview.)

50 “That’s how we know” and “We found these digging”: Ibid.

51 “I wish to see the governor”: Dumas (père), Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, Vol. 1, pp. 107–9.

52 British naval blockade: Davis, p. 90.

53 Ottoman force landed near Brindisi: Nicolo Capponi, Victory of the West, p. 323.

54 Holy Faith Terror continued: Tommaso Astarita, Between Salt Water and Holy Water, pp. 254–56; Davis, pp. 120–21.

55 Holy Faith Army murdering: Timothy Parsons, Rule of Empires, p. 268.

56 Once manned by Swiss mercenaries: Speziale, p. 134.

CHAPTER 20: “CITIZENESS DUMAS … IS WORRIED ABOUT THE FATE OF HER HUSBAND”

  1 British seizures of the mails: Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins, The War for All the Oceans, pp. 45–46.

  2 she had received Alex’s letter: Marie-Louise to Minister of War Bernadotte, August 11, 1799, SHD 7YD91; Marie-Louise to Member of the Directory Paul Barras, received October 1, 1799, MAD.

  3 to follow his letter “very closely”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, March 1, 1799, BNF NAF 24641.

  4 She wrote to the Ministry of War: Marie-Louise to Minister of War Bernadotte, August 11, 1799, SHD 7YD91.

  5 perhaps from Dolomieu’s friends: Marie-Louise mentions “le c[itoy]en dumanoir savant” in her first surviving letter to Bernadotte and also thinks Dumas has been taken to Messina, where in fact only Dolomieu had been taken; at least two of Dolomieu’s letters had reached Paris by then—one received by the Chair of Reptiles and Fish at the Jardin des Plantes (Botanical Garden), and another by the Conseil des Mines (Mines Council) dated June 6; both tell of being taken to Messina. See Alfred Lacroix, ed., Déodat Dolomieu, Vol. 2, pp. 185–91.

  6 she reached out to Alex’s colleagues: For example, see General Joachim Murat to Marie-Louise, November 16, 1799, MAD.

  7 “General Dumas has been taken”: Gazette Nationale du Moniteur, Vol. 3, September 11, 1799, no. 355.

  8 the first letter I found: General Representative of the People Jourdan to the minister of war, July 25, 1799, SHD 7YD91.

  9 Jourdan wielded considerable political influence: René Valentin, Le maréchal Jourdan, 1762–1833, pp. 184–207.

10 Jourdan had served with Dumas: In the Army of the North in 1794: Paul Marmottan, Le général Fromentin et l’armée du Nord (1792–1794), p. 14; at the Rhine in 1795: for Dumas’s role with Kléber, see ch. 13; for Jourdan’s presence with Kléber at the same time, see Charles Pierre Victor Pajol, Kléber: Sa vie, sa correspondance, p. 179.

11 “Citizeness Dumas, the wife”: General Representative of the People Jourdan to Minister of War Bernadotte, July 25, 1799, SHD 7YD91.

12 “Villers-Cotterêts, 24 Thermidor”: Marie-Louise to Minister of War Bernadotte, August 11, 1799, SHD 7YD91.

13 new coalition of powers: Alexander Rodger, War of the Second Coalition, 1798–1801.

14 Jews massacred in Siena: Alexander Grab, Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe, p. 157. For the collapse of the Italian “sister republics” in the face of the Austro-Russian invasion, also see Susan Nicassio, Imperial City.

15 Austro-Russian victory at Mantua: Edouard Gachot, Souvarow en Italie, chs. 12 and 14.

16 General Joubert’s death: Edmond Chevrier, Le Général Joubert: Étude sur sa vie, p. 217.

17 Republic of Rome fell on September 30: Ronald Ridley, The Eagle and the Spade, p. 4.

18 “satisfying information”: Minister of War Bernadotte to Marie-Louise, August 25, 1799, SHD 7YD91.

19 Marie-Louis wrote to Barras: Marie-Louise to Member of the Directory Paul Barras, October 1, 1799, MAD.

20 Barras’s intrigue with Louis XVIII: Jean-Baptiste Capefigue, L’Europe pendant la Révolution française, pp. 236–37.

21 Small vagrant armies pillaged and looted: Broers, Napoleon’s Other War, p. 21.

22 The men in power were looking for a way out: Brown, Ending the French Revolution.

23 Bonaparte landed in France on October 9: Napoleon, Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 5, p. 582.

24 the most recent news: Alan Schom, Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 203.

