He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 62

(61) Eugene Dreams of the New World with Exiles

This prison was originally a French royal palace.

-Step, step, step.

Île de la Cité [Island of the City], an island in the heart of the Seine.

When Paris was still small, this place *was* Paris itself.

However, as times changed and Paris grew in population and expanded, this place was abandoned as an old royal palace.

Turning the abandoned royal palace into a place for the Revolutionary Tribunal and a prison.

That is the revolutionary prison, the Conciergerie.

There were people walking in the basement of this prison.

Suddenly, a young man in the group spoke up.

“Is this the prison where I *could* have been locked up?”

Young Eugene tilted his head.

“Why would you be, Marceau, unless you *were* Rochejacquelein?”

“Carrier was trying to catch Angelique. I could have killed Carrier back then if I wanted to.”

“That would be a problem. Mademoiselle Angelique would be in even more danger.”

Suddenly, Eugene squinted and asked.

“Ah, should I call you Madame Marceau now?”

Angelique de Mesley was completely released.

Unlike other royalists, she had no record of participating in the rebellion, and above all, Marceau guaranteed her identity.

She could have stayed in Nantes, but Angelique insisted on following Marceau to Paris.

It is easy to guess what her feelings might be.

Marceau scratched his head awkwardly and replied.

“Thanks to you. Marriage may be a luxury in revolutionary times, but I became desperate when I thought I was about to lose her. I registered the marriage at the city hall, and I plan to have the wedding when the situation gets better.”

“Did Angelique allow it? Or did you unilaterally submit the documents?”

“Would that be possible? Of course, she allowed it.”

Then, from beyond the underground passage, an elderly middle-aged man’s voice was heard.

“Congratulations, Major Marceau. Or is it Lieutenant Colonel now?”

Eugene and Marceau stopped.

A man who had been listening to Eugene and Marceau’s conversation spoke.

Of course, Eugene and Marceau didn’t mind because he was someone who was allowed to listen.

A comrade who had fought together in the Vendée [a counter-revolution in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution].

Colonel Thureau, the commander of the La Rochelle Regiment.

Eugene turned his head and looked at the guard.

“Open it.”

“Are you sure? This prison is a strict place. If it is revealed that you entered without permission, the National Convention may take issue with it.”

“I heard that there is nothing that money can’t do, is that right?”

Suddenly, Eugene’s adjutant, Hippolyte, chuckled and threw a pouch from his arms.

-Clang!

The guard, who checked the silver coins in the pouch, gleamed his eyes and opened the door.

“Come in, Patron.”

Those who call Eugene ‘master (patron)’ after receiving money.

They are the guards who guard this revolutionary prison, the Conciergerie.

It can’t be helped.

This Conciergerie is absurdly a [paid prison].

In other words, the prisoners have to pay.

In the era of the revolutionary government, where trials are virtually conducted as a single trial system.

The prisoners held here are not those who are being punished.

They are unconvicted prisoners who are imprisoned until the sentence is handed down.

Waiting for a verdict from the upper court, they wait in the basement prison of the old Cité Palace.

The poor go to the lowest level of collective prison cells.

Those who are better off go to square prison cells that are about 12 meters wide and long.

The wealthy prisoners bribe and go to prison cells with beds.

Currently, there are about 600 inmates.

It was full of those branded as counter-revolutionaries, royalists, and aristocrats who had fled and been caught.

The operating method of this prison is to receive compensation from them.

Those who have money pay with money, and those who don’t pay with their bodies.

In the original history, Napoleon and Josephine are also imprisoned in this prison.

Josephine had no money.

Perhaps Josephine would have had to pay with her body in this prison.

Feeling a momentary chill, Eugene gritted his teeth.

He will never repeat that history.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man, Thureau, appeared in front of him.

“I didn’t expect to see you like this, Major Eugene.”

Marceau added from the side.

“He’s a colonel now.”

Thureau nodded.

“He’s young, but it wouldn’t be strange if he had already become a general. Congratulations.”

There is no sign of anger about being imprisoned.

Has he given up?

Eugene approached the bars and spoke to Thureau.

“Colonel Thureau. Is the prison livable?”

“It can’t be good. But I’m thinking of it as paying the price.”

“You won’t die. But Paris will soon know the tragedy of the Vendée.”

Colonel Thureau, the commander of the La Rochelle Regiment, smiled weakly.

“End it with me, Colonel Bonaparte.”

The responsibility for the Vendée massacre did not end with Carrier and Rossignol.

Unless they decided to cover it up altogether, someone had to take responsibility in a situation that had already been exposed.

The unit members who handled the massacre were eventually all called to Paris and imprisoned.

In particular, Thureau’s responsibility for commanding the massacre in La Rochelle and southern Vendée is heavy.

Eugene looked at Thureau for a moment and said.

“The revolution needs a scapegoat.”

“I, and Rossignol and Carrier are scapegoats.”

“Those two will die. It’s hard to avoid.”

Then Eugene added a word.

“But you met me. Before the full-scale massacre.”

Clearly, the massacre is an unforgivable crime.

In the original history, Thureau is literally a butcher who massacred hundreds of thousands of people.

However, after meeting Eugene, Thureau stopped the execution in the early stages of the massacre.

