Hunsrucker Allgemeine Zeitung

Fasnacht in Hunsruck

2009-02-24T16:49:00.005-06:00

The Fasnacht procession through the streets of Hunsruck occurred in keeping with dictates of immemorial Shrove Tuesday tradition. Notably absent, though, was any member of the ducal family, who customarily presided over the festivities. The court gazette revealed that the Herzogin had retired to the ducal hunting lodge outside Kognat, and the new Pfalzgrafin was of course en route to her new life in Waldreck. More disturbing to insiders, though, was the conspicuous lack of any explanation for the absence of the Herzog or dowager duchess.

Rumours from the court suggested that both had been indisposed by a particularly pernicious flux, although no official confirmation of such questions could be forthcoming--to a question that verged on the treasonous even to ask. Nonetheless, the citizens of Hunsruck threw themselves with abandon into the Carnival atmosphere, indulging the carnal appetites that must shortly be mortified through the meagre days of Lent.

One for the Road

2009-02-23T21:03:00.005-06:00

The ceremony concluded, the party moved to the entrance gallery just inside the porte-cochere where the Pfalzgrafin's Landau, as well as the wagons carrying her trousseau were attended by the unmixing honour guard of Obersaynische Kürrasiere and Waldrecker Dragoons. Pausing at the entrance, His Grace called for the traditional bridal cup, a golden double chalice formed in the shape of a woman holding a basin overhead.

Graf von Kostenwand, Herzog Ignaz's chamberlain, brought the bridal cup forth on a golden salver, followed by four stewards, who bore wine glasses and two bottles of the most highly prized vintage of the duchy, the Bernkasteler Doktor. Filling first the bridal cup, the stewards then filled the other glasses which were distributed to the members of the party by the dowager duchess' ladies-in-waiting. Herzog Ignaz handed the bridal cup to his daughter, remarking "the comte can drink for the Pfalzgraf," and flipped the larger base over his daughter's cup, which she cradled carefully. The duke paused a moment and filled the base as well and gestured to the Comte de Mazan, who stepped to the cup, facing the new Pfazgrafin and grasped the larger base while the duke filled it.

Stepping back, the duke addressed the party.

"A toast:

'With faith there is love,
With love there is peace,
With peace there is blessing,
With blessing, there is God,
With God there is no need.'"

At the conclusion of which, the Grafin von Schirnhausen, taking the bridesmaid's traditional part, declared, "And let who finishes first rule the roost!"

Taking her cue, the new Pfalzgrafin von Waldreck tossed back the golden cup and its golden contents, while the comte paused a moment attempting to deduce the meaning of the Grafin's coda, before drinking from his larger end of the cup. Applause from the party greeted the Pfalzgrafin's completion of her draught well before the comte, whose face assumed something of a flush at his intuition that he had become the object of a joke he did not understand.

Leaving the comte to hold the now-drained bridal cup, the Pfalzgrafin gestured for the stewards, and took the still half-full second bottle, and embracing first her father and then her grandmother topped all the glasses of the party a second time and splashed the dregs into her own cup and, eyes shining, offered a farewell toast in return.

"Father, grandmother, no words can repay the blessings of having been your child and grandchild. I go now to another land, but your love and the love of Hunsruck will remain with me always."

The party sipped their glasses somewhat tentatively at this awkward moment, but the comte insinuated himself into the pause with aplomb, "I came to meet a Prinzessin, but I take away the best and fairest Pfalzgrafin of all the Reich!" and embraced the Herzog and dowager duchess as well, somewhat to their surprise at this Gallic display.

Draining their glasses, the party now made their farewells to the wedding party, who now donned their furs, brought by the stewards, and proceeded outside, the Pfalzgrafin to her Landau, and the Comte de Mazan and Ritter von Trimbach to their mounts at the head of their respective squadrons. Led by the Waldrecker Dragoons, the wedding party now clattered across the courtyard of Schloß Moritzburg to the gate and out to the snowy road beyond.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

2009-02-13T20:56:00.013-06:00

The balance of the proxy ceremony dissolved into a blur of images and discontinuous sensations for the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria as the gravity of the moment finally fully asserted itself.

The words of Msgr. de Chiaroscuro in the confessional rebounded through the chambers of her mind--the "memory palace" of her mind, as Msgr. de Chiaroscuro had called it during his hours of tutelage, she now oddly recalled--"Now faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible."

Now her tutor stood before her and the Comte de Mazan in a manner almost inquisitorial:

"Vult Fredericus Carolus accípere Sophia-Vittoria, hic præséntem in suam legítimam uxórem iuxta ritum sanctaæ matris Ecclésiæ?--Does Friedrich Karl take Sophie-Vittoria here present, for his lawful wife according to the rite of our holy mother, the Church?"

The Comte de Mazan arched his eyebrow at the ultimate phrase of the question a moment and let a trace of smile dance over his lips before replying to the monsignor, who had fixed him with an unblinking gaze.

"Suo Maiestas vult"--"His majesty will."

Not breaking eye contact with the comte, who impudently returned the stare, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro continued:

"Sophia-Vittoria, vis accípere Fredericus Carolus hic repræséntem in tuum legítimum marítum iuxta ritum sanctæ matris Ecclésiæ?--Sophie-Vittoria do you take Friedrich Karl, here represented, for your lawful husband according to the rite of our holy mother, the Church?"

The silence following the monsignor's question stretched out before the Prinzessin as she contemplated the stygian chasm which yawned before her. All her juvenile imaginings of this moment and this question had left her completely blind to any happy resolution consequent to her reply which all present in the salon now strained to hear. The Prinzessin's dry tongue cleaved thickly to her palate as her childhood infatuations and adolescent fantasies ran riot through her mind and the tableau before her seemed to shrink and take on the character of some distant puppet show like those her father arranged to have performed by the servants for her and her sisters in the nursery. But now she could not credit whether she were watching the performance or were rather part of it, a marionette in golden silk and tulle.

As the reverberation of the monsignor's question died away, Sophie-Vittoria found her downcast, watering eyes transfixed by the golden hem of her gown, which seemed to spill like champagne onto the parquetry of the salon floor beneath her. As the silence filled the salon and began to bear down upon her with its full, terrible weight, she perceived her father, still standing beside her between the comte and herself, drawing himself rigidly to his full height almost as a soldier standing in line of battle.

She perceived her grandmother, standing to her left, almost imperceptibly nudge her lady-in-waiting, the Grafin von Schirnhausen, while the monsignor continued his ocular duel with the comte. As the grafin, seemingly in response to the Dowager Duchess, snapped open her fan, painted in ornate turquerie, and held it before her, the Prinzessin became aware of her father's ungloved right hand, placing itself on hers and squeezing gently. As the scene about her shimmered and dissolved before her, the Prinzessin closed her eyes and lost sensibility of of all around her but the warmth of her father's hand on hers.

She loosed her thoughts again to roam the memory palace of her mind, reliving in that instant the sensation of her father's hand on hers during her countless childhood jaunts through the gardens, at her bedside during the days and nights her twelfth year when she lay stricken with the tertian ague which had so taxed her that Herr Doktor Thanisch had advised a novena to St. Jude before the fever broke, and on the ballroom floor the night of her debut the previous August, which now seemed a lifetime ago.

As the Prinzessin opened her mouth to speak, it seemed to her that her own words merged with another woman's contralto, almost indistinguishable from her own, spoken simultaneously.

"Volo"--"I will."

[Ed. Note: A joyous Feast of St. Valentine to all--may you especially enjoy the warmth of your beloved today, and may you live to treasure that warmth in a place of honour in the memory palace of your own mind for years to come.]

The Waldrecker Proxy

2009-01-22T16:51:00.004-06:00

After a lengthy, early-morning consultation in the confessional with Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, a subdued Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria, accompanied by the monsignor, made her entrance into the salon nearest the chapel where she was awaited by her father, the Comte de Mazan, the Dowager Duchess, three of her ladies-in-waiting and Ritter von Trimbach.

Without ceremony, de Mazan presented the sealed and witnessed proxy of Prinz Friedrich, and the appended oath to respect the commitment of the Prinzessin and her female children to the Catholic faith, for the inspection of the Duke and Msgr. de Chiaroscuro. Herzog Ignaz in turn presented for the witnesses the dispensation permitting the Prinzessin to marry outside the Church, signed by Georg Franz, Bishop of Kognat.

Satisfied of the validity of the documents, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro opened his breviary and, carefully avoiding eye contact with the Prinzessin, began to read out the wedding service...

Inheritance Powder

2009-01-19T14:08:00.007-06:00

The Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria sat at her vanity for some time after the polterabend dinner party hosted by her father in honour of the young and dashing Comte de Mazan, arrived in Hunsruck as the proxy of Prinz Friedrich at the wedding ceremony over which Msgr. de Chiaroscuro would preside tomorrow prior to the departure of the wedding party for Waldreck. De Mazan and a company of Waldrecker dragoons would accompany the company of her father's Kürassiere under the command of the departing Oberst Ritter von Trimbach to her intended's capital of Bruttig for the official wedding ceremony at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtnis-Kirche the next day.

The Prinzessin was entirely at a loss at what to make of the Comte; seated next to her--sitting in her mother's place upon her mother's continuing indisposition--as the guest of honour at dinner his conversation had been completely correct and obsequious, but something in his gaze at her had at all times savoured of impudence. The manner with which he had rendered his baise-main at the end of the evening would have raised a blush had her complexion not been properly whitened and rouged beforehand, and now provoked a lingering discomfort as she contemplated the imminent, four-day carriage procession to Bruttig.

Rousing herself from her reverie, the Prinzessin reached for the sponge and warm water prepared for her to remove her blanche and rouge. Moving the bowl and candle closer to the looking glass, she noticed an unobtrusive white packet bound with a white ribbon which had been propped between the bowl and the glass.

While her dressing maids professed ignorance as to its arrival there, the Prinzessin opened the parcel addressed only "To the Prinzessin." Inside she found a smaller envelope labeled "pour la succession," containing an odourless white powder, and an essay of several pages in an elegant French hand entitled "De l'Assassinat Considéré comme Un des Beaux-Arts." Astonished, the Prinzessin reached for her quizzing glass and began to read...

Pomp and Circumstance

2009-01-08T01:31:00.010-06:00

Oberst Andreas Ritter von Trimbach, just informed of his New Year's commission as the new commander of the Tradgardland Regiment in the service of the Duke of Tradgardland, proceeds with the execution of his final honorific commission in the service of Herzog Ignaz by reviewing the parade route of the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's nuptial procession through the Herzogerpark quarter of Hunsruck, along with the Leib company of the Kürassiere who will serve as the Prinzessin's honour guard during her journey to Waldreck for the official ceremony after the Octave of Epiphany.

Oberst von Trimbach is somewhat troubled by the refusal of the Prinzessin to consult on her security requirements during the procession and subsequent journey; indeed, it would seem she has had as little as possible to do with any planning, other than insisting upon a private Catholic wedding service prior to the official ceremony. Von Trimbach knew that such reticence is not out of the ordinary for such political alliances, and, indeed, significantly simplified the process, but the Prinzessin's behaviour on the crucial day remained a troubling cipher in Oberst Trimbach's logistical calculations.

Epiphany Announcements

2009-01-06T20:49:00.012-06:00

Following time-honoured tradition, The Most Reverend Georg Franz, Bishop of Kognat, this morning celebrated the Mass of the Feast of the Epiphany. After the homily, the Dean of the Kognatdom noted:

"Dearly beloved brethren, you shall know that as we have rejoiced in the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, so there is announced to you by the mercy of God the joyous observance of the Resurrection of the same our Savior:

February 18th is Septuagesima Sunday.

On March 7th Ash Wednesday begins the most holy season of Lent.

On April 15th we shall celebrate with great rejoicing the holy Easter Festival of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May 24th is the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

June 3rd is the Feast of Pentecost.

December 2nd is the First Sunday in the Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honor and glory, world without end. Amen."

[Ed. Note: Those planning other important activities throughout the year of grace 1759 may find a full calendar of the year useful.]

A New Star in the Heavens

2009-01-03T14:09:00.008-06:00

Astronomers at the Universität Achselfraktur have been electrified by their confirmation of the report from Saxony of Johann Georg Palitzsch's Christmas sighting of a new star in the firmament, believed to be that predicted by the calculations of the Britannian natural philosopher Dr. Halley in 1705. While the star is currently only visible as a point, it is believed that it will resolve itself into a comet in the coming months, and may even become visible in daylight, as in the speculative painting provided by our artists above.

What portent this conveys for its terrestrial observers remains to be seen. While the last appearance of the comet, if this is indeed proven to be the same one, augured the Ottoman campaign culminating in the siege of Vienna, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, S.J., Tutor and Confessor to the Ducal Household, strongly condemns any attempts to cast horoscopes--particularly those of members of the Ducal Household, which remains punishable by death--or to divine by similar means the fate of individuals, the Duchy or Christendom at large from such celestial phenomena.

Good Christian Men Rejoice!

2008-12-25T20:44:00.003-06:00

We raise a Yuletide toast to all our noble cousins of the Imaginations of Urope. While challenges and opportunities remain before us, we have been delighted by the support and camaraderie of all our noble cousins in our great common endeavour.

Merry Christmas to all, and all best wishes for the coming year of grace!

Waldreck Subversives

2008-12-24T11:39:00.016-06:00

24 Dezember, a date of no special significance in Waldreck, finds an anonymous man hard at work in his back workshop in an especially worn and unfashionable quarter of Bruttig, hidden there from the prying eyes of the agents of the Pfalzgraf and the Burgermeister.

From time to time throughout the grey, frigid day, hooded, furtive men masked by their frozen breath would pass by the building, some pausing to regard their reflections and the street behind them in the front shop windows presenting the legitimate face of a snuffshop to the public, and then turn down the winding alleyway leading to the rear entrance, a sober grey-painted and iron-bound door with a narrow sliding-panel peephole. Knocking there, and giving the muttered password "Kringle," they are hurriedly admitted into the back room.

Once inside, the prearranged transaction is swiftly consummated: hard pfalzthalers for assorted banned goods, outlawed for their indolent frivolity: hoops and wands, marbles, knucklebones, dolls, tops, tin soldiers or the exotic bandalore. Avoiding eye contact, the nameless customers finalise their transactions, secret their contraband within their bulky overcoats and melt back into grey, faceless crowds flowing viscously over the frosty and darkening streets.

Frohes Chanukkah!

2008-12-21T18:09:00.013-06:00

His negotiations and brokerage on behalf of Herzog Ignaz completed, Hoffaktor Abraham Weißenheimer had left his equipage behind at Munich with the arrival of the first winter snows, and hired a sleigh and team to hasten his return to Hunsruck. Now after four days working down the Rhein valley, Weißenheimer promised the driver a handsome bonus to make Hunsruck before sundown. The sleigh team ploughed through the snow throughout the day, stopping only to change horses at a coaching inn at midday. As the sun tracked low across the southern sky, Weißenheimer consulted his pocketwatch with some concern.

As the sun dipped towards the Späterwald Hills beyond the Kernerfluss, the sleigh driver proved his word good, and, with a crack of his whip, directed his team through the gates of the Hunsrucker Judengasse, depositing Weißenheimer, his footmen and effects at the door of his townhouse just minutes before the sun vanished behind the hills, casting long shadows across the narrow street. The sleigh driver made his courtesies, thanking Weißenheimer profusely for the purse of pfalzthalers, and made for the gates, to make his exit before the gates closed at sundown.