25 “Better the plague than the Austrians!”: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Mémoires de M. de Bourrienne, Vol. 3, p. 19.

26 Tallyrand’s role in the coup: Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, pp. 111–17.

27 Lucien Bonaparte’s maneuvers in the Council of Five Hundred: Andrea Campi, Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of Lucien Bonaparte, Vol. 1, p. 34.

28 Volney and Collot, co-conspirators: Denis Woronoff, La république bourgeois de Thermidor à Brumaire, p. 218.

29 “I received, Citizeness, your two letters”: Member of the Directory Jean-François Moulin to Marie-Louise, October 29, 1799, MAD.

30 the Ligurian Republic: Paul Gaffarel, Bonaparte et les républiques italiennes (1796–1799), pp. 92–94; David Nicholls, Napoleon: A Biographical Companion, p. 148; Ludovic Sciout, La République française et la République de Gênes, 1794–1799, p. 50.

31 “taken prisoner of war by the Neapolitans”: Minister Bourdon to Marie-Louise, November 4, 1799, MAD Safe.

32 “to call on the Spanish government to free your husband”: Minister of the Navy and the Colonies Marc-Antoine Bourdon de Vatry to Marie-Louise, November 4, 1799, MAD Safe.

33 “Under the present special circumstances”: Christian Fischer, ed., Collection générale et complète de lettres, proclamations … de Napoléon, p. 76.

34 On the cold, gray Sunday of November 10: Schom, pp. 217–19; Dwyer, ch. 21.

35 the day was saved for Napoleon: Marcello Simonetta and Noga Arikha, Napoleon and the Rebel, pp. 3–5. (This is the source for the account, including quotations, that follows, of Lucien’s actions in support of his older brother.)

36 Joseph “Hercules” Dominguez: Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire, 1792–1815, p. 139.

37 Murat, now a rising star: Andrew Hilliard Atteridge, Joachim Murat, pp. 52–53.

38 “At the General Headquarters in Paris”: General Joachim Murat to Marie-Louise, November 16, 1799, MAD.

CHAPTER 21: THE DUNGEON

  1 Dumas lay doubled up: Except where noted, this chapter’s account of General Dumas’s experience in prison, including quotations, relies on “Rapport fait au gouvernement français par le général de division Alexandre Dumas, sur sa captivité à Tarente et à Brindisi, ports du Royaume de Naples,” May 5, 1801, MAD Safe.

  2 Enemas are one of the most common remedies: Noga Arikha, Passions and Tempers; F. A. Gonzalez-Crussi, A Short History of Medicine, p. 191; Gretchen Smith, The Performance of Male Nobility in Molière’s Comédie-Ballets, pp. 141–66; Heneage Ogilvie, “The Large Bowel and Its Functions,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine44, no. 3 (March 1951), p. 204.

  3 blistering and “ear injections”: Roy Porter, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine, p. 125; James Copland, A Dictionary of Practical Medicine, p. 164; Louis Vitet, Médecine vétérinaire, vol. 2 (1771), p. 710.

  4 this had not yet translated into an understanding of disease: Arikha, p. 231.

  5 the very qualities of the Enlightenment: Anne Vila, Enlightenment and Pathology, ch. 3.

  6 “Nearly all men die of their remedies”: Molière, Le malade imaginaire, p. 130.

  7 belief that depression was the cause of everything: Arikha, p. 60.

  8 age-old theory of humors: Ibid., pp. 174–75, 230, 236.

  9 Dumas’s lost letters: Dumas to Marie-Louise, April 13, 1801, MAD.

10 the sperm escaping: Samuel Tissot, L’onanisme, pp. 59–60, 106; Arikha, p. 82; Raymond Stephanson, The Yard of Wit: Male Creativity and Sexuality, 1650–1750 (2004), pp. 38–42.

11 surefire way to lose your life force: Tissot, L’onanisme; Jean Stengers and Anne Van Neck, Masturbation: The History of a Great Terror, p. 163.

12 Health Advice for the Common People: Samuel Tissot, Avis au peuple sur sa santé, first published in 1761; the eleventh and final edition appeared in 1792. It was translated into English in 1766 as Advice to the People in General, Regarding Their Health.

