1632 Snippets

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 17 Kamala shuddered. It was all just so--nineteenth century. She had seen photos from the 1800s, taken during epidemics of cholera, with the yellow tape strung across the doors and windows of infected houses. "How do you handle the bodies?" she asked. "And the houses." ● Containment. "For the bodies, they are collected by the death carts. They are collected naked. There must be no clothing, not even a shroud, to tempt the impoverished and greedy to rob the corpse. That only leads to further spread." "To man...

1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 55 Chapter 23 Krakow, official capital of Poland Actual capital of Lesser Poland "I feel utterly useless," Ulrik grumbled. He squinted against the rising sun, as he studied the walls of Krakow half a mile distant. "It is ridiculous to say I am in command of this army." Morris Roth, who was officially in command of the Bohemian forces participating in the assault, was more philosophical about the matter. Or perhaps he simply had the advantage of an additional three decades of life. He was in his...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 16 Chapter 9 Not Doubting that the Most High Will Grant His Grace and Provide Suitable Means Besançon "...nit zweyflende, der Allerhöchste werde seine gnade verleihen undt ergebige mittel weisen..." Hyppolitus Guarinonius looked at Kamala Dunn. "You are preaching to the converted," he said. "That was a very favorite statement of young Matt Trelli during our stay in Kronach, when he thought we were telling him something he already knew." "You certainly are," Kamala admitted. "And you, and you." She waved...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 15 **** All of the intelligence reports, to both Bernhard and Fernando, concentrated on tracing Gaston and the regiments he brought out of the Low Countries. Even though Fernando expressed a wish to know where Henriette and Puylaurens had gone, this didn't seem to be a priority, for the simple reason that they didn't have soldiers. At most, everyone knew, they had a very small escort. It couldn't be more than two dozen men. That was quite true. Because they had a very small escort, they managed to go east, come...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 14 "What do you mean, 'the eagle is his'?" Private Hallier was a new, very young, recruit, out of Burgundy. They weren't in formation yet. As the rear guard, they would move out last. "It's his own eagle. When he was born, they say, an eagle flew over the castle in Thuringia where his mother was in labor. Hardly any eagles over there. It was an omen that he would do great things." "What's the motto?" "Something Latin." "That's no help." "Ask the chaplain." "They say there was a bad omen at his birth, too,"...

1637 - The Polish Maelstrom - Snippet 54 So… He turned to Eric, who had also dismounted. "Take the 19th Battalion to the closest gate, which is…" He thought for a moment, bringing up the map of the city in his mind. He had it well enough memorized not to have to haul it out of his saddlebag. "That way," he said, pointing to the northwest. "How far away is it?" asked Eric "It shouldn't take you more than ten minutes to get there." Krakow in this day and age wasn't a big city--about one mile north to south and half that distance east to...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 13 Bernhard assumed an impassive expression. "There is no necessary reason for us to come into conflict with him." "How not?" Rosen released one side of his moustache and gathered in the other. "In this case, we can interpret Richelieu's reticence--his reluctance to put a casus belli with the Habsburgs into writing on a piece of paper which might fall into the hands of foreign powers--to our advantage. So. Why not suggest cooperation to Fernando, instead? We do have a common interest in removing an irritant--in...

Legions Of Pestilence - Snippet 12 Chapter 8 I Don't Have Enough Time and There Is Way Too Much to Do Schwarzach "Die zeitt ist mir zu kurtz und die geschefte zu viel." Francisco de Melon offered Grand Duke Bernhard his report, straightening out, to the best of his ability, the mixed-up biography, supposedly of himself, that Matt Trelli had received from the Grantville researchers back during the siege of Kronach, with some trepidation. Sometimes it was not easy to predict how the grand duke would react. Luckily, he found it hilariously...