Table of Contents
Title Page
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
PART TWO
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
CHAPTER 4 -
CHAPTER 5 -
CHAPTER 6 -
CHAPTER 7 -
PART THREE
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
CHAPTER 4 -
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
CHAPTER 4 -
CHAPTER 5 -
PART FIVE
CHAPTER 1 -
CHAPTER 2 -
CHAPTER 3 -
CHAPTER 4 -
CHAPTER 5 -
CHAPTER 6 -
CHAPTER 7 -
CHAPTER 8 -
CHAPTER 9 -
CHAPTER 10 -
CHAPTER 11 -
CHAPTER 12 -
CHAPTER 13 -
CAST OF CHARACTERS
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Also by
About the Author
NOTE
Copyright Page
PART ONE
Louis XV is named the Well-Beloved. Ten years pass. The same people believe the Well-Beloved takes baths of human blood … . Avoiding Paris, ever shut up at Versailles, he finds even there too many people, too much daylight. He wants a shadowy retreat … .
In a year of scarcity (they were not uncommon then) he was hunting as usual in the Forest of Senart. He met a peasant carrying a bier and inquired, “Whither he was conveying it?” “To such a place.” “For a man or a woman?” “A man.” “What did he die of?” “Hunger.”
JULES MICHELET
CHAPTER 1
Now that the dust has settled, we can begin to look at our situation. Now that the last red