13 article on poison: Tissot, Avis au peuple sur sa santé, pp. 223–26.

14 chocolate as medicine in the eighteenth century: Susan Terrio, Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate, p. 279.

15 cinchona: Jean-Louis Alibert, Dissertation sur les fièvres pernicieuses ou ataxiques intermittentes, 2nd ed. (1801).

16 Napoleon in the Saint Bernard Pass: Alexander Rodger, War of the Second Coalition, p. 175; Napoleon, Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 6, pp. 274–97.

17 Napoleon on a mule: Donna Smith, The Book of Mules (2009), p. 3; Englund, Napoleon, p. 318.

18 Victory at Marengo, June 14, 1799: Rodger, p. 243.

19 planting trees of liberty: Nathan Ausubel and David Gross, Pictorial History of the Jewish People (1984), p. 198.

20 a subsequent written complaint: Giovanni Bianchi (hereafter, “Bianchi”) to “the French Generals,” January 22, 1801, MAD.

21 “Let it be known to you”: Bonaventura Certezza to Dumas, August 6 or 17, 1801, MAD.

22 “Gentlemen, French Generals, Prisoners”: Bianchi to Dumas, December 28, 1800, MAD.

23 relay the news that Dumas’s requests: For example, Bianchi to Dumas, October 31, 1800, MAD.

24 a tortuously minute exchange about a cookpot: Bianchi to Dumas, October 8, 1800, and January 31, 1801, MAD.

25 picayune exchange of letters: Bianchi to Dumas, December 31, 1800, and January 6, 1801, MAD.

26 “the number of jackets, shoes”: Bianchi to Dumas, October 31, 1800, MAD.

27 “7 ducats and 90 grani”: Bianchi to Dumas, January 8, 1801, MAD.

28 Bianchi sent an extraordinary letter to Dumas: Bianchi to Dumas, January 22, 1801, MAD.

29 “I’m always at your disposal”: Bianchi to Dumas, October 31, 1800, and January 2, March 9, and March 12, 1801, MAD.

30 “fabric samples”: Bianchi to Dumas, March 6, 1801, MAD.

31 the subject of his confiscated property: Bianchi to Dumas, March 7, 1801, MAD.

32 “double-barreled rifle … was thrown”: Bianchi to Dumas, March 9, 1801, MAD.

33 it has been impossible to procure: Bianchi to Dumas, March 7, 1801, MAD.

34 “safer and more comfortable”: Bianchi to Dumas, March 6, 1801, MAD.

35 “to wear the cockade of your nation”: Bianchi to Dumas, March 13, 1801, MAD.

36 Cardinal Ruffo had created a cockade: John A. Davis, Naples and Napoleon, p. 117.

37 Napoleon sends General Murat to lead an army: Richard Dunn-Pattison, Napoleon’s Marshals, p. 29.

38 Il re Gambalesta: Silvio Maurano, La Repubblica partenopea, pp. 49, 53.

39 Murat acting on orders from the minister of war: Napoleon, Correspondance, Vol. 6, p. 481.

40 King Ferdinand and General Murat: Jean Tulard, Murat, pp. 102–8.

41 by the end of March, Dumas was on a ship: Dumas to Marie-Louise, April 13, 1801, MAD.

42 “I have the honor of informing you”: Dumas to the government of France, April 13, 1801, MAD.

43 “if by luck she is still of this world”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, April 13, 1801, MAD.

44 “has kissed a thousand times”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, April 28, 1801, MAD.

CHAPTER 22: WAIT AND HOPE

  1 “What dark and bloody secrets”: MM, p. 218.

  2 Napoleon’s government: Isser Woloch, Napoleon and His Collaborators, ch. 2.

  3 “It is founded on the true principles”: Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon (1975), p. 166.

  4 Napoleon’s suppression of the press: Woloch, ch. 7.

  5 “The terror he inspires”: Andrea Stuart, The Rose of Martinique, p. 303.

  6 “I promise to avenge myself”: Marie-Louise to Dumas, May 27, 1801, MAD.

  7 reunited in Paris: Dumas to Marie-Louise, June 4, 1801, MAD.