Bounding past his old doorman Amschel, up the stairs to the door, Weißenheimer heard the cries of children's voices inside as he turned the doorknob. As he opened the door and entered, he was stampeded by the joyous horde of his children rushing to greet him.

"Papa's home!" cried his littlest daughter Judit.

"Father; you made it in time!" exulted his son Samuel.

"Yes, yes; it's nearly time isn't it?" responded Abraham. "Well, is everything ready?"

"Oh yes, Papa; Mama had us get everything ready earlier today."

"Well then, to the parlour!" ordered Weißenheimer; stopping only to embrace his wife Guttle, who directed the parade of children to the parlour to the left. The smell of latkes and fried pastries, tended by the servants in the dining room, filled the house, reminding Abraham sharply how little he had eaten the past day. But, swept up in the family momentum, Abraham and Guttle found themselves quickly led as well to the parlour.

"Samuel, bring a taper from the fire, then, and we'll begin."

His son obeyed, and Abraham, adjusting his hat, took the taper and turned to face the Menorah.

Bowing his head, Abraham prayed,

"Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam asher kidishanu b'mitz'votav v'tzivanu l'had'lik neir shel Chanukah. Amein"

"Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the lights of Chanukkah. Amen."

"Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam she'asah nisim la'avoteinu bayamim haheim baziman hazeh. Amein"

"Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time. Amen."

"Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam shehecheyanu v'kiyimanu v'higi'anu laz'man hazeh. Amein."

"Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe Who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. Amen."

Taking the taper to the shammus candle atop the menorah, Abraham then extinguished the taper and took the shammus to light the rightmost Chanukkah lamp.

"Frohes Chanukkah to us all!"

The Sinews of War

2008-12-14T14:55:00.002-06:00

Hoffaktor Weißenheimer having concluded an innovative arrangement with the factors of the Duchy of Lagerburg-Slobbovia, 640 men recruited in surplus for the recent expansion of the Obersaynische grenadiers find themselves transferred to the arms of Lagerburg-Slobbovia, to bolster the defences of the duchy against recent depredations along the Dalmatian coast of dreaded Bizerccan corsairs.

Here the men make their final parade before the Skt. Cäcilienskirche in Hunsruck before beginning the march to Dalmatia.

Post to Schloß Moritzburg

2008-12-04T14:27:00.002-06:00

Prinzessin Maria-Aurora to Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria
Dezember 4

What odd heads some people have!--Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria to be sacrificed in marriage to Pfalzgraf Friedrich von Waldreck!--Astonishing!

I must not, you say, give my advice in favour of this man!--You now convince me, my dear, that you are nearer of kin than I thought you, to the family that could think of so preposterous a match, or you would never have had the least notion of my advising in his favour.

Ask for his picture. You know I have a good hand at drawing an ugly likeness. But I'll see a little further first: for who knows what may happen, since matters are in such a train; and since you have not the courage to oppose so overwhelming a torrent?

You ask me to help you to a little of my spirit. Are you in earnest? But it will not now, I doubt, do you service.--It will not sit naturally upon you. You are your mother's girl, think what you will; and have violent spirits to contend with. Alas! my dear, you should have borrowed some of mine a little sooner;--that is to say, before you had given the management of your estate into the hands of those who think they have a prior claim to it. What though a father's!--Has not the father other children?--And do they not all bear more of his stamp and image than you do?--Pray, my dear, call me not to account for this free question; lest your application of my meaning, on examination, prove to be as severe as that.

Now I have launched out a little, indulge me one word more in the same strain--I will be decent, I promise you. I think you might have know, that Avarice and Envy are two passions that are not to be satisfied, the one by giving, the other by the envied person's continuing to deserve and excel.--Fuel, fuel both, all the world over, to flames insatiate and devouring.

But since you ask for my opinion, you must tell me all you know or surmise of their inducements. And if you will not forbid me to make extracts from your letters for the entertainment of my aunt and cousin in the little island, who long to hear more of your affairs, it will be very obliging.

But you are so tender of some people who have no tenderness for any body but themselves, that I must conjure you to speak out. Remember, that a friendship like ours admits of no reserves. You may trust my impartiality. It would be an affront to your own judgment, if you did not: For do you not ask my advice? And have you not taught me that friendship should never give a bias against justice?--Justify them, therefore, if you can. Let us see if there be any sense, whether
sufficient reason or not in their choice. At present I cannot (and yet I know a good deal of your family) have any conception how all of them, your mother and your grandmother in particular, can join with the rest against judgments given. As to some of the others, I cannot wonder at any thing they do, or attempt to do, where self is concerned.

You are all too rich to be happy, child. For must not each of you, by the constitutions of your family, marry to be still richer? People who know in what their main excellence consists, are not to be blamed (are they) for cultivating and improving what they think most valuable?--Is true happiness any part of your family view?--So far from it, that none of your family but yourself could be happy were
they not rich. So let them fret on, grumble and grudge, and accumulate; and wondering what ails them that they have not happiness when they have riches, think the cause is want of more; and so go on heaping up, till Death, as greedy an accumulator as themselves, gathers them into his garner.

Well then once more I say, do you, my dear, tell me what you know of their avowed and general motives; and I will tell you more than you will tell me of their failings! Your grandmother has told you: Why must I ask you to let me know them, when you condescend to ask my advice on the occasion?

We have heard before you wrote, that all was not right between your relations and you at your coming home: that Prinz Friedrich visited you, and that with a prospect of success. But I concluded the mistake lay in the person; and that his address was to Arabella, the daughter of the the Duke of Birkenstock. And indeed had she been as good-natured as your plump ones generally are, I should have thought her too good for him by half. This must certainly be the thing, thought I; and my beloved friend is sent for to adviseand assist in her nuptial preparations. Who knows, said I to my mother, but that when the man has thrown aside his yellow full-buckled peruke, and his broad-brimmed beaver (both of which I suppose were his father's best of long standing) he may cut a tolerable figure dangling to the altar with Prinzessin Bell!--The woman, as she observes, should excel the man in features: and where can she match so well for a foil?

I indulged this surmise against rumour, because I could not believe that the absurdest people in Christendom could be so very absurd as to think of this man for you.

We heard, moreover, that you received no visiters. I could assign no reason for this, except that the preparations for your cousin were to be private, and the ceremony sudden, for fear this man should, as another man did, change his mind. others were with me to inquire what I knew of this; and of your not being in attendance at the parade of the Neuweinsfest after your return from us; to the disappointment of a little hundred of your admirers, to use their words. It was easy for me to guess the reason to be what you confirm--their apprehensions that Prinz Friedrich would intercept you there, and attempt to wait on you home.

My mother takes very kindly your compliments in your letter to her. Her words upon reading it were, 'Prinzessin Sophie is an admirable young lady: wherever she goes, she confers a favour: whomever she leaves, she fills with regret.'--And then a little comparative reflection--'O my Aurora, that you had a little of her sweet
obligingness!'

No matter. The praise was yours. You are me; and I enjoyed it. The more enjoyed it, because--Shall I tell you the truth?--Because I think myself as well as I am--were it but for this reason, that had I twenty sisters, not one of them, nor all of them joined together, would dare to treat me as yours presume to treat you. The person who will bear much shall have much to bear all the world through; it is your own sentiment, grounded upon the strongest instance that can be given in your own family; though you have so little improved by it.

The result is this, that I am fitter for this world than you; you for the next than me:--that is the difference.--But long, long, for my sake, and for hundreds of sakes, may it be before you quit us for company more congenial to you and more worthy of you!

I communicated to my mother the account you give of your strange reception; also what a horrid wretch they have found out for you; and the compulsory treatment they give you. It only set her on magnifying her lenity to me, on my tyrannical behaviour, as she will call it [mothers must have their way, you know, my dear] to the man whom she so warmly recommends, against whom it seems there can be no just
exception; and expatiating upon the complaisance I owe her for her indulgence. So I believe I must communicate to her nothing farther--especially as I know she would condemn the correspondence between us as clandestine and undutiful proceedings, and divulge our secret besides; for duty implicit is her cry.

Yet is this not the right policy neither. For people who allow nothing will be granted nothing: in other words, those who aim at carrying too many points will not be able to carry any.

Now, my dear, I know you will be upon me with your grave airs: so in for the lamb, as the saying is, in for the sheep; and do you yourself look about you; for I'll have a pull with you by way of being aforehand. Hannibal, we read, always advised to attack the Romans upon their own territories.

You are pleased to say, and upon your word too! that your regards (a mighty quaint word for affections) are not so much engaged, as some of your friends suppose, to another person. What need you give one to imagine, my dear, that the last month or two has been a period extremely favourable to that other person, whom it has made an obliger of the daughter for his solicitude for her father.

But, to pass that by--so much engaged!--How much, my dear?--Shall I infer? Some of your friends suppose a great deal. You seem to own a little.

Don't be angry. It is all fair: because you have not acknowledged to me that little. People I have heard you say, who affect secrets, always excite curiosity.

But you proceed with a kind of drawback upon your averment, as if recollection had given you a doubt--you know not yourself, if they be [so much engaged]. Was it necessary to say this to me?--and to say it upon your word too?--But you know best.--Yet you don't neither, I believe. For a beginning love is acted by a subtle spirit; and oftentimes discovers itself to a by-stander, when the person possessed (why should I not call it possessed?) knows not it has such a demon.

But further you say, what preferable favour you may have for him to any other person, is owing more to the usage he has received, and for your sake borne, than to any personal consideration.

This is generously said. It is in character. But, O my friend, depend upon it, you are in danger. Depend upon it, whether you know it or not, you are a little in for't. Your native generosity and greatness of mind endanger you: all your friends, by fighting against him with impolitic violence, fight for him. And St. Germain, my life for yours, notwithstanding all his veneration and assiduities, has seen
further than that veneration and those assiduities (so well calculated to your meridian) will let him own he has seen--has seen, in short, that his work is doing for him more effectually than he could do it for himself. And have you not before now said, that nothing is so penetrating as the eye of a lover who has mystery? And who says St. Germain lacks mystery?

In short, my dear, it is my opinion, and that from the easiness of his heart and behaviour, that he has seen more than I have seen; more than you think could be seen--more than I believe you yourself know, or else you would let me know it.

Already, in order to restrain him from resenting the indignities he has received, and which are daily offered him, he has prevailed upon you to correspond with him privately. I know he has nothing to boast of from what you have written: but is not his inducing you to receive his letters, and to answer them, a great point gained? By your insisting that he should keep the correspondence private, it appears there is one secret which you do not wish the world should know: and he is master of that secret. He is indeed himself, as I may say, that secret! What an intimacy does this beget for the lover! How is it distancing the parent!

Yet who, as things are situated, can blame you?--Your condescension has no doubt hitherto prevented great mischiefs. It must be continued, for the same reasons, while the cause remains. You are drawn in by a perverse fate against inclination: but custom, with such laudable purposes, will reconcile the inconveniency, and make an inclination.--And I would advise you (as you would wish to manage on an occasion so critical with that prudence which governs all your actions) not to be afraid of entering upon a close examination into the true springs and grounds of this your generosity to that happy man.

It is my humble opinion, I tell you frankly, that on inquiry it will come out to be LOVE--don't start, my dear!--Has not your man himself had natural philosophy enough to observe already to you, that love takes the deepest root in the steadiest minds? The deuce take his sly penetration, I was going to say; for this was six or seven weeks ago.

I have been tinctured, you know. Nor on the coolest reflection, could I account how and when the jaundice began: but had been over head and ears, as the saying is, but for some of that advice from you, which I now return you. Yet my man was not half so--so what, my dear--to be sure St. Germain is a charming fellow. And were he only--but I will not make you glow, as you read--upon my word I will not.--Yet, my dear,
don't you find at your heart somewhat unusual make it go throb, throb, throb, as you read just here?--If you do, don't be ashamed to own it--it is your generosity, my love, that's all.--But as the Roman augur said, Caesar, beware of the Ides of March!

Adieu, my dearest friend.--Forgive, and very speedily, by the new found expedient, tell me that you forgive,

Your ever-affectionate,
Aurora

Post to Schloß Veldenz

2008-12-01T23:36:00.003-06:00

Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, to Prinzessin Maria-Aurora von Sachsen-Veldenz
December 1

I have been hindered from prosecuting my intention. Neither nights nor mornings have been my own. My mother has been very ill; and would have no other nurse but me. I have not stirred from her bedside (for she kept her bed); and two nights I had the honour of sharing it with her.

Her disorder was a very violet colic. The contentions of these fierce, these masculine spirits, and the apprehension of mischiefs that may arise from the increasing animosity which all here have against Prinz Friedrich, and his too well known resenting and intrepid character, she cannot bear. Then the foundations laid, as she dreads, for jealousy and heart-burnings in her own family, late so happy and so united, afflict exceedingly a gentle and sensible mind, which has from the beginning, on all occasions, sacrificed its own inward satisfaction to outward peace. My sisters and grandmother, who used very often to jar, are now so entirely one, and are so much together, (caballing was the word that dropt from my mother's lips, as if at unawares,) that she is very fearful of the consequences that may follow;--to my prejudice, perhaps, is her kind concern; since she sees that they behave to me every hour with more and more shyness and reserve: yet, would she but exert that authority which the superiority of her fine talents gives her, all these family feuds might perhaps be extinguished in their but yet beginnings; especially as she may be assured that all fitting concessions shall be made by me, not only as my obvious due to my grandmother, but for the sake of so excellent and so indulgent a mother.

For, if I may say to you, my dear, what I would not to any other person living, it is my opinion, that had she been of a temper that would have borne less, she would have had ten times less to bear, than she has had. No commendation, you'll say, of the generosity of those spirits which can turn to its own disquiet so much condescending goodness.

Upon my word I am sometimes tempted to think that we may make the world allow for and respect us as we please, if we can but be sturdy in our wills, and set out accordingly. It is but being the less beloved for it, that's all: and if we have power to oblige those we have to do with, it will not appear to us that we are. Our flatterers will tell us any thing sooner than our faults, or what they know we do not like to hear.

Were there not truth in this observation, is it possible that my sisters could make their very failings, their vehemences, of such importance to all the family? 'How will my daughter, how will my niece, take this or that measure? What will she say to it? Let us consult her about it;' are references always previous to every resolution taken by their superiors, whose will ought to be theirs. Well may they expect to be treated with this deference by every other person, when my father himself, generally so absolute, constantly pays it to them; and the more since their grandmother's bounty has given independence to a spirit that was before under too little restraint.--But whither may these reflections lead me!--I know you do not love any of us but my mother and me; and, being above all disguises, make me sensible that you do not oftener than I wish.--Ought I then to add force to your dislikes of those whom I wish you to like?--of my father especially; for he, alas! has some excuse for his impatience of contradiction. He is not naturally an ill-tempered man; and in his person and air, and in his conversation too, when not under the torture of a gouty paroxysm, every body distinguishes the Prince born and educated.

