Setting to one side the prospective assassinations and the ongoing concerns over Alisona , Duke Karl Frederick takes himself off to the stables surrounded by a cloud of attendants. This year, after an absence of some seasons, the duke will lead his own team " Sons of the Golden Herring" in the prospective jousting.He is helped into the saddle ,fingering his old and trustworthy ash spear . His mount takes up the gallop and they speed across the field to the ring- missed!
The Duke realises his thoughts are elsewhere but endeavours to put aside affairs of state and improve his aim. Perhaps today his fellow Rulers may reply about the impending threat upon all...
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There was an historical attempt on the life of Louis XV resulting in a slight knife wound to the body. Regicide in France was punishable by being gruesomly drawn a quartered and being opened up so hot coals could be introduced within. I had the sense that Louis did not want this to happen to his attacker but he was carried along by the rule of law and perhaps his own disinclination to challenge that law. I believe I read this in Louis The Beloved or something like that many years ago.
Some say the assaulter was willingly content to inflict only a very slight cut, since he actually intended to restore the popularity of the King, who was less ans less 'le Bien-Aime'. Anyway it worked, at least for a few years. But, whatever his real intentions, the culprit did not live to see it...
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