  8 his claim would be high on the list: Several letters, including Ministry of War to Dumas, December 6, 1802, MAD; and Dumas to Napoleon, October 17, 1803, SHD 7YD91.

  9 “receive the sum of 500,000 francs”: French Consul in Naples Alquier to General Murat, April 22, 1801, in Joachim Murat, Lettres et documents pour servir à l’histoire de Joachim Murat, p. 296.

10 Berthier informed Dumas: Minister of War Louis-Alexandre Berthier to Dumas, September 16, 1801, BNF NAF 24641.

11 “I hope”: Dumas to Napoleon, September 29, 1801, cited in Henry, pp. 100–101.

12 “I have the honor”: Dumas to Minister of War Louis-Alexandre Berthier, February 22, 1802, SHD 7YD91.

13 “hardly showed himself”: Antoine-Vincent Arnault et al., “Dumas (Alexandre Davy-de-la-Pailleterie),” p. 162.

14 a coalition of slavers: Pierre Branda and Thierry Lentz, Napoléon, l’esclavage, et les colonies, 52–61; Thomas Pronier, “L’implicite et l’explicite dans la politique de Napoléon,” in Yves Benot and Marcel Dorigny, eds., Le rétablissement de l’esclavage dans les colonies françaises, pp. 61–66.

15 a banquet by Charles de la Pailleterie’s old rivals: Maurice Begouen-Demeaux, Mémorial d’une famille du Havre, cited by Erik Noël, “La fortune antillaise des Delahaye-Lebouis,” p. 667.

16 exports of Saint-Domingue: Branda and Lentz, p. 137.

17 proposal for lifting the French ban: Ibid, p. 54.

18 replaced the minister of the navy and colonies and seeded pro-slavery figures: Ibid, pp. 52–61.

19 “The regime of the French colonies”: Constitution of the Year VIII, article 91.

20 a double game: Wanquet, La France et la première abolition de l’esclavage, pp. 521–656; Branda and Lentz, pp. 47–74; and Yves Benot, La démence coloniale sous Napoléon, pp. 15–56.

21 “Remember, brave Negroes”: Napoleon, Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Vol. 6, p. 54.

22 he made a secret decision: Benot, p. 355.

23 size of armada: Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World, p. 253.

24 Napoleon wrote to a Martinique planter: Philippe R. Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon, p. 46.

25 Toussaint Louverture: Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography.

26 –10: Isaac and Placide Louverture: This account of Toussaint Louverture’s sons’ experience in Paris, including quotations, is based on Isaac Louverture, “Mémoires d’Isaac Toussaint,” in Antoine Marie Thérèse Métral, Histoire de l’expédition des Français à Saint-Domingue, sous le consulat de Napoléon Bonaparte, pp. 227–324.

27 “His iron frame”: C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins, p. 365.

28 “It is not enough”: General Leclerc to Minister of the Navy Decrès, August 25, 1802, quoted by Carolyn Fick, “La résistance populaire au corps expéditionnaire du Général Leclerc et au Rétablissement de l’esclavage à Saint-Domingue (1803–1804),” in Benot and Dorigny, eds., p. 139.

29 Napoleon gave Leclerc strict orders: Napoleon’s instructions to General Leclerc, quoted by Ibid., p. 130.

30 illegally sold into slavery: Léo Élisabeth, “Déportés des Petites Antilles françaises, 1801–1803,” in Benot and Dorigny, eds., pp. 77–83.

31 More than forty thousand French soldiers died: David Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies, p. 178.

32 killed by deliberate asphyxiation: Laurent Dubois, Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, p. 40.

33 welcomed some whites: Ibid.

34 French forces also invaded Guadeloupe: Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804, pp. 317–422; Henri Bangou, La révolution et l’esclavage à la Guadeloupe, 1789–1802, pp. 118–43.

35 La Soufrière and Louis Delgrès: Dubois, pp. 236, 239, 353–400; Bernard Gainot, Les officiers de couleur dans les armées de la République et de l’Empire 1792–1815, p. 88.

36 National Colonial Institute: This account of the closing of the Institute, including quotations, relies on Gainot, pp. 160–63.

37 Ferdinand Christophe: Deborah Jenson, Beyond the Slave Narrative: Politics, Sex, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution, pp. 196–205; Gainot, pp. 161–62.

