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Windows shattered as the heat increased, and Nemo grasped her arm. “That’s all we can take. Hurry!” They ran down the stairs and out of the rowhouse, leaving the inferno behind. . . .

Prussian cannons thundered without respite, and gunfire rattled from outside the city -- either an enemy attack, or just bored soldiers letting off volleys to intimidate the Parisians. Together, the two ran down the streets, pushing past scattered people who ran in circles, terrified but with no place to go.

Nemo took Caroline along the river’s edge, dodging broken stones and bricks from the buildings pounded by Prussian artillery. Finally, they reached the shadows beside a bridge embankment.

Caroline looked down at the river and saw the armored hull of the floating vessel. “That . . . that is the Nautilus? The real Nautilus? Jules’s descriptions did not do it justice.”

Nemo helped her step across to the hull. “This is how I will get you out of Paris. We’ll dive beneath the river and slip out with the current. The Prussians won’t see us. I’ll keep you safe.”

She touched his arm. “Since we were little more than children, when you and I stayed out all night under the magnolia trees at the Church of St. Martin, I have always felt safe at your side.”

vi

In normal days, Jules Verne loved to be aboard his private yacht, out on the sea just like a bold sailor. But during the dangers of wartime, he would have preferred to be safe at his vacation home in Amiens. Unfortunately, too many people in the French government expected him to be like one of the heroes of his novels.

The conflict with the Prussians grew desperate enough that Verne found himself conscripted into the military, even at the age of forty-two. Because of his fame, he was not asked to fight on the battle lines; instead, he was assigned to the coast guard, due to his love for and proficiency in sailing.

Jules Verne, defender of France!

Several years earlier, the bearded author had purchased his own yacht, which he’d christened the Saint Michel in a moment of parental guilt. Before the war, Verne frequently sailed the Saint Michel up and down the Loire; he also cruised the Atlantic coast from Paimboeuf all the way up to Brittany. Every trip had been a fine outing.

Now the French military, in its bureaucratic wisdom, had decided that Verne should command his own boat -- like his fictional captains Grant and Hatteras -- crewed by a group of old veterans from the Crimean War. The legendary author would patrol the coast around Le Crotoy and protect France from invaders. Surely von Bismarck would tremble to learn of such a foe. . . .

Just before hostilities had begun, Hetzel called in numerous favors to get recognition for his extraordinarily successful author. In one of his last actions before the outbreak of war, Emperor Napoleon III had summoned Jules Verne to the palace to present him with the Legion of Honor -- and Verne had been as pleased as he could be.

To celebrate, Verne took Honorine and Michel away from Paris to visit his parents in Nantes. Gray-haired Pierre Verne’s health was declining, and the elderly attorney had grown even more sour-tempered over the years. Yet given Verne’s celebrity as a writer, he grudgingly admitted that his idealistic son had made a good career choice after all. Sophie Verne took pleasure in her rambunctious grandson, tolerating even Michel’s worst behavior.

Then the war had erupted, the Emperor suffered a shameful defeat at Sedan, and Prussian troops converged on the capitol city. Verne’s younger brother Paul was off in the navy, fighting against the enemy warships said to be prowling the Atlantic shores. While in Nantes on holiday, Verne had received his call to service. With the escalating hostilities, all citizens were obliged to contribute to the defense of their nation. . . .

Thus, he spent the winter months off the northwestern corner of France, patrolling the shores and remaining as far from the actual fighting as possible. Since Verne was completely unschooled in how to command the twelve grizzled