When they run out of islands, the royal personage decides to employ an exile mechanic for the disposal of undesirables. François grabs their attention with his plan to keep the Duchess of Parma in a tremendous bathysphere off the Côte d’Azur.

During his long career, François remains ingenious: he drops spies on Mount Everest; he puts Communists down wells. He sends Mussolini into space.

After the coup, the People’s Party finds it only poetic to send him off to now-vacant Alba. They leave him standing on a beach, sans attendants or companions, utterly alone.

At last, thinks François. I win!