The protagonist's father, the elder Charalois, was a general who had gone into debt to pay the expenses of his troops; unable to repay those charges, he died in debtor's prison, and his rapacious creditors refuse to release his body for a proper burial.
Charalois, the elder patriarch of the protagonist, was a military commander who fell into financial hardship to support his troops. He ultimately succumbed to debt while imprisoned, and his creditors denied him a proper burial.