LXXIII. La promesse
LXXIII. The Promise
Russian operations in the Caucasus against Shamil, the carpenters' coalition trial in Paris, and the Duc de Montpensier's journey through Egypt dominate this issue.
- Russian forces under Count Woronzov destroyed Shamil's stronghold at Dargo but suffered massive losses — two generals killed, 900 mules seized — and were nearly trapped before General Freitag rescued them with 7½ battalions.
- The Standard defends the Paris tribunal's conviction of journeymen carpenters under Article 414 of the Penal Code, arguing that no coalition can exist without violence, and that ringleaders face two to five years' imprisonment.
- King Louis-Philippe decorated Kolembeski, a Polish-born veteran aged 101 with 79 years of service and 29 campaigns — including America, Russia, and Spain — who came to France with King Stanislas in the 1760s.
- The Duc de Montpensier visited the mosque of Al-Azhar in Cairo, where the Sheikh-ul-Islam seated the French prince on the matting between himself and the Mufti and offered him coffee — a rare act of hospitality toward a Christian.
- A woman using multiple false identities stole silver cutlery from two Paris households in successive days, producing a forged mayor's certificate to gain employment as a servant before vanishing each evening.
- A riot at Dunfermline, Scotland, saw 2,000 people smash a manufacturer's home at night; Mrs. Alexander and her five children fled half-naked into the countryside while an enormous stone stove in the front door.
- Percussion-fuze experiments at the artillery polygon of La Fère achieved reliable explosions at 600 metres; the pyrogenes, mounted on wood, fit all existing hollow projectiles without modification and would cost the Treasury nothing in rearmament.