Our sex perhaps must expect to bear a little--uncourtliness shall I call it?--from the husband whom as the lover they let know the preference their hearts gave him to all other men.--Say what they will of generosity being a manly virtue; but upon my word, my dear, I have ever yet observed, that it is not to be met with in that sex one time in ten that it is to be found in ours.--But my father was soured by the cruel distemper I have named; which seized him all at once in the very prime of life, in so violent a manner as to take from the most active of minds, as his was, all power of activity, and that in all appearance for life.--It imprisoned, as I may say, his lively spirits in himself, and turned the edge of them against his own peace; his extraordinary prosperity adding to his impatiency. Those, I believe, who want the fewest earthly blessings, most regret that they want any.

But my sisters! What excuse can be made for their haughty and morose temper? They are really, my dear, I am sorry to have occasion to say it, an ill-temper'd coterie of young ladies; and treat my mother sometimes--Indeed they are not dutiful.--But, possessing every thing, they have the vice of age, mingled with the ambition of youth, and enjoy nothing--but their own haughtiness and ill-temper, I was going to say.--Yet again am I adding force to your dislikes of some of us.--Once, my dear, it was perhaps in your power to have moulded them as you pleased.--Could you have been
my sister!--Then had I friend in a sister.

But no more of this. I will prosecute my former intention in my next; which I will sit down to as soon as breakfast is over; dispatching this by the messenger whom you have so kindly sent to inquire after us on my silence. Mean time, I am,

Your most affectionate and obliged
friend and servant,

Sophie

Post to Schloß Moritzburg

2008-11-26T21:01:00.006-06:00

Prinzessin Maria Aurora von Sachsen-Veldenz,

to

Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn

November 26.

I am extremely concerned, my dearest friend, for the disturbances that have happened in your family. I know how it must hurt you to become the subject of the public talk: and yet, upon an occasion so generally known, it is impossible but that whatever relates to a young lady, whose distinguished merits have made her the public care, should engage every body's attention. I long to have the particulars from yourself; and of the usage I am told you receive upon an accident you could not help; and in which, as far as I can learn, the instigator was indeed the aggressor.

Be this as it may, every body pities you. So steady, so uniform in your conduct: so desirous, as you always said, of sliding through life to the end of it unnoted; and, as I may add, not wishing to be observed even for your silent benevolence; sufficiently happy in the noble consciousness which attends it: Rather useful than glaring, your deserved motto; though now, to your regret, pushed into blaze, as I may say: and yet blamed at home for the faults of others--how must such a virtue suffer on every hand!--yet it must be allowed, that your present trial is but proportioned to your prudence.

As all your friends without doors are apprehensive that some other unhappy event may result from so violent a contention, in which it seems the families on both sides are now engaged, I must desire you to enable me, on the authority of your own information, to do you occasional justice.

My mother, and all of us, like the rest of the world, talk of nobody but you on this occasion, and of the consequences which may follow from the resentments of a man of Prinz Friedrich's spirit; who, as he gives out, has been treated with high indignity by your family. My mother is a good deal prepossessed by your mother; who occasionally calls upon us, as you know; and, on this rencounter, has represented to her the crime which it would be to encourage a man who is to wade into your favour (this was her expression) through the blood of her country.

Write to me therefore, my dear, the whole of your story from the time that Prinz Friedrich was first introduced into your family; and particularly an account of all that passed after your debut; about which there are different reports: and pray write in so full a manner as may satisfy those who know not so much of your affairs as I do. If anything unhappy should fall out from the violence of such spirits as you have to deal with, your account of all things previous to it will be your best justification.

You see what you draw upon yourself by excelling all your sex. Every individual of it who knows you, or has heard of you, seems to think you answerable to her for your conduct in points so very delicate and concerning.

Every eye, in short, is upon you with the expectation of an example. I wish to heaven you were at liberty to pursue your own methods: all would then, I dare say, be easy, and honourably ended. But I dread your directors and directresses; for your mother, admirably well qualified as she is to lead, must submit to be led. Your sisters will certainly put you out of your course.

But this is a point you will not permit me to expatiate upon: pardon me therefore, and I have done.--Yet, why should I say, pardon me? when your concerns are my concerns? when your honour is my honour? when I love you, as never woman loved another? and when you have allowed of that concern and of that love; and have for years, which in persons so young may be called many, ranked in the first class of your friends,

Your ever grateful and affectionate,

Aurora

Am Neuweinsfest

2008-11-21T23:15:00.005-06:00

The second week of November brings the completion of the harvest of the year's grapes throughout the region, and the annual Neuweinsfest to celebrate the harvest and the tapping of the prior decade's vintage.

The debris and damage of the last year's riots have nearly been all cleared away, and the city guilds have been clearing the streets for the parade from the Kernertor to the steps of the Skt. Cäcilienskirche,

where the Bishop of Kognat blesses the first fruits of the area vineyards. While previous Neuweinsfeste often degenerated into drunken brawls between the journeymen of the town's various guilds, the good news brought by couriers from the Main valley of the recent triumph of the Imperium at Steinkreisdorf has brightened the spirits of all...

Pfalz-Kognat-Obersaynische Action at Steinkreisdorf

2008-11-18T04:33:00.007-06:00

Force-marching to Mainz, the Herzogerheer was able, after some consultation between the Elector Archbishop and Monsignor de Chiaroscuro, to cross the Rhein by means of the Elector's pontoon bridge, and proceed up the Main valley towards Frankfurt.

Near the hamlet of Steinkreisdorf just north of the city, the lead elements of the Herzogerheer encountered the pickets of the Franco-Imperial troops. Germanian forces were moving on Frankfurt through the crossroads village of Steinkreisdorf, and initial battle lines had already been formed as the Herzogerheer marched into the Imperial camp.

After a brief consultation with the other general officers of the combined Franco-Imperial force, it was decided to deploy the Herzogerheer to fill a gap in the center of the line, between Steinkreisdorf and the smaller hamlet of Ostburg, with the Obersaynische dragoons, von Bacharach infantry and most of the artillery train held in deep reserve, since the congested state of the animal tracks which served as roads around the tiny town were already jammed by the numerous regiments already deployed.

Immediately to the left of the sector assigned to the Herzogerheer were two Imperial converged grenadier battalions, two battalions of foot, and the Courland Timofievich Cossacks whose commanding general had been rendered hors de combat during an ill-advised reconaissance before the commencement of main action by a lucky sharpshooter of a Germanian Jaeger unit. The now-leaderless units were summarily transferred to the command of Generalmajor vom und zum Riesling, while his grace oversaw the deployment of the Herzogerheer to their right.

When vom und zum Riesling arrived to assume command, the Imperial forces were confronted by a squadron of Germanian cuirassiers, a squadron of dragoons, and two battalions of foot. A shallow stream separated the two armies, which, upon vom und zum Riesling's arrival, began advancing towards each other.

Uncertain of the reliability of the cossack force based upon his experiences of the unreliability of the similar grenzer forces which he had encountered in his service against the Turk, vom und zum Riesling paired one of the two converged grenadier battalions with the cossacks to confront the Germanian horse, while one of the hat battalions was advanced to confront the frontline Germanian infantry.

A sharp exchange of fire commenced between the Imperial hat battalion and the Germanian battalion, including its grenadiers. The superiour numbers and, perhaps, good fortune of the Germanians told from the start, as the initial volley of the Germanians blasted over a third of the Imperial battalion away.

The battered battalion stood to return fire, but the second Germanian volley proved too much, and the unit broke and ran, leaving the second-line Imperial unit, which had commenced a wheel to secure the bridge over the stream with its left flank dangerously exposed. The cossacks found themselves, as well, now confronted with two far heavier cavalry units splashing across the stream to their front, with the converged grenadier unit threatened by Germanian units to either flank.

Making a virtue of necessity, vom und zum Riesling elected to order the cossacks to secure the gap left by the flight of the Imperial infantry. Maneuvering with remarkable celerity, the cossacks wheeled into the gap between the Imperial first and second echelons. This gambit risked disaster if either the Germanian horse or foot advanced on the exposed grenadiers, who could be pushed calamitously into the cossacks as they passed, reducing all to confusion...

But in fact, the Germanian forces, slowed by the stream did not immediately advance. The now somewhat depleted foot unit preferred instead to wheel slightly to take a better angle of fire on the grenadiers, while the Germanian horse paused to reorganise after fording the stream. This gave the cossacks the desperately needed opportunity to complete their advance into the gap left by the broken Imperial infantry, and to begin to envelop the flank of the advanced Germanian foot. The second echelon battalion of converged Imperial grenadiers now commenced a wheel to the left to cover the exposed left of the forward battalion of grenadiers, who were now exchanging murderous fire with the Germanian foot.

The cossacks, unable to wheel to take the first echelon Germanian foot in the flank, elected instead to throw themselves forward to assay the flank of the second echelon Germanian infantry unit, hoping to draw its fire or to bypass it entirely to operate in the rear of the Germanian lines. The Germanian reserve unit stood stolidly as the cossacks galloped by, less than 50 yards from their left flank, but held their fire and watched the light horsemen, yipping and screaming, storm by.

The superiour training and elan of the grenadiers now began to tell in the firefight over the streambed. Even as their numbers dwindled to just over half their original effective strength, the Imperial grenadiers phelgmatically clung to their drill, pouring volley after volley into the forward Germanian infantry battalion. Already bloodied by the earlier exchange with the Imperial hat battalion, the resolve of the grenadiers proved too much for the Germanian foot, who wavered, and then broke.

The second echelon battalion of Imperial grenadiers had by now advanced to secure the first echelon's left, just in time to meet the advance, first of the Germanian dragoons, who had the better of the fight but elected to fall back to permit the Germanian cuirassiers to attempt a second charge. The cuirassiers, though, were thrown into disorder splashing across the stream, and were slashed by a storm of lead from the grenadiers. The charge of the cuirassiers disintegrated into chaotic butchery, and all momentum from the cuirassiers' chargers was lost. The Germanian horse broke and were thrown back, routing back to the Germanian rear, just as the cossacks completed their wheel around the Germanian reserve infantry to the open ground behind them...
The Germanian second echelon infantry now advanced to attempt to finish off the battered Imperial grenadier unit which had routed its first-echelon partner, and the remaining Imperial hat battalion on the Imperial right now splashed into the stream to menace the Germanian foot's left, while the Germanian dragoons wheeled about to attempt to salvage the honour of the Germanian cavalry by charging again into the grenadiers on the Imperial left.
The combined musket and cannister of the fresh, second-echelon Germanian battalion indeed proved too much for the grenadiers in the Imperial center, who broke and fell back before rallying some distance behind the stream. At the same time, though, the withering fire of the Imperial grenadiers on the left raked the Germanian infantry, reducing them to less than half their original numbers, and, most disastrously, the cossacks now rode down the broken remnants of the Germanian cuirassiers, with an easy wheel to come back around and finish off not only the broken Germanian foot fleeing on the Germanian left, but also to dispatch the dragoons if additional fire from the stronger Imperial grenadiers opposite them finally broke them. The situation for the Germanian brigade seemed lost, and the commander ordered his bugler to sound retreat.

Meanwhile, his grace Herzog Ignaz faced a somewhat different, if no less determined foe further off to vom und zum Riesling's right. The Leib-Kürassiere and the vom und zum Riesling and the von Bernkastel infantry regiments accompanied by the two new light seven-pound howitzers of von Rebholz's expanded artillery train were deployed against two squadrons of Germanian superiour hussars, a battalion of Jaeger, and two battalions of Germanian infantry.

As vom und zum Riesling had done, Herzog Ignaz's first attentions were to securing the bridge over the stream to permit quick deployment, especially of the howitzers, over the stream. When the enemy hussars ventured too close to the Leib-Kürassiere, though, the impetuosity of their charge quickly altered plans.

Met by a countercharge by the hussars, both the Leib-Kürassiere and hussars splashed into the stream in bloody hand-to-hand. Complete disorder ensued, but the superiour weight and armour of the Leib-Kürassiere first pushed the hussars back up onto the stream banks, and then broke them entirely. The Leib-Kürassiere pursued, running the survivors down in sanguinary punctuation.

The vom und zum Riesling infantry at the same time confronted the Jaeger across the stream. The Jaeger were able to fire first, but their much smaller numbers meant that their fire was almost swallowed up by the Obersaynische foot without visible consequence, while the vom und zum Riesling return volley devastated the Germanian Jaeger, who broke and ran.

Sensing the opportunity for a decisive breakthrough, Herzog Ignaz now sounded the general advance. The howitzers were limbered and advanced to the stream banks, while the vom und zum Riesling and von Bernkastel regiments marched into the stream to press the advantage. The Germanians, though, remained undaunted, and the Germanian first echelon infantry advanced to meet the Obersaynische infantry battalions as they attempted to reorder themselves on the far side of the stream. The first Germanian volley ripped into the vom und zum Riesling battalion, already bloodied by the Jaeger, and the Obersaynische foot broke and fled.

The Germanian second echelon infantry, rather than following its partner into melee with the Obersaynische foot wheeled to its right to confront the Leib-Kürassiere as they thundered in pursuit of stragglers from the butchered hussars. The Germanians loosed their first volley into the Obersaynische horse at moderate range, but the armour of the Leib-Kürassiere proved good and only the flanks of the unit were bloodied. The Jaeger, steadied by the covering fire of the Germanian second-echelon close order unit, now rallied, and attempted to bring fire to bear upon the Leib-Kürassiere as well, but succeeded only in drawing the charge of the Obersaynische heavy horse upon them where they stood in the open, breaking them and scattering them as well.

Now the sector hung in the balance, as the Germanian second-echelon continued to wheel to its right, by now completely facing to the rear of the main line in an attempt to bring fire on the Leib-Kürassiere, while the first-echelon exchanged fire with the disordered von Bernkastel infantry just over the bridge. In a crucial moment of decision, the Oberst of the Germanian first-echelon battalion elected not to charge the von Bernkastelers, preferring instead to continue to exchange fire, not noticing the successful fording of the stream just to the von Bernkasteler right of one of the two seven pound howitzers which, when the initial discharge of the artillery ripped into the Germanian left, sowed panic down the Germanian line. The Germanian battalion broke and fled to the rear, towards the Leib-Kürassiere dispatching the final remains of the Jaeger.

News of the cossacks and Leib-Kürassiere operating in their rear spread like wildfire throughout the Germanian sector, reaching the Germanian Generalmajor just before word of the astonishing storming of the Germanian left by a combined Gallian-Saxe Jungbach brigade led by the prodigious subaltern Fahnrich von Austin. Electing to salvage what he could from the sector, the Germanian commander sounded the retreat, leaving the field in the hands of the forces of the Herzogerheer.

The Leib-Kürassiere have been awarded the battle honour "Steinkreisdorf" for the action above reported, and a further list of honours and decorations will be forthcoming at the Neuweinsfest in Hunsruck this week.

The Vices of Peace Are the Vices of Old Men

2008-11-07T18:45:00.002-06:00

Touring the grounds at Herzog Kristian's palace, Kanzler Gottfried Graf von Schirnhausen sized up his Waldrecker counterpart with some concern. Although Herzog Kristian had vouched for Baron de Montglace as a sober intermediary and a widow's son on the square, nonetheless, von Schirnhausen still found the ease with which the conference had been arranged troubling; hard experience taught that Prinz Friedrich was not a man to squander any advantage nor long to suffer in his service any man who would.

