Summary

In Chapter 26, Edmond is sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison for the crime of stealing some jewels and some food. In Chapter 27, Ferréol spends two years leading a campaign of letter writing to try to obtain a pardon for Edmond, citing his discovery of the pollination process for vanilla and the debt that La Réunion owes him for this. In 1852, the island gets a new governor named Hubert Delisle. When he begins his job, he is confronted by multiple letters from Ferréol and his associates pleading for Edmond to be pardoned. Delisle resolves to grant the pardon. The narration imagines the letters being blown away from his desk by the wind. It is another 16 months before Delisle, whilst eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream, remembers the story of Edmond, asks what became of him, and is...