He helped Eugene to atone for his sins, contributed to the change of commander, and helped to end the Vendée civil war early.

Thureau also contributed to preventing the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of deaths.

That’s why Eugene offered Thureau as a scapegoat, but at the same time, he had no intention of completely killing him.

In fact, even in the original history, Thureau was aware of his sins and was punished.

Of course, it was difficult to say that the punishment was as harsh as killing hundreds of thousands of people.

It was just a few years in prison and then going abroad as a diplomat.

The punishment Eugene will give now is completely different.

Thureau looked at Eugene with a bitter smile.

“What is the punishment for me? Guillotine? But the pain will be less.”

“It will be harder than that. Martinique.”

“Martinique? An island in the New World?”

Eugene told Thureau, who was blinking.

“The revolutionary government has decided to make up for the blow of losing the East Indies in the ‘West Indies’ [Caribbean Islands]. Soon, a unit will be formed to be dispatched to Martinique. It’s a [prisoner unit].”

This is the [punishment] Eugene gives to Thureau.

In fact, it is not just Eugene’s idea.

In the original history, Napoleon also sent a large number of troublesome revolutionaries who rebelled against him to Martinique and Saint-Domingue (Haiti), the West Indies.

Under the pretext of suppressing the colonial rebellion and further establishing a bridgehead to the New World.

Rebellion had already begun since the beginning of the revolution.

“Rebellions have broken out throughout the West Indies colonies, including Martinique and Saint-Domingue. You know that, right?”

“I’ve heard the story. I heard that black slaves revolted.”

“The reality is that people of mixed race led it rather than slaves. That’s a more troublesome problem. They inherited our French blood and also received some military training.”

If it was just a slave rebellion, the local garrison would have already suppressed it.

However, most of the mainstream residents of the French West Indies in this era are people of mixed race.

This means that there are many illegitimate children born between white slave owners and black women.

French colonial rulers treated them as slaves, but at the same time used them as middle managers.

When middle managers who control slaves rebelled, the slave owners were helpless.

To suppress them, Napoleon dispatched generals who were his opponents.

Of course, most of them fail and die in the West Indies.

However, this is what happened in the late 1790s, when the rebellion was at its peak.

It may be a little different now that the rebellion is in its early stages.

Thureau narrowed his brows and widened his eyes.

“Wait a minute. Are you only sending me? Or?”

Eugene looked at Thureau and twisted his lips.

“No. It’s hard to call it punishment if it’s just that. Besides, it’s difficult to win that dangerous battlefield with you alone. More talent and soldiers are needed.”

“Are you planning to send not only the La Rochelle Regiment but also the Vendée suppression army?”

“That’s right if they participated in the massacre. However, one side is missing.”

At that moment, Thureau opened his mouth wide.

“Don’t tell me, are the royalists going there too?”

Eugene coldly looked at the stubborn Thureau, who had just realized Eugene’s intentions, and nodded.

“That’s right. Can you do it? Rochejacquelein and Lescure will be organized as your subordinates.”

The suppression army and the royalists go together.

They are being dispatched to the harsh New World West Indies.

The unit that Thureau will command is prisoners, former revolutionary soldiers full of dissatisfaction, and former royalist rebels.

Those who hate each other must hold guns together and suppress the colonial rebellion.

It is truly a harsh punishment.

Clutching the iron bars violently, Thureau muttered.

“It’s really a punishment harder than death.”

“The endemic diseases or black slaves you will face there may be more difficult. Most of the local residents are mixed race who sympathize with black slaves.”

“But it’s rather light as a price for sin.”

Eugene was a little surprised.

Before he knew it, Thureau’s eyes were shining with enthusiasm.

Thureau said forcefully.

“I will gladly serve in Martinique.”

Eugene stared at Thureau for a moment and nodded.

“Okay. If you endure there for 5 years, I promise. You will either return to France or go to a wider continent.”

“A wider continent? Where to?”

“Louisiana.”

Eugene’s eyes flashed.

“Again, you will be the vanguard to regain New France [French colony in North America]. How about it?”

New France, the French colony in the New World.

It was a place that was completely taken away during the Seven Years’ War during the reign of Louis XV.

But Eugene knows.

In the future, when Napoleon comes to power, there will be an opportunity to regain the Louisiana area.

What if the West Indies is completely pacified at that time?

France can project troops into the colony through the West Indies.

At that moment, before Thureau could answer, someone else opened his mouth instead.

“If that’s the case, I’ll gladly go.”

Thureau blinked and was shocked.

Because there was someone he had never expected.

It was Rochejacquelein, the leader of the royalists.

“Rochejacquelein? How did you!”

“There is nothing that money can’t do in this prison. Our [Patron] seems to have a lot of money.”

“Y, yes, that’s right.”

Rochejacquelein stared at Thureau and said.

“Let’s cross the Atlantic together, Thureau.”

They used to kill each other.

There was a time when he prayed that he would sell his soul if he could send the enemy to hell.

But now that the civil war is over, the two must go to the New World together.

To an island thousands of kilometers away from France, and to a continent even further away.

Thureau trembled and shouted.

“An adventure of atonement as a price for sin, I will gladly do it!”

The former commander of the suppression army and the leader of the rebels shook hands.

It was the moment when Eugene sent the scapegoat created by the revolutionary period to the vanguard of the New World development.