The preliminary rehearsal of genealogical claims, counterclaims, acts of Imperial Diets and Imperial decress had been accomplished during the morning session. Neither party's opening demarche had presented an obvious avenue to a satisfactory resolution to the current conflict or the status of the Herrenschaft von Dolmen which lay behind it. De Montglace had with particular force emphasized the claims of blood linking the defunct Bishopric of Dolmen with von Waldreck's dynastic linkages with the Wittgensteins, and offered little concession to the significance of the perpetual cession of the Moselzoll, the primary source of Dolmen's revenue, to the Duke of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn in the Imperial decrees ancillary to the creation of the Duchy in the reign of Leopold.

Meditating upon this genealogical concern, as well as the unpleasant, but ultimately unsubstantiated charges made against him by the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria the day after her calamitous debut, von Schirnhausen ventured upon a new line of discussion.

"His serene highness is of course correct to emphasise the importance of the claims of blood and birth in the settlement of this unpleasant conflict, but I wonder, perhaps, if Prinz von Waldreck has devoted sufficient thought to the security of his own succession, and the salutary effect of a, ah, matrimonial resolution to many of the questions with which we have had to struggle here this day?

Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz

2008-11-06T08:16:00.008-06:00

The Herzogerheer now continues their drills and manoeuvres in the Späterwald outside Hunsruck, preparing to march over the Rhein to the aid of their Imperial confreres now refitting and reorganising near Frankfurt am Main, as soon as His Grace's negotiators can reach acceptable terms in their negotiations with Waldreck diplomats at Zwieback. While the negotiations drag on, we present with you with a small sampling of the popular Obersaynische marching song, "Der Jäger aus Kurpfalz:"

Ein Jäger aus Kurpfalz,
Der reitet durch den grünen Wald,
Er schießt das Wild daher,
Gleich wie es ihm gefällt.

Refrain: Juja, Juja, gar lustig ist die Jägerei
Allhier auf grüner Heid',
Allhier auf grüner Heid'.

Auf! Sattelt mir mein Pferd
Und legt darauf den Mantelsack,
So reit' ich hin und her
Als Jäger aus Kurpfalz.
Refrain:

Hubertus auf der Jagd,
Der schoß ein'n Hirsch und einen Has'.
Er traf ein Mägdlein an,
Und das war achtzehn Jahr.
Refrain:

Des Jägers seine Lust
Den großen Herren ist bewußt,
Jawohl, jawohl bewußt,
Wie man das Wildpret schuß.
Refrain:

Wohl zwischen seine Bein,
Da muß der Hirsch geschossen sein,
Geschossen muß er sein,
Auf eins, zwei, drei.
Refrain:

Jetzt reit' ich nimmer heim,
Bis daß der Kuckuck, kuckuck schreit,
Er schreit die ganze Nacht
Allhier auf grüner Heid'!
Refrain:

A New Direction

2008-10-31T10:30:00.002-05:00

"But Monsignor, it is beyond belief that His Grace should now seek terms with Prinz Friedrich, after the defenders of Festung Dolmen have put up so stout a defence, holding out until the entire Herzogerheer has been assembled, fully trained and even expanded larger than its size during Herzog Karl Moritz's command during the War of Spanish Succession!"

"Nonetheless, Erlaucht Kanzler, his orders are crystal-clear; and the contents of our commissions as negotiators for a peace conference leave no doubt as to our objectives: peace with Waldreck at nearly any cost to extricate Major Trimbach and his command from Festung Dolmen, permitting the entire Herzogerheer to march at once to the aid of Feldmarschallieutenant von Blei-Sammeln."

"At least Herzog Kristian's mediation and sponsorship of the talks gives the impression that we have Pfalz-Zwieback behind us in the negotiations, and Gallia behind him; does your intelligence give any sense of von Waldreck's terms?"

"My sources inform me that he has been singularly involved with the old Fugger estates to the north of Dolmen, leaving the siege operations at Festung Dolmen to subordinates. It is reasonable to think his terms will include cession of the entire exclave, rather than the mere demilitarisation of the fortress which will be our opening offer. His Grace has already approved the cession if it will buy the peace necessary to aid the Imperium."

"That will be a bitter pill indeed for the Landestände to swallow."

"Nonetheless, if the Imperium were to note our failure to make a contribution to the Reichsarmee, it is certain that we should not long avoid the predations of our larger neighbours without influence and respect in Vienna. Therefore almost any sacrifice is required to be able to aid the Imperium at this critical juncture."

Infantry Standards

2008-10-27T16:01:00.002-05:00

At a solemn noontime ceremony at Festung Pfeffernüsse, Herzog Ignaz with his own hand presented the Oberst of Infanterie Regimente vom und zum Riesling, von Bernkastel and von Bacharach with their regimental Leibfahnen and Regimentsfahnen, marched from the Ducal Hall of Honours at Schloß Moritzburg last night in a moving torchlight ceremony.

The Leibfahne.
Regimentsfahne of Infanterie Regiment vom und zum Riesling.
Regimentsfahne of Infanterie Regiment von Bernkastel.

Infanterie Regiment von Bacharach.

Now the entire Herzogerheer is aflame with rumour and speculation. Surely marching orders will come at any time. Word of Imperial withdrawal from Bohemia in pursuit of the Germanian breakthrough north of Frankfurt fuels the fire of barracks wagers.

Ignatian Images

2008-10-24T11:46:00.004-05:00

Our leading nominees for representation of Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, S.J, so far are:

Conquest Miniatures:

and

I incline to the Conquest Miniatures Jesuits, over the melodramatic rendering of Cardinal de Richelieu, but it's not clear whether the Conquest Jesuits are still forthcoming (as one might hope, since they're only shown as greens) or already out of production.

Any insights?

Imago

2008-10-23T01:50:00.002-05:00

Sitting in the confessional of the Ducal Chapel after vespers, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, S.J., made use of his privacy by deciphering in the flickering candlelight the dispatch lately sent from Nebbio concerning the movements of a network of agents headed by a darkly mysterious lady lately identified by Nebbio's sources at Versailles.

Reviewing the sketch rendered by Nebbio of the equipage of this black widow, de Chiaroscuro reflected for a moment on the cipher which remained--the face and identity of this dark lady. Nebbio's sources had been unable to provide a likeness or any description of this woman, leaving the imagination to fill in the gaps.
Blonde, brunette, who could say? Her facelessness gave her a certain power of which, de Chiaroscuro felt certain, she took full advantage.

This train of thought brought him, upon reflection, to consider his own public image and appearance. Well known enough in court circles, his position as confessor and tutor to the Ducal Household created a certain image for him independent of his actual appearance. He wondered if his circumstance and public vocation completely overshadowed the man beneath the clerical garb in which he accomplished his tasks both secular and religious. If an image of him were to be cast into bronze or lead, how much would his own countenance matter in conveying that image?

Seen from any distance, would anything of Baldesar even be perceptible? Or would the black robe and Roman collar be all that was seen? De Chiaroscuro had taken several self-portraits of himself both in oil and charcoal over the years, both as a lesson in humility and as a form of discipline in maintaining his skill in rendering likenesses from different angles, but he had only passing experience in his youth with sculpture and the rendering of tangible form in space. He resolved therefore, knowing of several silversmiths who trafficked in such things, to find an image in miniature which could be plausibly supposed to represent a priest of his order, and explore the question further.

But who could provide the figure he sought?

[Ed. note: Suggestions for figures to represent Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, S.J., are hereby solicited; any plausible 25-28mm clerical figure is welcomed for consideration]

Fourier Transformations

2008-10-05T23:27:00.008-05:00

Stalking out of the staff meeting, Prinz von Rebholz vented his frustration to his adjutant, Hauptmann Strauss. "Logistics this, logistics that, and yet not one word about the object of our campaign! Chiaroscuro brings news of a Germanian advance on Frankfurt, but we are NOT to pursue discussions with the Frankfurters OR the Gallians to obtain access to Gallian magazines!"

"We have word my lord," replied the harried fourier, "that the ammunition caissons requisitioned for the march from Herren Alter und Ruhm are nearly complete; the demonstration models have been couriered to my desk here."

"Hm, yes. Aren't the colours a bit flat?"

"I've merely blocked the models with an ochre wash to match the Herzogliche paint scheme, and inked the horses to reveal detail. Monsignor de Chiaroscuro has asked to be permitted to add some additional colouring and highlighting before the models are transferred to His Grace's campaign equipment. For my own part, I've added a little detail to mark the ammunition capacity of the caissons and guns using birdshot, 8 gauge for the three and six pounders, and 5 gauge for the 12-pounders and howitzers."

"His Grace will no doubt be pleased with your diligence; do carry on and alert me immediately as soon as any word is heard from the artillery foundry in Dayton as to their estimated delivery date."

Copperplates from the Paradeplatz of Festung Pfeffernüsse

2008-09-29T01:17:00.011-05:00

On the drilling grounds outside Festung Pfeffernüsse, the bulk of the Herzogerheer assembled this week to muster in the new recruits and reorganise to incorporate the second grenadier company recently authorised by the Kriegsrat. Additional artillery is on order, as well, and the cannoneers of the Heer eagerly anticipate the heavier guns while honing their skills on the battalion guns.

Word of Germanian and Gallian manoeuvres about Frankfurt to the south have excited all manner of rumours throughout the army, and an hundred different stories have been spun about the bivouac campfires of the last days' marches. Yet the regimental colours remain secured in the fortress citadel, an indication that marching orders have not yet been finalised.

Squadrons of the Leib-Kürassiere, von Schirnhausen and von Kostenwand Dragoner, from right to left, practise close order manoeuvre while breaking in new tack and furniture for their mounts. Regimental fouriers in garrison quarters meanwhile struggle to solve the riddle of arranging remounts and fodder for a march outside of the Kerner valley to unknown points to the southeast.

OoB for Big Battalions

2008-09-20T10:41:00.013-05:00

Completing his report and analysis of intelligence gathered from his sources in Vienna and along the return route, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, S.J., resumed his seat before the assembled Kriegsrat. Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling then rose and distributed an aide memoire. "You see, milords, the state in which your latest appropriations will leave the Herzogerheer to address the expected crisis to the south."

Herzogerheer

Unit Name	Type	Training	Base Value	Figures	Total Value	Notes
Herzog Ignaz von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn	Lt. General	Trained	13	1	13.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling, Generalquartiermeister	Maj. General	Elite	11	1	11.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, Generalinspekteur der Kavallerie	Brigadier	Elite	7	1	7.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
Leib-Kürassiere	Cuirassiers	Trained	2.1	24	50.40

Oberst Jakob Freiherr von Silvaner	Brigadier	Trained	5	1	5.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
Von Schirnhausen Dragoner	Dragoons	Trained	1.9	12	22.80
Von Kostenwand Dragoner	Dragoons	Trained	1.9	12	22.80

			0		0.00
Oberst Heinz Graf von Trollinger, Generalinspekteur der Infanterie	Brigadier	Trained	5	1	5.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
(1st) Regiment Infanterie vom und zum Riesling	Line Infantry	Trained	0.9	54	48.60
(2nd) Regiment Infanterie von Bernkastel	Line Infantry	Trained	0.9	54	48.60
(3rd) Regiment Infanterie von Bacharach	Line Infantry	Trained	0.9	54	48.60
Converged Grenadier Battalion	Grenadier Infantry	Trained	1.1	54	59.40
3pdr battery, Regiment vom und Zum Riesling	3pdr	Cannon	3	1	3.00
3pdr crew, vom und zum Riesling Regiment	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	3	5.40
3pdr battery, Regiment von Bernkastel	3pdr	Cannon	3	1	3.00
3pdr crew, Regiment von Bernkastel	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	3	5.40
3pdr battery Regiment von Bacharach	3pdr	Cannon	3	1	3.00
3pdr crew, Regiment von Bacharach	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	3	5.40
			0		0.00
Oberst Leopold Prinz von Rebholz, Generalinspekteur der Artillerie	Brigadier	Trained	5	1	5.00
ADC	ADC	Trained	1	1	1.00
6pdr battery	Cannon		6	1	6.00
6pdr crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
6pdr battery	Cannon		6	1	6.00
6pdr crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
7pdr Howitzer	Cannon		7	1	7.00
7pdr Howitzer crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
7pdr Howitzer	Cannon		7	1	7.00
7pdr Howitzer crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
12pdr battery	Cannon		11	1	11.00	Light
12pdr crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
12pdr battery	Cannon		11	1	11.00	Light
12pdr crew	Artillery Crew	Trained	1.8	5	9.00
3 pdr Ammo Cart				1
6 pdr Ammo Cart		10	10	1	10.00
7 pdr Ammo Cart		10	10	1	10.00
12 pdr Ammo Cart				1
Army Totals:				330	492.4

Obersaynische Kriegsrat Announces Herzogerheer Expansion

2008-09-19T12:53:00.002-05:00

Meeting in a closed session today, the Kriegsrat of the Obersaynischen Landstände today approved the demand of His Grace for a new levy on imports into the duchy of snuff and glasswares to fund an expansion of the Herzogerheer. An additional company of grenadiers is to be raised for each regiment of the Herzogerheer, and an expansion of the Ducal Artillery will be made by the requisition of two batteries of 12-pounders and two batteries of 7-pound howitzers. The demand of His Grace comes after rumours of disturbances at the debut of the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria along with reports of Gallian and Hessian troop movements along the Main and Neckar valleys to the south.

Copperplates of the new units will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, the drill instructors at the barracks of Festung Pfeffernüsse outside Hunsruck prepare for the influx of new recruits to replace the soldiers selected from the hat companies for transfer into the new grenadier units, while recruiting officers have been authorised to tour throughout the region to encourage enlistment.

Cambriolage

2008-09-04T09:29:00.004-05:00

The two-hour fireworks display was concluded with a nearly ten minute barrage of girandoles accompanied by the new ouverture to Rameau's Les Surprises de l'Amour, the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's favourite Gallian opera. With the fading of the last rocket, the assembled audience applauded loudly as the illuminations about the palace came up and bathed the grounds in a sharp metallic radiance.

While the supper chambers remained attended, most of the partygoers dispersed in the Gallian fashion without leave-taking in the immediate aftermath of the pyrotechnics. The closer relations, and the family of the Duke von Sachsen-Veldenz, remained of course, and congregated in the main hall bidding farewell to those awaiting their carriages. After no more than a quarter-hour, though, the major-domo approached Duke Ignaz and whispered briefly into his ear. The Duke coloured noticeably, and looked sharply at his daughter before replying curtly.

Before Sophie-Vittoria could catch her father's eye and ask what had happened she was aware of her dressing-maid, Anna, pulling insistently on her gown sleeve:

"Milady, you must come at once; your chambers--they've been ransacked!"

The Roof is on Fire

2008-08-19T09:17:00.016-05:00

HUNSRUCK, Aug. 16--Returning to the ballroom down the grand staircase, the Prinzessinnen Sophie-Vittoria and Maria-Aurora were greeted with effusive wamth by Maria-Aurora's older sisters, Eleonore Philippina, the Landgrafin von Hessen-Unfried, and Caroline, Grafin von Hohenlowe-Ingelfingel. The ladies were escorted onto the portico overlooking the fountained lake of the Hofgarten by the Landgraf, the Graf and Freiherr von Scheurebe, resuming his courtly attention to the Prinzessin Maria-Aurora.

