The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

by Tom Reiss

  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 “repro
duced 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 Gillespi
e, 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.