38 “[She] saw a young man”: Jenson, Beyond the Slave Narrative, pp. 203–4.

39 “without even having been made a Chevalier”: MM, p. 231.

40 “pass on with pleasure”: Marshal of the Empire Murat to Dumas, August 16, 1804, MAD.

41 Napoleon’s true position on slavery in the French Empire: Law of 30 Floréal, Year X (May 20, 1802), in Claude Wanquet, La France et la première abolition de l’esclavage, 1794–1802, p. 641; see also Patrick Geggus, The World of the Haitian Revolution, p. 194.

42 law banning all officers and soldiers of color: Law of 9 Prairial, Year X (May 29, 1802), in Wanquet, p. 647.

43 “blacks, mulattos, and men of color … from entering”: Law of 13 Messidor, Year X (July 2, 1802), in J. B. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, réglements, et avis du conseil-d’état, Vol. 13, p. 485.

44 “the intention of the government that no act of marriage”: Law of 18 Nivôse, Year XI (January 8, 1803), in Jean-Simon Loiseau, Dictionnaire des arrêts modernes, Vol. 2 (1809), p. 449.

45 a mulatto servant in Napoleon’s own household: Stuart, p. 396.

46 General Dumas would need to request a special dispensation: Report by M. Duchateau to the minister of war, between May 21 and June 19, 1802, SHD 7YD91.

47 so he wouldn’t be deported: Napoleon’s regime sought to deport people of color out of the French mainland in the summer of 1802: Élisabeth, p. 92.

48 “no longer worthy of the cause”: Dumas (then commanding the First Division of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle) to War Minister Aubert du Bayet, February 3, 1796, SHD 7YD91.

49 another folder of letters: SHD XH3.

50 Black Pioneers: John Elting, Swords Around a Throne, pp. 274–75; Gainot, pp. 166–83.

51 asking his comrade generals to help him: Marshal Joachim Murat to Dumas, August 16 and October 28, 1804, MAD.

52 “colored men who will be treated”: Consuls of the Republic, decree, December 4, 1802, SHD 1XH3.

53 dozens of long and eloquent letters: SHD XH3.

54 Royal African Regiment: Gainot, pp. 204–11.

55 “Africans”: Ibid., pp. 177–78, 228.

56 birth of the third child: Alexandre Dumas’s birth certificate, July 24, 1802, Registres d’état civil, ADA.

57 “before the Egyptian campaign”: MM, p. 198.

58 Dumas wrote to an old friend: Dumas to General Brune, July 26, 1802, BNF NAF 24641.

59 “a superstition”: Brune to Dumas, July 29, 1802, quoted in MM, pp. 198–99.

60 Labouret standing in for Brune: Ibid., p. 198.

61 “As soon as the current war”: Dumas to Napoleon, October 17, 1803, SHD 7YD91.

62 “Whatever my sufferings”: Dumas to the minister of war, May 5, 1801, SHD 7YD91.

63 “It was my father’s naked form” and “my father’s grand form”: MM, p. 202.

64 “I adored my father” and “On his side, too”: MM, pp. 224–25.

65 cancer diagnosis and visit to doctor in Paris: Charles Glinel, Alexandre Dumas et son oeuvre, p. 23.

66 “My father embraced Brune”: MM, p. 217.

67 visit to Pauline Bonaparte and “A woman reclined on a sofa”: Ibid., pp. 219–20.

68 a note inviting “Madame Dumas”: Princess Pauline to “Mme Dumas” (Marie-Louise), date unknown, MAD Safe.

69 “I remember that my father”: MM, p. 221.

70 the final night: Alex Dumas’s death act, February 27, 1806, MAD, and M. Deviolaine to his cousin, February 27, 1806, MAD Safe.

71 “‘Oh!’ he cried” and next three quotations: MM, pp. 222–23, 228, 231.

72 I found a detailed inventory: Inventory of Dumas’s belongings after his death, August 25, 1806, MAD Safe.

73 pension that was owed General Dumas: Dumas to Napoleon, October 17, 1803, SHD 7YD91.

74 poverty: In 1801 Dumas mentions “begging”: Dumas to Napoleon, September 29, 1801, cited in MM, p. 193.

75 tobacconist’s shop: Arnault et al., p. 162.

76 impoverished: Marie-Louise to Mme Carmin, December 4, 1806, MAD Safe.