At the stroke of midnight, the pyrotechnics commenced, overseen by a team of attendants from the Ruggieri Brothers of Bologna, famous for their displays at Versailles, and a pair of Tradgardlander specialists, all retained by the Ducal Technical Counselor von Traun. Girandole rockets whooshed skyward into the night, bursting into showers of gold, emerald, sapphire and ruby, while mortar shells burst overhead with spectacular reports. A veritable forest of fountains and Catherine wheels were arrayed on the garden grounds, spouting gouts of smoke and flame over the water of the lake, while the musicians accompanied the display with a medley of themes taken from the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's favourite operatic ouvertures.

About half an hour into the display, though, a battery of tourbillons southwest of the lake misfired with a thunderous explosion, sending their spinning shower of sparks over a hundred yards in all directions. While the audience on the portico was well clear of the range of the mishap, shouts heard from the stables west of the Schloß itself, audible even as the tourbillons continued to discharge, indicated that the mishap was not without consequence.

In a matter of minutes, the damage could be seen. A red glow backlit the face of the stables visible from the portico, and dark smoke illuminated by the fireworks still underway in the Hofgarten billowed above the building. The evening breezes fanned the flames, and soon the fire spread to the servants' quarters adjoining the stables. The household staff organised swiftly to fight the flames, while the guests remained safely on the portico, and the musicians played on. The western face of the Schloß was bathed in a spectacular orange glow, as the stables burned and the animals therein were led out to safety; but this drama was largely lost to those on the portico, who were illuminated not only by the glow of the stable fire, but also by the ongoing stars, candles and fountains of the diplay on the lake.

Attendants shuttled back and forth from the major-domo to the Duke, who affected a nearly glacial placidity throughout. After nearly an hour, by the decisive action of the household carpenters to sever the breezeway connecting the servants' quarters to the Schloß, the fire was brought under control and confined to the service buildings. As the partygoers were reassured on this point, the Duke made a short announcement saluting the efforts of the staff and presenting the major-domo with a purse of 100 pfalzthalers to distribute to those most diligent in fighting the flames. As those within earshot applauded politely, the Duke and his family conspicuously returned their attentions to the pyrotechnics on the lake.

The Fog of War

2008-07-28T17:49:00.011-05:00

NIEDERSOHREN, Aug. 16--Braun's Wachtmeister, Ernst Kathol, had scarcely had time to bellow the orders to advance after his Rittmeister before the collapse of the officer's mount threw all into confusion. Riding up to Braun's aid, the bulk of Braun's squadron followed at a trot, but slowed to a walk as Kathol dismounted to attempt to succour his commander.

Uncertain as to the Rittmeister's condition, Kathol shouted for the squadron to form line before their stricken commander. The Waldrecker dragoons, having dispatched the last remnants of resistance from von Fischbach's squadron and seeing the movement of Braun's squadron towards them had begun to reform into line of attack to meet the expected Obersaynisch charge.

Half a furlong behind them, the stricken Braun, still gathering his breath and wits, could see von Dornfeld's infantry regiment finishing its deployment into line from column of march. His Wachtmeister glanced back, and then forward, where the Waldrecker supply wagons could be seen rolling down the road toward Kirchschloß. Seeing the muddled Waldrecker reformation underway between the Kürassieren and the wagons, Kathol sensed an opportunity.

"Squadron will make ready firelocks!"

The Waldrecker dragoons continued to sort themselves back into their two-rank formation. In the stress of battle, though the two ranks were forming improperly close, almost muzzle to hindquarters, in the din of melee.

The men primed their carbines and cast them about and began loading. The Waldrecker dragoon officers saw the threat before them and began to scream their orders to fall in along with their bugler's call.

"Present..."

The Obersaynisch Kürassiere remounted their ramrods and 100 firelocks were raised toward the Waldreckers.

"GIVE FIRE!"

The carbines of the Obersaynisch trotters bellowed fiery smoke and lead towards the bunched Waldrecker dragoons. The volley fell on the Waldreckers like a poleaxe. Horses reared and screamed; men falling and cursing. What had been nearly an intact squadron of moderately disorganised dragoons was now a mob of writhing men and horseflesh.

"Squadron will advance!"

The Waldrecker dragoons disintegrated at the first forward movement of Braun's squadron.

In the Chambers of Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria

2008-07-15T13:41:00.007-05:00

HUNSRUCK, Aug. 15--The Prinzessinnen Sophie-Vittoria and Maria-Aurora pored over the documents recovered from the cache of the deceased Kapellmeister for over half an hour. No obvious connexion linked the eight names--three members of the ducal court, two leading burghers of the town, the Rector of the Cathedral of Kognat, the Chancellor of the University of Achselfraktur and the Stadtlan of the Hunsruck Judengasse--except a degree of social prominence and an income approximate to loans on the order indicated by the promissory notes and the notations on their reverses.

What did seem clear was that Kapellmeister Volker had not had anything approaching the resources to engage in the sort of moneylending necessary to accumulate the notes by normal trade or even the sharpest dealing, and there was no notation to indicate that any of the notes had been transferred from the original holder, Friedrich of Waldreck.

As the Prinzessinnen wrestled with these riddles, Anna, Sophie-Vittoria's dressing maid, entered to remind them of the imminent commencement of the midnight pyrotechnics, concluding the formal programme of the debut, from which Sophie-Vittoria's absence could not fail to be noted. Repairing their toilettes, the two ladies made ready to descend again to the ballroom.

Into the Cauldron

2008-07-13T00:27:00.007-05:00

NIEDERSOHREN, Aug. 16--The fleeing remnants of Maj. von Fischbach's squadron reeled back along the Hohenstraße, hotly pursued by the Waldrecker Hussaren. The Waldrecker Dragoons milled about the unhorsed Kürassiere, dispatching the last knots of resistance in the remnants of the Obersaynisch line.

Rittmeister Braun saw the bloody scene through a yellow haze. The bleeding men and frothing horses seemed desaturated, washed out; his field of vision narrowed before him. As through a tunnel he urged his mount forward; the din of the slaughter before him strangely flattened, as if heard emanating from beneath a blanket or behind a door.

With a jolt he was suddenly brought back to focus by the stumble of his mount. Transfixed as he was by the plight of Maj. von Fischbach's squadron being butchered before him, he had overlooked a rabbit hole in the meadow beneath him. His gelding buckled beneath him, and he tumbled headlong over the horse's neck as the stricken animal twisted about its ruined fetlock, itself falling in sprawl to the turf behind him. With a thud Braun struck the ground and knew no more.

Crossroads Collision

2008-03-03T19:37:00.021-06:00

NIEDERSOHREN, Aug. 16--By 0915, von Dornfeld's orders were relayed back to Maj. von Fischbach at the edge of the Rohrbach valley below the Hochwald ridge. Falling back to the base of the ridge to reform into column for the advance, the Kürassiere spent upwards of half an hour reassembling from their scattered positions about the infantry column

Approximately 0950, the cavalry commenced its advance towards the outskirts of Niedersohren. About two furlongs from the village, the squadron under Maj. von Fischbach swung to the right to cover the right flank of the infantry deployment, while the second squadron, under Rittmeister Wilifried Braun wheeled to the left just within carbine range to the rear.

As the Kürassiere commenced their manoeuvres, the Waldrecker Dragoner and Hussaren posted on the fringe of the village spurred their horses forward towards the midpoint of the two cavalry squadrons, still centred on the Hochstraße. The Waldrecker artillery, unlimbered at extreme musket range behind the Kirchschloß road, fired a ranging salvo which fell harmlessly short, the shots rolling to a steaming standstill nearly 20 yards in front of the Kürassiere.

As the Waldrecker Dragoons closed within 100 yards, they broke into a canter. The Hussaren trailed somewhat behind, loosely formed and indifferently paced. At this, Maj. von Fischbach signalled for the charge to be sounded. His own squadron launched itself forward, but Braun's squadron, unaccustomed to the detached operations of the past days, was thrown into confusion by the other squadron's signal. Most of Braun's riders starting forward as well, but well over a third hesitated or pulled back, waiting for their own squadron's bugler to sound the advance. Rittmeister Braun, spotting the fragmentation of his line, spurred out ahead of his men and halted the advance to redress the ranks.

Looking over, Maj. von Fischbach spotted the confusion spreading through Braun's squadron and momentarily pulled back on his mount's reins, slowing his own squadron's advance as well. The slight delay was momentous. While Braun redressed his squadron, the Waldrecker guns fired another salvo, finding von Fischbach's squadron at the extreme end of their range. Three cannonballs in close succession ripped through the rightmost company of von Fischbach's squadron, rending riders and horses into obscene sanguinary carcasses and disrupting the crucial tight formation of the squadron as it continued its trotting advance toward the Waldrecker light horse.

Seeing this hesitation, the Waldrecker dragoons and hussars now spurred on to a full gallop as well, no more than fifty yards from von Fischbach's now shaken and somewhat sinuous line. The Waldrecker Hussaren swiftly made up the gap between themselves and the Dragoner as they closed on von Fischbach's squadron.

With a great whoop, the emboldened hussars closed ranks with the Waldrecker Dragoner and both together collided with von Fischbach's Kürassiere. Rittmeister Braun, having now largely reformed his men, watched helplessly as the wave of Waldrecker light horse slammed into his commander's now-isolated squadron, ahead of him and just to his right. Von Fischbach's Kürassiere, shaken by the artillery fire, attempted to straighten their line and bring their heavier horses and armour to bear in the melee, but the light horse were upon them before they could rally.

Slashing into the Obersaynisch squadron the Waldrecker light horse lapped about the shorter frontage of von Fischbach's Kürassiere. Between the shaken right and the failure of Braun's men to keep pace, von Fischbach's unit wavered. As von Fischbach's shouted orders were drowned by the shriek of horses and the reports of panicked troopers' pistols, the squadron disintegrated. The Hussaren spurred their mounts after those seeking flight, while the Dragoner, now sensing victory, swarmed over the beleaguered Kürassiere attempting to rally to von Fischbach's orders. As the light horse swarmed about, von Fischbach and his aides were lost from the sight of Braun who could now see only mayhem before him.

Stung by the despair that his commander's plight was the consequence of his own failure, Braun raised his sword and spurred his horse towards the shattered remnants of von Fischbach's squadron, barely conscious of his cry of "A l'outrance!" to his men behind him...

Von Dornfeld Casts the Dice

2008-02-24T01:27:00.008-06:00

NIEDERSOHREN, Aug. 16--By 9:00 a.m. the fog had dispersed, as von Dornfeld had predicted. Von Fischbach sent riders back to the main body to report the sighting of the Waldrecker supply column, just now departing Niedersohren, and the presence of four companies of Waldrecker, a squadron of dragoons and a company of hussars--as had been expected--and an unwelcome surprise: a battery of battalion guns, unlimbered and bearing down on the crossroads just outside of town.

"They clearly were tipped to our presence, although we had no contacts all morning," von Fischbach wrote in his hastily scribbled report. "The Waldrecker foot have positioned themselves behind a stand of trees, just to the left of the road--ready to mask the guns if we advance too precipitately, but sheltered themselves from any guns we might have brought along. The light horse are currently covering the bridge over the Rohrbach, but are capable of a swift advance down the Hohenstraße if our approach is discovered too soon.

Von Dornfeld weighed the intelligence a moment, and then ordered the courier to return to von Fischbach. "Tell him we attack immediately. He is to bring both squadrons of his command down the road towards Niedersohren and form line just outside artillery range. We will be right behind, and he will cover our formation into line directly behind him. Once in line the Kürassiere are to engage and destroy the Waldrecker light horse and then secure the convoy. We will advance to engage the Waldrecker foot and hold the crossroads until the wagons are turned about, and then we will fall back with the captured wagons. Hang the Waldrecker guns; the die is cast."

NEXT: The Dragoner Attack!

Von Kostenwand Dragoner

2008-02-19T03:18:00.009-06:00

KOGNAT, Aug. 16--The 2nd Dragoner of the Herzogerheer, the von Kostenwand Regiment, is commanded day-to-day by the mercurial Oberst Bruno Freiherr von Scheurebe. With an established strength of approximately 750 men, the regiment has since the start of von Scheurebe's command lagged considerably understrength, as both the Inhaber and the Oberst have demonstrated a marked reluctance to press appropriations for the regiment to maintain sufficient remounts for the complete establishment.

Garrisoned during peacetime along the Kernerfluss outside Kognat, the regiment benefits from the plentiful fodder available from local hayfields long accustomed to provisioning the stud farms of the Bishops of Kognat. The local surplus, though, is viewed by the Inhaber mostly as an opportunity to obtain adequate fodder at bargain rates, rather than as an opportunity to feed and exercise the horses of the regiment more fully.

The uniform of the regiment was redesigned to its current green justaucorps upon von Kostenwand's nomination as Inhaber to take advantage of a bulk-order discount negotiated by Hoffaktor Weißenheimer for uniforms for both the von Kostenwand and von Schirnhausen regiments, with the turnbacks and linings, acquired after hard bargaining for seconds from the provisioner of the von Bacharach regiment, a paler shade of blue than seen in the infantry due to the poorer dye fixation of the discounted seconds.

Morning over the Hochwald

2008-02-15T00:45:00.012-06:00

NORTH OF SPAWNHEIM, Aug. 16--Oberst von Dornfeld's aides de camp, riding beside him in the middle of the infantry column double-timing along the Höhenstraße, marked with nervous high spirits the passage of the miles over the Hochwald into Waldreck. Von Dornfeld himself shared to some extent the exhiliration of his staff, alternately whistling the theme of the overture to Antigono or humming tunelessly as their horses marked time in the pauses in reports and dictation to his staff. By 8:30 a.m., the staff party reached the crest of the Hochwald, permitting a panoramic view of the Rohrbach valley, still clad in the morning mists, stretching out beneath them.

Maj. Rutger Freiherr von Fischbach had separated his Leib-Kürassiere squadrons into their constituent Zügen to serve as scouting parties, along with Corp. Becker's patrol from the von Schirnhausen Dragoner, three Zügen riding a league or so ahead under von Fischbach's personal command, two to the forward flanks of the column, two to the rear, and one Zug remaining with von Dornfeld as a bodyguard and dispatch riders.

Von Fischbach's Kürassiere had reported no contact with Waldrecker forces all morning, and now, with Niedersohren and the Kirchschloßweg lying just beyond the shallow Rohrbach traced by the treeline in the valley below, von Dornfeld ordered the infantry column to halt to await von Fischbach's reconaissance report upon reaching the outskirts of the village. It had been expected that the Waldrecker supply convoy would itself have already departed Niedersohren, continuing on its way toward Kirchschloß, but until the Waldrecker hussars and dragoons were accounted for, von Dornfeld knew better than to march his column blindly down into the misty valley below. Another half hour should burn off the remaining mist and give plenty of time to organise his column for the swift occupation of Niedersohren.

But where were the Waldrecker horse?

