The Golden Triangle · Chapter
Before the Flames explained
Patrice Belval witnesses the torture of Essarès Bey by Colonel Fakhi and his accomplices in Essarès's own home, while Coralie secretly observes from a gallery.
What happens
Patrice Belval witnesses the torture of Essarès Bey by Colonel Fakhi and his accomplices in Essarès's own home, while Coralie secretly observes from a gallery. Fakhi attempts to force Essarès to share his fortune, but Essarès manages to shoot Fakhi dead with a hidden revolver. Fakhi's dying words reveal a letter that will expose Essarès's treason, leaving the remaining conspirators in disarray.
Themes in this chapter
Greed and Corruption
Colonel Fakhi tortures Essarès Bey to force him to share his fortune, revealing the corrupting influence of wealth.
Deception and Hidden Identities
Coralie hides in her own house, Fakhi's men are in the pay of the conspirators, and Fakhi's dying threat of a letter exposes hidden treason.
Justice and Revenge
Essarès Bey turns the tables on his torturer, killing Fakhi in an act of desperate self-defense.
Characters to notice
- Patrice Belval
Observes the torture of Essarès Bey from a hidden position, guided by Coralie's presence.
- Coralie
Hiding in the gallery of her own house, she watches her husband Essarès Bey being tortured.
- Essarès Bey
The victim of torture by Colonel Fakhi and his men; he manages to shoot Fakhi dead with a hidden revolver.
- Colonel Fakhi
The leader of the torture, killed by Essarès Bey after being shot with a revolver.
- Bournef
One of Fakhi's accomplices, described as cool and self-commanding, who disarms Essarès after the shooting.
- Siméon Diodokis
Essarès's secretary, bound and brought into the room by the conspirators.
Key passages
“a cool hand! An offer of this kind to me! That's all very well for Bournef or his fellows. They'll understand, they will. But it won't do for me, it won't do for Colonel Fakhi. No, no, my friend, I open my mouth wider! I'll consent to go halves, but accept an alms, never!”
Colonel Fakhi rejects Essarès's offer to share the fortune equally, demanding a larger share for himself.
Fakhi's greed drives the conflict, refusing any compromise.
“The prisoner's hand, as the result of a sequence of little movements apparently due to nervous twitches, had seized the opposite edge of the table, while his arm rested on the marble top. And gradually, unseen by the torturers, all whose efforts were directed to keeping his legs in position, or by the leader, who was still engaged with Siméon, this hand opened a drawer which swung on a hinge, dipped into the drawer, took out a revolver and, resuming its original position with a jerk, hid the weapon in the chair.”
Essarès Bey secretly retrieves a revolver from a drawer while his torturers are distracted.
A turning point where the victim gains the means to fight back.