The story begins in the office of a lawyer, where six clerics make jokes while working. Then came an old man all laugh at it because it takes very old clothes. The old man says he has to talk to the head of the study, Master Derville . Clerics told that the Master sees Derville customers at midnight. In response to a question from a delivery boy, the old man, before leaving, he said to be the Colonel Chabert, who died in the Battle of Eylau. Colonel Chabert returns at night to me. Derville office and confessed to grant him an interview. Chabert then tells his story: Hyacinthe Chabert, foundling, won the gallons of his colonel of the Imperial Guard, to participate in the expedition to Egypt of Napoleon I. He married Rose Chapotel, a prostitute who installed in a luxury mansion