Waldrecker Horse Guards

2008-02-13T16:44:00.010-06:00

The Waldrecker Horse Guards, until recently commanded by the Generalmajor of Horse, the late Götz Graf von Sickingen, are the senior regiment of horse within the Waldreckerheer, and function both as the personal bodyguard of Prinz Friedrich von Waldreck and the heavy horse regiment of the army. Upon von Sickingen's still-mysterious assassination somewhere on the Moselweg outside Bruttig, Prinz Friedrich assumed personal command of the regiment, although day-to-day command rests, as it had largely during the command of von Sickingen, with Oberstleutnant Georg Rottenfels.

Holding Spawnheim

2008-02-09T00:09:00.001-06:00

SPAWNHEIM, Aug. 16--Feldwebel Peter Blasius, changing the sentries about the redoubt as the sun set into the gathering mists about the Hochwald, received last for the day the report of Corporal Ernst Collet, commanding the afternoon watch posted at the crumbling, ruined southwest tower looking down the Kognat Road, from the top of which tower lookouts could see as far as the ruins of Spawnheim Abbey, nearly two leagues distant. Corporal Collet reported that, while no sign of the Waldreckerheer had been detected, two of his men had been injured establishing the lookout atop the ruined tower when an unexpected shift in the tower's seemingly stable remaining masonry caused the collapse of a considerable section of the tower into the courtyard below.

Villagers impressed from the village to assist in freeing the trapped men insisted that the accident was in fact an ill omen, and refused under any threat to stay till sundown to complete the cleanup, leaving as soon as the last man had been freed. Signing against the evil eye, they retreated back down the track to the village at the crossroads in a tight clump over an hour before the parish churchbell distantly tolled vespers into the gathering fog.

Feldwebel Blasius, while disinclined to indulge in the stories the men muttered amongst themselves of the mediaeval feuds, black sorcery and witch hunts darkening the repute of the long-mouldering Counts of Spawnheim-Obersayn, was forced to concede that the sickly, blighted trees around the ruins indeed gave the castle an ill-favoured appearance, even in the full daylight. The loneliness of the ruins with the mists descending about them gave the air a heaviness which seemed to swallow up the sounds of the 150 or so men in his company left behind to hold the redoubt while the rest of the battalion double-timed over the Hochwald in pursuit of the Waldrecker supply convoy. He preferred not to reflect on the aspect the ruins would have tonight, in the nearly moonless night completely shrouded in the full weight of the mists, electing instead to focus on noting the names of the injured men in his muster rollbook and then walking down to double check the battalion guns before nightfall.

Waldrecker Foot

2008-02-03T21:30:00.001-06:00

The Waldreckerheer includes three regiments of foot, of two battalions each. Pictured from left to right are the uniforms of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiments of Foot of the Waldreckerheer. It is known that one battalion of each regiment is currently present at the investment of Festung Dolmen, while the precise whereabouts of the other battalions are uncertain.

Credit for the illustrations is by special arrangement with the good offices of Herren Linienblatt of Tipplebruder, purveyor of fine uniform templates to the best courts of Christendom and the other courts of Europe.

Wagons Ho!

2008-02-01T22:22:00.001-06:00

NIEDERSOHREN, Aug. 16--As the supply convoy readies to depart Niedersohren continuing its procession to the north, Oberst Baron von Dahlberg, commanding the 3rd Regiment of the Waldrecker Foot and responsible for the overall security of the convoy, assigns a company from his regiment and the local milita company to stand guard over the hogs and cattle being driven along with the convoy, having through hard experience found such "double entry bookkeeping" to be the best way to prevent the dwindling of livestock accompanying the battalion.

Dawn Muster at Spawnheim

2008-01-28T18:32:00.004-06:00

SPAWNHEIM, Aug. 16--In the grey half-light of the dawn, the two squadrons of the Leib-Kürassiere under the command of Maj. Rutger Freiherr von Fischbach parade before the mustered von Bacharach regiment of foot and single troop of the von Schirnhausen Dragoner for review. The parade was ordered by Oberst von Dornfeld as a boost to morale prior to the final officers' consultation before setting forth in pursuit of the Waldrecker supply convoy last seen approaching the nearby Waldrecker town of Niedersohren.

Valuing celerity of approach over firepower, Oberst von Dornfeld will announce to the assembled officers his intent to detach one company of his foot to remain behind in Spawnheim with the battalion guns, both in deference to his standing orders to fortify and garrison the crossroads at Spawnheim, and in calculation that speed in pursuit of the Waldrecker convoy, which may already be aware of the presence of the Herzogerheer in Spawnheim and stands no more than two days march from possible relief from known Waldrecker forces at Kirchschloß, will be decisive to the success of the operation.

The countryside around Niedersohren, once over the Hochwald ridge, is fairly open and rolling country, sloping down to the Rohrbach bridged at Kirchschloß. Oberst von Dornfeld briefs both the Dragoner and Kürassiere officers on the importance of closing swiftly with the convoy, and driving off the drovers with minimal damage to the wagons themselves, hoping not only to disrupt the convoy, but, with good fortune, to capture it and drive it back over the Hochwald to Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn.

Prinz Friedrich von Waldreck

2008-01-18T19:51:00.000-06:00

SCHLOß BRUTTIG, Aug. 15--Prinz Friedrich, Pfalzgraf von Waldreck, was not a man to suffer fools, and meditated upon the travails of fate in his library before dinner. His cavalry commander, Generalmajor Franz von Berlichingen, had assured him that Waldreck's light horse would be able seize the fortress of Dolmen by a coup de main, surprising and overwhelming the understrength garrison before its commander could secure support from the townsfolk of Dolmen or otherwise organise an effective defence. Instead, an overly-aggressive advance by the von Sombreff Hussars, commanded by Oberst Hilchen Graf von Hutten, attempting to force the western city gate from their upriver crossing before the main advance of the Waldrecker artillery and infantry, had alerted the garrison and allowed the commander to call out the local militia. Now, ten days later, works were still being thrown up about the fortress, and the defiant attitude of the garrison commander suggested that the covered way at least would need to be bloodily stormed before any realistic likelihood of capitulation would be gained.

Prinz von Waldreck normally would have cashiered such a disobedient subordinate tout de suite, but the von Sombreff Hussars had only received their new Oberst last month, after the mysterious and still unexplained shooting of his trusted aide Götz Graf von Sickingen, Generalmajor of the cavalry and architect of the initial assault plan for the annexation of Dolmen. The gifted and impetuous von Sickingen had been a lightning bolt, reorganising the entire Waldrecker Heer after years of decline under the command of field officers who had grown rigid and inflexible in their reflexive obedience to Prinz von Waldreck's every command. While the Pfalzgraf demanded such obedience, the cost over time to the initiative of the officer corps had been clear. Young von Sickingen had worked tirelessly to reverse that tendency, and the campaign plan for the assault on Dolmen had been the chef d'oeuvre of that effort.

Now the primary operational plans were completely in shambles, and Generalleutnant Graf von Rudesheim had reverted to old, hidebound form, mechanically grinding through the siege contingency of von Sickengen's operational plan with the conservatism typical of the Waldrecker command structure prior to von Sickengen's reforms.

But no matter. Siegecraft was at least satisfyingly geometric in its principles and certainty of outcome. With the three infantry battalions of Generalmajor Prinz von Furstenberg ringing the fortress and Oberst Baron von Turckheim's artillery battering away at the fortress, the capitulation of Festung Dolmen was merely a matter of time. And the occupation of Fuggersheim, in the Eifel foothills north of the Mosel had proceeded exactly according to plan, with the entire estate and its suburbs occupied by von Zollern's dragoons with neither destructive resistance from the villagers or looting by the Waldrecker forces.

His engineering officers reported that the excavations at Schloß Fugger were proceeding ahead of schedule; the true prize of Dolmen would likely be in his hands even before overt victory at Dolmen vindicated the reputation of Waldrecker arms and forced the effete Herzog Ignaz to sue for terms. Prinz von Waldreck was well pleased, and helped himself to a second pinch of snuff before pulling the bellrope to summon his chamberlain and the new coloratura soprano at the Bruttig Opera whose presence at dinner had been requested for the evening's entertainment.

Intelligence Report of Kapellmeister Volker

2008-01-15T17:15:00.002-06:00

HUNSRUCK, Aug. 16--Having recomposed herself with the assistance of the Prinzessin Maria-Aurora, Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria led her cousin back to Sophie-Vittoria's chambers on the second floor, and called for a tea from a chambermaid. While waiting, she took the opportunity to thumb through the documents, which proved to be mostly additional promissory notes from notables of her father's court, payable either to Prinz Friedrich von Waldreck or to the Kapellmeister himself. Included in the papers, though, was the attached document unaddressed, but in Kapellmeister Volker's handwriting:

Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling, Generalquartiermeister

Major Trait: GOOD NATURE(3) Other traits:Very charismatic and persuasive; Sometimes loyal; Very good temper; Highly energetic. RATING: Elite, Steady

Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, Generalinspekteur der Kavallerie
Leib- Kürassiere; 3 squadrons, established strength 515 men

Major Trait: LOVE OF WAR (8) Other traits:Very gregarious, if condescending; Disloyal intriguer; Rather proud; Good looking; Unreliable, a liar and oath-breaker. RATING: Trained, Political.

Oberst Jakob Freiherr von Silvaner
Von Schirnhausen (1st) Dragoner; 4 squadrons, established strength 745 men

Major Trait: GOOD NATURE(10) Other traits:Very jealous of family honor; Resolutely loyal; Somewhat lazy. RATING: Elite, Steady.

Oberst Bruno Freiherr von Scheurebe
Von Kostenwand (2nd) Dragoner; 4 squadrons, established strength 745 men
Major Trait: LOVE OF WEALTH(8) Other traits:Very jealous of family honor; Inclined to mercy; Rather proud; Very courageous; Average looks. RATING: Trained, Aggressive.

Oberst Heinz Graf von Trollinger, Generalinspekteur der Infanterie
Vom und zum Riesling (1st) Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.
Major Trait: GOOD NATURE(3) Other traits: Very charismatic and persuasive; Sometimes loyal; Very good temper; Highly energetic. RATING: Trained, Careful.

Oberst Josef-Maria Freiherr von Spätburgund
Von Bernkastel (2nd) Regiment Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.

Major Trait: LOVE OF WEALTH(10) Other traits: Touchy about family honor; Can be cruel if provoked; Sometimes loyal; A bit of a flatterer. RATING: Trained, Aggressive.

Oberst Hermann Baron von Dornfeld
Von Bacharach (3rd) Regiment Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.

Major Trait: AMBITION(7) Other traits:Resolutely loyal; Great lover; Not easily angered; Generous if in a good mood; Highly energetic; Inclined to mercy RATING: Elite, Steady.

Oberst Leopold Prinz von Rebholz, Generalinspekteur der Artillerie
Herzoger Artillery Regiment, established strength 625 men
2 batteries 6-pounders
2 batteries 3-pounders

Major Trait: GOOD NATURE(7) Other traits: Very Good looking; Disloyal intriguer; Very courageous;Very good temper; Very clever and far-sighted. RATING: Trained, Steady.

Von Schirnhausen Dragoner

2008-01-09T01:06:00.001-06:00

BAD SANKT NIKOLAUS, August 15--The von Schirnhausen Dragoner Squadron 2, posted at Bad Skt. Nikolaus, is the one of the two squadrons of the regiment currently on detached duty from the main body of the Herzogerheer. Posted with the city's two companies of the Herzoger Militia and commanded by Capitän-Lieutenant Ritter Franz O'Donnell, the squadron is tasked with drilling the local militia to some semblance of military competence and reconnoitring the valleys beneath the northern Hochwalder ridge forming the frontier between the lands of Pfalz-Kogant-Obersayn and those of Waldreck, from Alter-Klutz just south of the Waldrecker slate-quarry town of Winterberg, south beyond the crossroads town of Spawnheim.

The uniform of the von Schirnhausen Dragoner is illustrated.

Early this afternoon, a courier from the patrol sent out yesterday to the southwest to screen the movement of the Leib-Kürassier to Bad Skt. Nikolaus, came galloping past the Kurhaus to deliver a report to Capitän-Lieutenant O'Donnell.

O'Donnell returned the courier's punctilious salute with a vague wave and opened the dispatch case. He skimmed through the report once with trained dispatch, and then, reaching the final paragraph, furrowed his brow and sat down. Helping himself to a pinch of snuff, he gathered his quizzing glass from the lanyard by which it hung from his lapel and reread the dispatch through again closely.

Spawnheim--14/8/57
Moving west of Spawnheim encountered foraging party of Waldrecker hussars; burdened with their loot, they were unable to evade us and we were able to close and engage them. Unhorsing two by musket fire we were able to secure them as prisoners. Pursuing the fleeing Hussars we continued along the Höhenstraße across the Waldrecker frontier, approaching the Waldrecker town of Niedersohren.
Leaving the road to avoid the Waldrecker militia company known to be garrisoning the town, we rode cross-country around the town to confirm the garrison's presence. From a hill overlooking the town we observed the presence at least a full company of hussars in the town in addition to the militia.
Observing orders, we began a withdrawal back across the frontier, putting the hill between us and the town, but cresting the hill to the south, we observed a significant dust cloud along the road south of town, perhaps four miles distant. Closing the distance to investigate, I was able to observe the source of the dust cloud by spyglass, and observed a wagon convoy approximately 200 yards in length, perhaps 30 wagons, escorted by at least a full dragoon squadron and several companies of infantry.
Falling back to Spawnheim before dusk, we encountered the leading elements of Major von Fischbach's Leib-Kurassier moving through the town en route to Bad Skt.Nikolaus. Reporting our intelligence to Oberst von Dornfeld of the von Bacharach infantry garrisoning the town and to Maj. von Fischbach on his arrival in town, the two field officers conferred at length and determined to seize the opportunity to attack the Waldrecker supply convoy. At its current rate, it is believed the convoy will overnight within Niedersohren tonight, and then proceed north towards Kirchschloß tomorrow. Oberst von Dornfeld has seconded our patrol. and the Leib-Kurassier in Spawnheim for the time being, but expects our return in less than a week.
Yr. servant,
Corp. Dittmar Becker

Infanterie Regiment von Bacharach at Drill

2008-01-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

SPAWNHEIM, Aug. 15--As negotiations with Duke Kristian von Pfalz-Zwiebacken proceed to determine the extent of his support for Duke Ignaz's claim to the Herrenschaft of Dolmen, the regiments of the Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn Herzogerheer make demonstrations along the Waldrecker frontier to mask the true intentions of Duke Ignaz for the relief of Festung Dolmen.

Here, the entire von Bacharach regiment concentrates in the village of Spawnheim, now merely a strategic crossroads along the Waldrecker frontier, but the historic seat of the now-extinct, ill-starred Counts of Spawnheim-Obersayn, whose sinister reputation even today seems to cast a gothic shadow over the village.

Oberst Hermann Baron von Dornfeld, a rational and modern man, discounted the superstitious warnings of the villagers and bivouacked his regiment within the very ruins of Schloß Spawnheim, parading his men under the brooding walls of the fortress. Awaiting further orders from Generalmajor vom und zum Riesling, Oberst von Dornfeld then set pickets along the Höhenstraße and Kognat roads, and set his men to work salvaging a redoubt from the ruins, determined to hold the village at all costs.

Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn Leib- Kürassiere Advance

2008-01-05T22:09:00.003-06:00

KOGNAT, Aug. 15--While nearly all the field officers of the Leib-Kürassiere accompanied Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, along with the Rittmeister and troopers of the Leib-Compagnie, to the debut of the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria, two squadrons of the regiment yesterday began an advance from the main body of the Herzogerheer to reinforce the Dragoner squadron and militia forces at Bad Skt. Nikolaus, who have reported an increase in contacts with Waldrecker Hussars along the Hochwalder frontier.

The habit of the Leib-Kürassiere is illustrated for the information of foreign readers.

Froehliche Weihnachten!

2007-12-26T00:07:00.000-06:00

A note to reassure the heads of state of Christendom that His Grace Herzog Ignaz retains his ducal dignity and extends Christmas wishes to his cousins at the other courts of Europe.

Watch this space for the resolution of the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's interview with the enigmatic Comte de St. Germain, the mysterious affairs surrounding the death of Kapellmeister Volker, and the depredations of the nefarious Prinz Friedrich, Pfalzgraf von Waldreck

In the Bellows-Room

2007-08-29T21:38:00.001-05:00

HUNSRUCK, Aug. 16--Entering into the bellows-room, Sophie-Vittoria paused a moment to survey the equipment which dominated the room. Six large lead-weighted leather bellows in column covered most of the floor of the long room, each bellows discharging into an airtight wooden ductwork running underneath the front of the bellows to a juncture at the midpoint of the room from which the windtrunk ran to the reservoir and windchest in the cabinet separated by another small door in the wall to the right. A narrow passageway for the calcants ran the length of the room on the right, permitting access to the door to the windchest, and to the small window on the far wall which illuminated the room during the day. Maria-Aurora, working the bellows-pump nearest the exit experimentally, asked, "So what is it exactly that we're looking for? I don't see anything at all mysterious."

"Perhaps it's in the windchest cabinet," Sophie-Vittoria replied, sidling along the passageway to avoid dragging her panniered gown over the bellows. Reaching the door she unlocked it and stepped inside. A long, narrow room with ladders on either end going up to hatches about six feet off the floor confronted her along with the continued windtrunk feeding into the overhead windchest, but without any evidence of anything untoward.

"Anything?" queried Maria-Vittoria.

"Nothing that looks odd."

"Well that's a silly prank to play. I'm going back downstairs."

"Don't go; there was something about the Count's warning which seemed so pressing. Let me take another look about before we go."

"It is your party, but I'm getting out of this dreadful little room."

"Let's think about this. If there is something here that Herr Volker wanted hidden, it can't be someplace that anyone would be able to go without his foreknowledge."

"Certainly, but there's nothing in the bellows rooms."

"But it isn't just Herr Volker who goes in the bellows room--the calcants are there almost every day."

"True, but the calcants aren't there if he's not--they wouldn't be able to poke about if he did leave something about."

Relocking the doors behind her, Sophie-Vittoria and Maria-Aurora retreated to the organloft proper. Sophie-Vittoria surveyed the massive organ console and the pipes towering over it. The three 45-key manuals and 36 stop pulls loomed over the wide bench and polished pedals below. Sophie-Vittoria felt under the bench--nothing but canvas the jute strapping and canvas-lined horsehair padding could be felt. Maria-Aurora perched herself on the bench and began to silently finger out the minuet she had mastered on the harpsichord for her own debut some months ago.

"Everything seems to be in order with the keyboards," Maria-Aurora observed as she reiterated her perfomance mutely on each manual in turn.

"But the stops..." mused Sophie-Vittoria. "Pull them all out."

Working from left to right, Maria-Aurora complied. She pulled each stop out with a smooth sliding of the wooden sliders and levers actuated by the stops, until she reached the reed stops, and drew the pullknob labeled "Vox Angelica." The knob slid without resistance a full two inches from the console with Maria-Aurora's initial pull, and when she, after a moment's hesitation, continued, the entire knob with a two foot dowling was drawn entirely free of the console.

"I think that is out of the ordinary," declared Sophie-Vittoria triumphantly. Racing back to the organloft door back to the second floor corridor, she paused a moment to relock the door, returned the organ console and tipped her candle a bit to let a bit of wax run onto the console and set the candle down on it.

"Help me out of these panniers," she ordered Maria-Aurora, "I'm going up onto the windchest."

"You're what?" hissed Maria-Aurora. "What if someone comes in?"

"I'm sure your family is troubled by all sorts of devotions in the chapel during a ball, just as ours is," replied Sophie-Vittoria archly, "but I'm willing to take that chance."

With Maria-Aurora's assistance, Sophie Vittoria was able to extricate herself from the framework maintaining her skirts' silhouette, and, gathering up the fabric now pooled about her in one hand and her candle in the other, she proceeded back to the bellows-room. Fumbling a bit with the key, she called out, "Aurora, come hold the light for me."

"I do this all under the strongest protest," intoned Maria-Aurora solemnly.

"I don't believe you for a minute. The first irrefutable evidence that something is amiss and you want us just to go back and make pleasantries with the dowager Duchess of Birkenstock? Please."

Taking Maria-Aurora's lack of response as confirmation, Sophie Vittoria reopened the door to the bellows-room and proceeded to the windchest cabinet. Opening that as well she paused to permit Maria-Aurora to catch up to her with both candles, and proceeded inside to the ladder on the right side wall of the room and proceeded cautiously up the ladder to the trapdoor overhead. Opening it she reached down to Maria-Aurora.

"Give me the candle--I think I know where to look."

"Look--for what?"

"Whatever it was that Herr Volker went to the trouble to hide in the organ-pipes."

With a pained expression, Maria-Aurora passed her a candle and watched her disappear through the hatch onto the windchest above.

Once on the windchest, Sophie-Vittoria could see that she was squarely in the heart of the organ. 60 ranks of wooden and tin pipes, formed in battalions 10 ranks deep, marched out before her, nearly the entire width of the chapel. Momentarily confronted by the thousands of pipes before her, she paused a moment.

"What do you see up there?" Maria-Aurora called up.

"The pipes are set into the windchest in rows, hundreds of them, but one rank at least has been put out of use by Herr Volker. That set of pipes is where he hid the secret he didn't want anyone to find."

"It would take hours to go through them all, and I don't think you could move the biggest ones without a team of men."

"Well, we can eliminate those right off. Herr Volker would only use a pipe he could unseat and reseat himself. And we know its a rank of reed pipes so we can rule out all of the straight ones."

"So how many does that leave?"

"Well, not more than three or four hundred, I think."

"Sophie!"

"Let me think!"

"If we were three people, one of us could work the bellows, while one pulled the stops one at a time, and I eliminated the ranks until we were left with the ones which didn't work any longer."

"Should I go get a boy from the kitchen, then?"

"I guess so--no, wait; I think he might have labeled the ranks. Go read off the stop labels to me."

"Hold on a moment, then."

After a pause, Sophie-Vittoria could hear Maria-Aurora call out, "Prinzipal, Koppelflöte, Gedackt..."

"Wait, let me see which way this runs," Sophie-Vittoria called out. "Yes, he did; he put an abbreviated label by most of the ranks. Skip down to the ones around the Vox Angelica."

"Um; let's see. All right--Mixtur, Dulcian, Schalmei, Vox Humana, Vox Angelica, Tremulant--"

"Found it!" Sophie-Vittoria cried out exultantly.

Ninety pipes stretched out in front of her behind a small mark "VxA" pencilled onto the top of the windchest on which the pipes rested, in the third rank of the second section from the front. The pipes were nestled in a wooden rack two feet high, securing the entire length of their conical resonators. On a hunch, Sophie-Vittoria proceeded about a third of the way down the narrow passageway between the rank sections and proceeded to peer down the resonators of that third rank. A little more than halfway down the rank she found what she had expected--a scroll of paper rolled tightly and wedged down the resonator of the pipe.

Pulling the paper out, she called out to Maria-Aurora, "I found something!"

"What is it?"

"Papers; the first one is a note: 'I, the undersigned Conrad, Prinz von Sickingen, do acknowledge value received from the Prinz Friedrich von Waldreck in the sum of fifteen thousand pfalzthalers this first day of June in the year of Our Lord 1757'...and then there's a note on the back in another hand, 'Owes Weißenheimer 8,500' and another: 'I, the undersigned Otto, Freiherr von Thurgau, promise to pay Prinz Friedrich von Waldreck or his agents, the sum of 23,000 pfalzthalers on demand this Michaelmas or any time thereafter'...and then on the back, again 'Owes Weißenheimer 15,000.' And another half dozen like them, at least."

"But what does it mean? Who are these people?"

"Von Thurgau commands the Kürassieren, some of the others are officers, too, but the others...I don't know, but they all are deeply in debt to Friedrich von Waldreck and owe lesser amounts to Weißenheimer--I presume that's our Hoffaktor Abraham Weißenheimer."

"Odd; he's my father's Hoffaktor as well, and I understood that both our fathers were to consult with him tomorrow on the financing of the war. I thought my father was introducing him to your father because your father was in a tight spot. That and the staff consultations were the reasons my father told me he was attending your debut in person."

Waldrecker Third Parallel Completed

2007-08-29T11:01:00.001-05:00

DOLMEN Aug. 29--As the siege guns pounded away at the beleaguered Schloß Dolmen, the Waldrecker engineers continued the approach of their works to the Dolmen counterscarp this week, completing the third parallel facing the northwest demilune. The emplacement of Coehoorn mortars proceeded in conjunction with the progress of the entrenchments, raining down shells on Bastions Gertrude and Magdalene as well. The progress of the Waldrecker engineers, although temporarily slowed by the daring raid last week by the Dolmen defenders, has resumed almost to the initial speed of the first parallel, indicating that the loss of skilled engineers in Maj. Trimbach's detonation of the Waldreck mining gallery was less than the Dolmen defenders had originally hoped.

With the completion of the third parallel and the steady work of the short-range mortars, an assault on the covered way and other outer defence works is expected at any time. Whether Maj. Trimbach is able to prolong the defence of Schloß Dolmen past the initial assault, or whether he will yield the fortress to prevent further bloodshed remains to be seen.

To the Chapel Loft

2007-08-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

Arriving at the top of the grand staircase, the two princesses, instead of passing to the left and the double doors to the Imperial hall and the guest chambers on the south wing beyond, proceeded straight across the salle de garde to the service door on the opposite wall. With a self-conscious nonchalance more conspicuous than all but the most clumsy subterfuge, the two liberated a pair of candlesticks from the maid's cabinet beyond, and proceeded down the service corridor to the south wing of the palace.

The southeast corner of Schloß Moritzburg consisted of the seldom-used Imperial Apartments, in which the Sachsen-Veldenz guests had been ensconced, and the Sachsen-Veldenz and Wittelsbach servants shuttled up and down the corridor moving clothing and luggage from the guest apartments to the service rooms down the servant stairs.

Passing into the south wing from the corps de logis, Sophie-Vittoria led Maria-Aurora past the library and the tutor's rooms, deserted these past weeks of Monsignor de Chiaroscuro's journey to the eastern marches of the Empire on some obscure Church business. "My tutor taught at the Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand before my father retained him to teach us; he might be able to tell us more about the comte when he returns."

Maria-Aurora considered this, "Your Monsignor What-a-Waste could tell us a great many things, no doubt. Did you know that art students in France study nude models to master anatomy?"

"Monsignor de Chiaroscuro only teaches landscapes." Sophie-Vittoria replied somewhat sharply. "The chapel's just past the solarium and the conservatory," she changed the subject, "The organloft entrance is at the end of the corridor to the left."

Stopping a moment to light their candles from the hall lamps, the two proceeded down the side corridor, past a door on the left back to the conservatory to a door on the right shortly before the corridor itself terminated before a window overlooking the triangular south garden, given an ethereal aspect by the starlight reflected in the fountain basin in the garden's centre. Holding the candle close to the door, Sophie-Vittoria fitted the key into the doorlock, and after a moment's fiddling, turned the bolt with a click. Pushing the door open, Sophie Vittoria held the candle in the doorway, pausing a moment to let her eyes accustom themselves to the darkness as the high ceiling and size of the chapel swallowed the candle's light for a moment.

Sophie-Vittoria had only been up in the organloft a few times before; the organ was a man's instrument, since most players were expected to begin their lessons by working the bellows and otherwise familiarising themselves with the mechanics of the instrument. Sophie knew that the small door immediately to the left, behind the main door into the loft, provided access to the bellowsworks and windchest of the massive instrument, but had never herself even seen the inside of the room. The instrument itself was fairly new, completed about five years ago, the chief triumph of Kapellmeister Volker's tenure, after another five years' of work by the renowned Stumm brothers. The three-manualed console backed to the cavernous chapel, with the flickering tabernacle lamp at the far end of the chapel indicating the altar and sanctuary.

Entering, with Maria-Aurora behind her, Sophie-Vittoria proceeded to the narrow staircase leading down to the chapel's ornate ground level, straining to hear a moment, although she couldn't have said for what. The chapel, lit only by their two candles and the sections of the dim starlight spilling in through the gothic stained glass windows, was still and silent. Satisfied that they were alone, Sophie-Vittoria turned back to the bellows room, and tried the door, which was locked. Looking up at Maria-Aurora, she asked, "Ready?" and turned the key in the lock. The bolt slid back and the door opened with a groan...

Up the Grand Staircase

2007-08-23T19:46:00.001-05:00

Making their courtesies to the older ladies sitting as chaperones at the base of the grand staircase in the great hall, the two young ladies flitted up the staircase, pausing a few times to allow Maria-Aurora to pause and fan herself in a perfunctory attempt to sustain her indisposition. At the first such interlude securely out of earshot of the chaperones, Maria-Aurora leaned against the marble balustrade a moment to reseat her heeled pump, to which she was still becoming accustomed, and, reflecting a moment, enquired, "but I don't see why Oma would be such a fright to this comte, she spends all her time at her needlepoint, and I don't think she's ever been to France."

"Not our Grandmother Annelise, my grandmother Vittoria. She travelled widely during my father's childhood, in order to keep up appearances on behalf of the duchy until he was old enough to assume the coronet. She must have met him somewhere and gotten on bad terms."

"With your grandmother? I cannot fathom how that could have been," Maria-Aurora replied archly.

Sophie-Vittoria refused the bait. "The important point is that the comte somehow had the key to the organcase in the chapel--at least it's easy enough to prove or disprove that, without involving anyone else."

"Why don't you just give the key to your father, and tell him everything that's happened?"

"The comte said that the enemies of my father had agents in the household. If we give it to him; he'll give it someone else to investigate--probably Chancellor von Schirnhausen, but who knows? If the key gets handed to the wrong person, the whole thing will disappear, and just be put down to a girl's fantasy. And besides," concluded Sophie-Vittoria with irrefutable insight, "it's my party, and I'll pry if want to."

Soiree into the Dawn

2007-08-22T13:08:00.001-05:00

The dancing was scheduled to continue at the ball until nearly four o'clock in the morning, but Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria was too agitated to dance another set. Retiring to the cloakroom to collect herself, she was able, en route, to encounter her cousin, the Prinzessin Maria-Aurora of Sachsen-Veldenz. Most of the adult members of the Sachsen-Veldenz family had travelled to participate in Sophie-Vittoria's debut, both as a gesture of familial and political solidarity with their inlaws, united both in marriage and in suspicion of the ambitions of the von Waldreck family vis-à-vis their own possessions along the Mosel. Prinzessin Maria-Aurora, though, was a particular friend of Sophie-Vittoria, being a few months older, and the two had exchanged frequent extended visits throughout their childhood.

