1632 Snippets
Council Of Fire – Snippet 05
Council Of Fire - Snippet 05 "That does not mean I listen to everything they say. And you know well, Monsieur Intendant, that they often do as they please regardless of what I say. But say on, Governor. What do they make of this omen?" Vaudreuil seemed to be contemplating his response, and Montcalm remembered the question he had asked Lévis on the fortifications. Do you believe in omens? "You know that their shamans perform what they call 'medicine,' in which they make an augury for the future. One of them--an Onondaga, I believe--made some...
1636 The China Venture – Snippet 29
1636 The China Venture - Snippet 29 "I think I have heard of your brother...." That was an understatement. According to Mike's teachers back in Taiwan, Zheng Zhilong was a former pirate chieftain who was offered an admiralty, used his new position to wipe out his former rivals, and then controlled the overseas trade of Fujian by demanding licenses to sail. Thanks to these payments, and his own trading ventures, his income was said to be greater than that of the Dutch East India Company. And a few years after the Manchu invaded, he cut his...
1636 The China Venture – Snippet 28
1636 The China Venture - Snippet 28 Chapter 19 On board the Rode Draak, in the South China Sea May 1635 Martina cleared her throat. "Doctor Carvalhal, may I have a word with you?" Rafael Carvalhal was a short man; if Martina wore heels, she'd be taller than him. He had salt-and-pepper hair, and the same olive skin that some of her Saluzzo in-laws did. He had come to Grantville in the fall of 1631, after the Battle of Breitenfeld, and enrolled his son Carlos in the high school. He was a graduate of Padua, one of the few European medical...
Council Of Fire – Snippet 04
Council Of Fire - Snippet 04 Chapter 2 Do you believe in omens? Québec New France The Upper Town was at the top of a steep hill that overlooked the St. Lawrence. It was like a great ship, with the waters parting and then rejoining around it. When the marquis stood on the platform behind the Battery of St. Louis and looked downstream, he felt as if he was at the aft end of that ship, watching the water pass into the distance as he moved upstream. But it was an illusion, just as the robust defenses around the city of Québec were an illusion....
1636 The China Venture – Snippet 27
1636 The China Venture - Snippet 27 The Rode Draak and, behind it, the Groen Feniks, shared the quiet water of their cove with a native fishing boat. However, it departed after a few hours, leaving them at peace. That peace was shattered a few hours before dawn. Three large proas invaded the cove, each with two banks of oars and a cannon in the bow. One of the proas, the presumed command ship, was larger than the other two. When they were first spotted, at the entrance to the cove, by a marine in the maintop, they were perhaps two hundred...
Council Of Fire – Snippet 03
Council Of Fire - Snippet 03 "It's just a storm, General. Nothing unnatural about that." "And the bright light on the horizon? What might that be, my Lord?" "I wish I knew. Please feel free to give me your thoughts, sir. I am sure you will do so whether I solicit them or not." Wolfe appeared ready with an angry response, but seemed to bite it back. "I am concerned for the welfare of the royal person we carry aboard," he said. "I assume that you are doing whatever you can to get us away from this storm." "I have only so much control," Saunders...
Council Of Fire – Snippet 02
Council Of Fire - Snippet 02 Part I: Transit March, 1759 Dr. Halley observed . . . how much greater irregularities must not a comet be liable to, which at its remotest distance gets near four times farther from the Sun than Saturn, and whose velocity in drawing near the sun needs but a very small increase to change its elliptic into a parabolic curve. --Charles Messier, A Memoir, containing the History of the Return of the famous Comet of 1682, Phil. Trans., Jan. 1765 Chapter 1 The sea giveth and the sea taketh away Aboard HMS Neptune North...
Council Of Fire – Snippet 01
Council Of Fire - Snippet 01 Council Of Fire THE ARCANE AMERICA SERIES ERIC FLINT AND WALTER HUNT Dedications Walter: I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Lisa, who has helped me see with new eyes. * * * Eric: Well, I was planning to dedicate this book to hideous gruesome monsters, who fill the pages of the novel and are such a never-ending comfort and delight to scribblers, but . . . In light of Walter's dedication, it seems more fitting (not to mention prudent) to dedicate this book to my wife Lucille, who has also helped me see...