Four Fates by Theophile Gautier (1848)

In the original French this was The Two Stars, so I'm very glad to see the English translator redub it, as it covers the shockwaves in two misdirected relationships, and, after all, the women were there too! It starts in a very Dumasian way in London, with foggy streets, murky tunnels, mysterious strangers: drab, wet, quiet, grey, and unsettling. We are led through quick strokes into two upper crust relationships which are heading toward marriage on the same day in the same church. Amabel Vyvyan and Benedict Arundell are untroubled and, despite the weather, excited about their upcoming nuptials. Edythe Harley and the swarthy Count de Volmerange are less well-starred, with Edythe's fall from grace with another disturbing her peace - she is not relishing telling him of it after their marriage. Amabel and Benedict are scheduled first, but just as they arrive a mysterious old friend of Benedict's gestures him aside down a side-street. Amabel never sees him again. She is still waiting in the vestibule, crying, when Edythe and the Count pass through and marry. Later, Edythe's parents hear a huge groan from their room, and they too are found to have disappeared. It turns out that Edythe has revealed her secret and the Count, in a rage beyond reason, has followed her frightened flight through the garden and then the city. He catches up with her on London Bridge, sweeps her up, and throws her into the raging river to drown. Unbeknown to him, she is collected by the crew of a passing strange boat, which is speeding downstream with a prisoner on it. The prisoner? Benedict Arundell, who has been kidnapped by his old friend to fulfil his secret society oath to be of help in a great purpose. Suffice it to say that this involves a long trip into the Atlantic and ends at St Helena, where a certain great personage is waiting to be sprung from his confines. Meantime, Count de Volmerange, destroyed by anger and what he has done, is approached by a stranger in Regent's Park, and conveyed to a meeting with Dakcha, a mysterious Indian who is planning a revolt in that country. It is revealed that Volmerange's Indian background means that he is next in line for the Indian Lunar Throne, which Dakcha wants to re-establish, and in doing so throw out the British. Volmerange also meets there Priyamvada, a hugely exotic Indian woman whose dark entrancing drug-like mystery he falls for. She is Dakcha's right-hand woman, and the two spirit him off to India to lead the revolution the way a 'royal' only can. The terrible thing is, after all this, neither exploit comes off. The Indian revolt is crushed, and Napoleon dies just as he could be freed. The odd juxtaposition of the foggy, grimy streets of London with the wild exoticism and big adventure of the later portions is very entertaining; the mysteries unfold very unwillingly, which is tantalising and great fun.