This rather lurid early chromolithographic poster was published by the Librarie Arthème Fayard (commonly known as “A. Fayard”) in Paris to promote its serialization in periodical form of a patriotic military story by Octave Biot, who had been an officer during the Franco-Prussian War. A. Fayard, established in 1857, was beginning to explore the idea of producing the affordable literary classics and other books with which it would ultimately become hugely successful. The colorful poster promising dramatic scenes suggests that the book advertised here was intended for a popular readership. Like many 19th-century tales (most famously those of Charles Dickens), was first published in affordable issues (in this case at 10 centimes each) that were assembled the same year in a full book that boasted more than one thousand illustrations and cost three francs. The title on the poster refers to the Franco-Russian alliance that was formed by a series of agreements between 1891 and 1894 in response to the threat posed by the Triple Alliance, mentioned here, that had been formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in 1882.