Chapter 29 Summary

In Chapter 29, Cosimo daydreams that a wilted and disillusioned Napoleon comes riding back to his tree, and having realized the error of his ways, asks Cosimo for the Constitution he wrote, and that everything starts again from the beginning, so that the ideals that bring about a better society can be the motivation and fruit of whatever struggle men give their lives for.

Instead, he meets three Frenchmen with whom he has no affinity at all, seeking only to get drunk and congratulate themselves, as well as the illustrious Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia. Cosimo meets the Russian after he has just sent the French soldiers to bathe with his soap, riding with a group of Cossacks. They converse for a while in Russian and Italian, Cosimo having learned some of nearly every language over the course of his life. They eventually understand that...