For an hour, while Baron Bastille and his staff converse volubly in French dialect not understood by their Frankszonian attendants, drums beat and horns blare. The streets resound with quick marching feet and trotting horses ... then all falls silent ...
except for a distant popping sound from the north.
Gallian units rushing to their alarm stations encounter frequent barriers and checkpoints manned by Frankszonian militia but are invariably passed swiftly through.
A Frankszonian courier gallops up to the highly disgruntled Gallian headquarters. He bears a brief dispatch from Gen. Meyer:
"Rebels still holding Bischhof and have deployed about regimental strength in the Abbot's Field just beyond the Brook Line. (expletive deleted) we must deploy before advancing and I expect they will be dodgers."
As the staff grumbles over the scrawled note, an early morning vendor begins to hawk his sausages and another, fresh beer ....
5 hours ago
11 comments:
Bastille: "Saddle my horse! Confusion, disturbances and alarms and now...." [Said to no one in particular.]
Narrator:
He mounts ol' Treacherous, rides out the north gate with an escort of grenadiers trotting along behind on foot and arrives at the command tent of Marshall de Broglie, Commandant of the Gallian Main Army now encamped on the plain adjacent to Frankfurt Am Main.
Broglie: "Monsieur l'Intendant? What brings you to me this good afternoon?
Bastille: [Dismounts handing the reins of ol' Treacherous to an ADC.] I beg your forbearance Your Excellency. It's the Frankzonians and their foes and more, again."
Broglie: "Come in and have some wine. Our friend Chevert left me several cases from his own vinyard before he left for Bohemia with his corps. A tall glass perhaps?"
Bastille: "Oui et merci!
Broglie: "Sit and allow me to pour. There. And now?"
Bastille: "This is the most unusual place in all Germania Your Excellency. Why in the last year alone there have been parties, explosions, riots, gangs, intrigues, indigestions of all kinds, more than I can recall, you see the magnificent jail I built too and now that the air is warm, these things are beginning anew. Did you hear the recent disturbance today somewhere out ... there?"
Broglie: "Oui? What of it?"
Bastille: "There was never a less peaceful place I am sure. Of course our magazine here is of vital importance now not only to Lt. Gen. Chevert but now to your magnificent Army. So what I would like to suggest is...."
Meanwhile, at the Britannian fortress at Minden, Lt. General the Marquess of Granby is reading over a report submitted to him by Colonel Luckner.
GRANBY:
" Hmm, if Chevert is on his way east to Bohemia, and Broglie is in Frankfurt, then it would appear that the road from Minden to the Rhine is devoid of Gallian troops. "
LUCKNER:
"Ja, Herr General. Mein hussaren have not seen any of the Gallian clippety clops mitin miles of Minden."
GRANBY:
"Then we must send out all of the light cavalry this time and they must make contact with the Gallians, where ever they may be."
LUCKNER:
"I vill see to it immediately!"
Lucker snaps off a crisp salute, turns, and exits the room.
Hmmm, . . . selling sausages? I wonder if they are the exploding kind for which Frankszonia is notorious?
-- Jeff
Jeff wrote:
"Hmmm, . . . selling sausages? I wonder if they are the exploding kind for which Frankszonia is notorious?"
---
Naw, it's just guys walking up and down with trays shouting, "Hot dogs!" and "Beer!"
People inside shout back if they want any, and folks lean out into the street to pass the money and comestibles back and forth ...
")
A
Game Delay
I was bringing in the figures and took a fall ... the fall itself not bad, but it's triggered a whole complex of things like my angina ...
so game will probably not be resolved till next week!
:(
A
Surely the gallant Gallians will not have the gall to gull their gracious allies and prove to be but poor guests?
Ask the Marquis d'Hottatrot ...
Arthur,
Please be careful . . . falls can be nasty. I know, I've had several myself.
-- Jeff
Sausages? Inna bun? (Are you sure the vendor isn't CMOT Dibbler?)
Back to Broglie and Bastille:
Bastille: "Well, if I may return to my suggestion. Would you mind Your Excellency, leaving behind no fewer than 10,000 Gallians when you depart for...."
Broglie: "Shhhhh. We won't be talking about where I am going next. Let me see, you've had 5,000 infantry in recent weeks. I will ask the Ministre de Guerre to fetch another 5,000 from the interior for posting here."
Bastille: "Bon! However, I was hoping for 15,000 total."
Broglie: "I will see...."
Bastille: "There did you hear it? The distant explosions and vibrations?"
Broglie: "Oui Monsieur l'Intendant. I am unconcerned. Let the Frankzonians have their l'petite guerre with their neighbors. It keeps them busy with things that do not concern you - perhaps?"
Bastille: "Oui Monsieur l'Maréchal but one could hope for a more tranquil assignment this far back from the actual scenes of fighting between Gallia and her blue-coated foes. Still we are managing."
Broglie: "I can arrange for a more peaceful assignment in the West Indies, if you prefer."
Bastille: "No thank you. Frankfurt Am Main is perfect - perfect."
Well, last spotted, CMOT Dibbler was running a mobile sausage factory wagon train in the Eastern Marches ... but with Roquefort and the Cheezers getting together in Munster and Limburger again, he may work his way back west.
Of course, the Frankszonian secret police think he's keeping a close watch on the Germanian and Hesse Seewald forces as he likes to scavenge battlefields for cheap ingredients ...
:)
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