77 “this hatred”: MM, p. 231.

78 “What a shock”: M. Doumet to Marie-Louise, September 30, 1807, MAD Safe.

79 Marie-Louise petitioning: MM, p. 233.

80 “The death of General Dumas”: Marie-Louise to the minister of war, October 2, 1814, SHD 7YD91.

81 “Brune zealously” and “I forbid”: MM, pp. 231, 233.

82 “Unhappiness”: Dumas to Marie-Louise, April 28, 1801, MAD.

83 “He who has felt”: Dumas (père), Le comte de Monte-Cristo, Vol. 6, p. 277.

84 “You see, Father”: MM, p. 217.

EPILOGUE: THE FORGOTTEN STATUE

  1 first biographical portrait: Author unknown, “Le général Alexandre Dumas, homme de couleur,” n.d. [1797], BNF NAF 24641.

  2 “Alexandre Dumas, born in Saint-Domingue”: Pierre Nougaret, Anecdotes militaires, anciennes & modernes de tous les peuples, pp. 260–61.

  3 statue of General Dumas in Paris: Folder entitled “Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel sc[ulpteur], square Malesherbes, 17e arr[ondissement],” COARC. Also several articles: Jules Chancel, “Les Trois Dumas”; Jules Claretie, “Chronique parisienne”; “La statue oubliée: Les humoristes réparent la négligence des gouvernements à l’égard du général Dumas,” Le Matin, May 28, 1913.

  4 subscription to commission the statue: E. de la Charlottrie to the Prefect of the Seine, February 17, Undersecretary of State for the Arts to the Prefect of the Seine, February 21, 1912, both in Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …” COARC.

  5 Anatole France and Sarah Bernhardt: Chancel.

  6 fall of 1912: Louis Bonnier, Director of Architecture, Walkways, and Landscaping Services, Department of the Seine, to the Director of Arts for the Seine, July 2, 1913, in “Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …,” COARC.

  7 remaining covered: “La statue oubliée.” Le Matin, May 28, 1913.

  8 the only set of photos: Photographic prints in “Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …,” COARC.

  9 “The poor general!”: “La statue oubliée.”

10 a popular cartoonist, Poulbot: mentioned in ibid., Francisque Poulbot was a cartoonist best known for painting scenes depicting typical French children, so much so that his name became synonymous with such drawings. Michel Doussot, Petit futé: Paris, Île de France, 8th ed. (2009), p. 48.

11 “the sordid Moorish cloak” and “a little girl game”: “La statue oubliée.”

12 “For months and months”: “Doléances d’un habitant de la Place Malesherbes,” unidentified newspaper clipping, circa May 29, 1913, in Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …,” COARC.

13 the president of the republic had signed: Presidential decree, June 17, 1913, officially allowing the the statue to be “erected” (hence, unshrouded), in “Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …,” COARC.

14 the now tattered shroud was hanging off: Louis Bonnier, Director of Architecture, Walkways, and Landscaping Services Department of the Seine, to the Director of Arts for the Seine, July 2, 1913, in “Général Dumas, 1913, Moncel …,” COARC.

15 destroyed by the Nazis: “Hommage aux Noirs,” Le Parisien, February 28, 2006; “Alexandre Dumas attend sa statue,” Le Parisien, November 28, 2007.

16 a book on the destruction of the statues: Jean Cocteau and Pierre Jahan, La mort et les statues.

17 a posthumous Legion of Honor: “La Légion d’honneur pour le général Dumas! À Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy, Président de la République française,” website of Claude Ribbe, http://claude-ribbe.com.

18 sculpture of slave shackles: “Fers, un hommage au général Dumas” (“Shackles: An Hommage to General Dumas”), sculpture by Driss Sans-Arcidet honoring General Dumas, located in the place du Général Catroux (formally the Place Malesherbes, known unofficially as the Place des Trois Dumas), inaugurated April 4, 2009. See Conseil Municipal de Paris, proceedings, December 15–17, 2008, www.paris.fr.

  * The documents cited to “MAD Safe” were located in a safe at the Musée Alexandre Dumas (Alexandre Dumas Museum), in Villers-Cotterêts, at the time of my research (as I recount in the second part of the Prologue). Readers can inquire at the museum to locate these documents in their subsequent reorganization.