Taking Maria-Aurora by the arm, Sophie-Vittoria pleaded some excuse for assistance with her habit in the cloakroom, and detached her from her conversation with the dashing Oberst von Scheurebe of the von Kostenwand dragoons. Somewhat sulkily, the Saxon Prinzessin whispered on the way to the cloakroom, "All very well for you to strike up associations with gatecrashers, but let poor me talk to a dragoon and you whisk me off to exile. Can I hope to see at least one last set, before you completely finish my night?"

"He wasn't a gatecrasher; he's a French count--de St. Germain, I think. He says he has evidence of a plot against both our fathers, but cannot approach them directly because of some affair to do with Grandmother. There's something in the choirloft in the chapel left behind by Herr Volker which is supposed to shed light on this, locked in the bellows-works of the organ--to which he says this is the key," said Sophie-Vittoria, displaying to her cousin the small trilobate key secreted into her hand before the Comte's abrupt departure from the ball.

"I need your help to make an excuse and retire upstairs without undue notice, so that I can escort you. Otherwise, if I leave formally--it's my party--everyone will start to leave, and the Comte told me that conspirators against your father and mine are in attendance at the ball."

"Very well, then," replied Maria-Aurora. "One vapourous swoon as you wish, but you must be in my debt at the next ball."

The Saxon Prinzessin's performance was masterful; returning to the main ball room after a suitable application of rouge to simulate a over-cinched corset-flush, she fanned herself conspicuously and settled herself in a chaise in one corner of the ballroom between the dowager Duchess of Pfalz-Birkenstock and Graf Ernst von Kostenwand, Duke Ignaz's chamberlain, who were engaged in a debate at some length with the Prinzessin von Florshein and Countess of Altberg on the best means of securing reliable tutors for their households. Feigning interest in the conversation, Maria-Aurora gradually increased the frequencies of her sighs and sudden inhalations, fanning herself more and more vigorously, until at last she folded her fan, slumped back on the chaise, and lolled her head back with a fluttering of eyelashes and a soft moan.

Sophie-Vittoria seized her cue and descended immediately to her assistance, begging apologies, along with the murmured protestations of Maria-Aurora, and both detached themselves from the assembly, begging the Countess of Altberg to convey to their parents their temporary retirement to the upper chambers.

Raid Disrupts Waldreck Siege Operations

2007-08-21T08:51:00.001-05:00

A daring nighttime sally by a handful of troops under Maj. Andreas Trimbach on the evening of the 17th succeeded in storming the leading saps of the Waldrecker second parallel and detonating a bundle of howitzer shells at the entrance to the main mining gallery of the Waldreck engineers. An unknown number of Waldrecker miners and engineers, along with numerous impressed Dolmen labourers, are believed to have been at work in the galleries below, and are now believed to have been trapped by the detonation.

Approach to the Waldrecker siegeworks seems to have been accomplished by a countergallery terminating near the second parallel, fired at the same time as the detonation of the Waldrecker mines. The approach to the Waldrecker works was aided by the nearly moonless night, coupled with the dense night fog following the thunderstorms which pounded the area over the preceding days. Rescue efforts by other Waldrecker engineers and miners are now underway, but the extent of the collapse achieved by Maj. Trimbach's raid is still being determined.

In spite of this notable success by the defenders of Dolmen, the work of the Waldrecker siege guns has been continuous and merciless since their siting in the first parallel, silencing the guns of the opposing bastions in the first two days, and commencing the pounding of the Bastion Gertrude and the demilune adjacent to it and Bastion Magdalene, suggesting that the Waldrecker plan is to storm the demilune as a precursor to an assault on Bastion Gertrude. Hastily constructed traverses along the adjoining curtains have limited the effect of ricochet fire, but the overwhelming superiourity of the Waldrecker guns makes the obliteration of those defences merely a matter of time.

The completion of the Waldrecker second parallel is imminent, and the movement of guns into firing pits along those new works is expected this week, in spite of the raid. The movement and disposition of the main body of the forces of Duke Ignaz remain obscure, but the prolongation of the defence of Festung Dolmen beyond the end of the month seems unlikely, even in light of the valiant intrepidity in defence of the works by the officers and men under Maj. Trimbach's command.

The reader is invited to consult http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/phase/phases1701.html for more details describing astronomical conditions of the 18th century.

A Magical Night

2007-08-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

Despite the Prinzessin's morbid certainty of her inevitable humiliation, Sophie-Vittoria's debut ball remains the talk of a dazzled Hunsruck. Beautiful ladies and dashing gallants from throughout the Rheinland made a sparkling eclat across the city as their gilded and ornate carriages rattled through the winding streets of Hunsruck to the ducal palace overlooking the Herzogpark, bathed in the silvery light of the stars throughout the cloudless night.

Arriving at the palace, the badinage and bons mots of the gay aristos provoked musical laughter from the ladies gathered in the receiving line forming in the Duke's great hall abutting the grand ballroom from which the chamber ensemble's initial tunings could be heard. After the guests had been given proper time to see and be seen, the Duke's dancemaster called the guests to the ball and the crowd formed itself into its proper precedence and began filing into the ballroom.

As the precedences were being worked out in the great hall, a great commotion arose out on the grounds, as a gilded sedanca drawn by six prancing white Scandalusian stallions wheeled to the porte-cochere before the palace, with 4 scarlet-liveried Ethiope footmen riding on the back and sides of the coach. The footmen descended and readied the carriage step, opening the carriage door to permit the descent of a handsome gentleman tailored in the Italianate fashion. Striding briskly up the stairs, the gentleman nodded an acknowledgement to the doormen,tossing them his walking stick as his footmen explained, "His Highborn, the Comte de St. Germain."

Entering the ballroom, the Comte attracted only slight notice as the opening allemande began, with Duke Ignaz, dramatically returned from the his army along the Waldreck frontier, drawing all eyes dancing the first dance with his daughter, the belle of the ball. Examining the Prinzessin intently through his quizzing glass, the Comte remained thus transfixed throughout most of the courante, which the Prinzessin danced with the male guest of honour, Prinz Franz von Sachsen-Veldenz. Walking over to the Duke of Birkenstock with an affable familiarity during the sarabande, the Comte engaged him in a short conversation swiftly concluding with the Duke and Comte approaching the Prinzessin just before the gigue, the Duke presenting the Comte to the Prinzessin and the Count engaging the Prinzessin for the gigue.

Stepping gracefully through the forms of the gigue, the Comte struck up an easy conversation with the Prinzessin, provoking at first a blushing giggle from the young lady, then an animated exchange throughout the piece. At the conclusion of the gigue, the ensemble took its first break, permitting the Comte to escort the Prinzessin onto the esplanade adjoining the ballroom to take the night air. When the ensemble recommenced for its next set, few people noticed the prolonged absence of the Prinzessin and Comte, although some of the older ladies in attendance were attempting to rehearse the various rumours of the Comte's ancestry and provenance. When the ensemble sounded the minuet in the second set, though, the Prinzessin and Comte returned to the ballroom, dancing the piece with somewhat less conversation, the Prinzessin glancing repeatedly at her father, engaged in a prolonged interview with the Duchess of Birkenstock and the Prinz von Pfalz-Zwiebacken across the ballroom.

The Comte took his leave of the Prinzessin then, relinquishing her to the young Duke of Nassau-Sauerbraten for the second gigue, while the Comte retired to the drawing room adjacent, where many of the older gentlemen were playing at whist and quadrille. Making a few polite greetings to some of the gentlemen, the comte took an unobtrusive survey of the games and gamers for perhaps a quarter of an hour, but declined when offered a seat at a whist table upon the somewhat voluble collapse of the luck of another gentleman, the newly apparent heir to the County of Sickingen. Pleading another engagement, the Comte excused himself and returned to the ballroom, where he took his leave of the Duke and Duchess of Birkenstock, a few other, mostly French or Alsatian gentlemen who seemed now to recognise him, and the Prinzessin whom he saluted with a courtly bow and baisemain before striding briskly back to the doormen and his carriage waiting beyond. As more than a few heads turned to watch him on his way, the Prinzessin regarded her gloved hand, into the palm of which the Comte, in his baisemain, had pressed a small, ornately warded brass key...

Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's Debut Imperiled

2007-08-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

With the final fitting of the ballgown for tomorrow night's debut scheduled for this afternoon, and still no word as to the fate of M. Chretien de Tiretaine, Couturier to the Ducal Household, Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria has begun to despair of achieving a proper silhouette for the event.

"It's a massive conspiracy!" the Prinzessin was heard to wail. "That Saxon cow--Trixie whatshername--she's trying to keep me from having the perfect debut! Or that frumpy Baltic princess--or one of those French poodles! It's not faaaaaaaaiiiir!"

While the attitude of the various Saxon, Baltic or French courts to the cut, fit or fall of the Prinzessin's gown could not be ascertained, enquiries into the fate of M. de Tiretaine and the rest of the party of the Duke of Cornwall, to which M. de Tiretaine was dispatched on the orders of Duke Ignaz, are ongoing. The Duke of Cornwall's party was last heard from off the coast of Scotland, before storms scattered the Duke's flotilla with, it is feared, signficant loss of life.

If, as seems likely, no word is received prior to tomorrow night's ball, the final alterations will need to be made by local tailors, most of whom have been until very recently completely backed up with final alterations to the new infantry uniforms bespoken by the Duke last month.

Waldrecker First Parallel of Festung Dolmen Completed

2007-08-13T10:41:00.000-05:00

Working steadily despite the occasionally thunderstorms over the past week, the engineers of Prince Friedrich von Waldreck today completed the first parallel earthworks against the besieged Festung Dolmen. Siting of the gun batteries began under cover of night last night, with the manhandling of three 24-pound siege guns into the first battery overlooking Bastion Gertrude, the northwest-facing bastion of the fortress. Four other breaching batteries have been excavated, facing the northwestern demilune, and the northern-facing Bastion Magdalene, respectively in enfilading pairs, and it is presumed that siege guns will be similarly situated in those batteries, each approximately 900 yards from the opposing bastion, in the coming nights.

From within the fortress, however, no word has been heard since Maj. Trimbach's initial refusal of surrender upon the completion of the lines of circumvallation.

Duke Announces Reconstruction Aid for Hunsruck

2007-08-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

His Grace's ministers today announced a series of initiatives to speed the reconstruction of Hunsruck. Chancellor Gottfried Graf von Schirnhausen, chairing an historic meeting with the leaders of the winemerchants', glassblowers', metalworkers', construction and goldsmiths' guilds, announced the reconstruction platform dedicated to the reconstruction of the strife-wracked neighbourhoods of Hunsruck before a gathering outside the old Rathaus.

The guild leaders in attendance will form a Committee on Reconstruction and Improvement tasked by His Grace with recommending to His Grace reconstruction and improvement projects for the city and the revenue measures to finance them, submitting these recommendations to the Chancellor for review and approval by His Grace.

Additionally, to aid in the reconstruction, Chancellor von Schirnhausen announced that the participating guildmasters would be compensated for their efforts by a temporary reduction in taxes on participating guilds, lowering the ordinary levy from 1 pfalztaler per journeyman enrolled in the corporation to 65 kreuzer per journeyman.

Camp Fever Visits Duke's Forces

2007-08-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

The influences of malignant vapours surrounding the bivouac of the Duke's main forces now concentrated northwest of Kognat have taken their toll upon the men and officers of His Grace's army in the form of a tertian species of camp fever. Duke Ignaz himself has been confined by Dr. Thanisch's precautionary orders to his quarters, receiving frequent briefings from Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling on the disposition of the army.

Dr. Thanisch opines that the Duke's well-known phlegmatic temperament makes his susceptibility to those vapourous influences less than those of more choleric or bilious temperaments, but the delicate strategic situation dictates that no unnecessary chances be taken.

Vom und zum Riesling Regiment at Drill

2007-08-08T17:02:00.000-05:00

Preparing to march to the aid of their beleaguered comrades, elements of the vom und zum Riesling regiment drill with their commander, Oberst Heinz Graf von Trollinger. The men sport their newly bespoken uniforms, just arrived from the renowned tailors of Tipplebruder. It should be noted that the local tailors were responsible for the final fitting, and any imperfections in the fit or cut are of course their responsibility and not those of the Tipplebruders.

The grenadiers prepare for a bayonet advance as the companies drill under the close watch of their officers and non-commissioneds on fire by platoons.

Von Trollinger demonstrates the committed leadership which won him the inspectorate of His Grace's infantry, taking his place on the firing line during drills. The close but respectful relationship the Oberst has with his men is both part and a product of this hands-on approach.

Von Trollinger is also a firm advocate of combined arms drill as a necessary preparation for field manoeuvres and action. Here the grenadiers of his regiment provide overwatch to a cannister firing drill of Oberst von Rebholz's gunners.

Atlas of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn

2007-08-07T10:47:00.001-05:00

At the request of subscribers, the political map of the environs of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn is provided above. By way of a scale, it is noted that it is a full day's walk from Hunsruck to the university town of Achselfraktur.

Duke of Pfalz-Zwiebacken Pledges Support to Duke Ignaz

2007-08-06T15:28:00.001-05:00

Demonstrating an unstinting familial loyalty, Duke Kristian von Pfalz-Zwiebacken today announced his support for the continued claim of his neighbour and fellow Wittelsbach cousin, Duke Ignaz von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, to the Lordship of Dolmen, now militarily contested by the forces of Prince Friedrich von Waldreck.

The statement of Duke Kristian, while not entirely unexpected, offers the first piece of unalloyed good political news to court of Duke Ignaz, rocked by the week-long riots in the capital city of Hunsruck and the nearly simultaneous news of the Waldrecker invasion of Dolmen, in several weeks. With several regiments now surrounding the beleaguered garrison of Festung Dolmen, this diplomatic support for the claims of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn is a definite boon to the efforts of Duke Ignaz's diplomats in the other courts of Europe.

The Duchy of Pfalz-Zwiebacken borders both Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn and the Principality of Waldreck along their southern frontiers, providing alternate avenues of advance to any planned movement of forces from or into Waldreck, greatly facilitating either attempts to relieve the beleaguered Festung Dolmen or to drive on the capital of Waldreck, Bruttig, itself.

While the prospect of military aid to Duke Ignaz was not explicitly raised by Duke Kristian in his proclamation, most observers find that prospect unlikely. Pfalz-Zwiebacken has for all intents been a Gallian protectorate since the end of the War of Palatinate Succession, and its newest and best equipped regiment, the Royal Deux-Fours, is in Gallian pay and attached to the army of the Prince de Soubise in Saxony. However, military experts note that its status as a de facto Bourbon protectorate makes it most unlikely that Pfalz-Zwiebacken would be used by Waldrecker forces as an avenue of advance into Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn.

Technical Counselor Dispatched to Edinburgh

2007-08-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

Catalysed by the recent translation into German and publication of Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and some other Alcaline Substances, Ducal Technical Counselor Werner von Traun has been dispatched by his grace to Scotland to consult at greater length with Professor Joseph Black on the gravitic levity of phlogiston and its pyrotechnic implications.

Counselor von Traun's itinerary is to take him to Tradgardland, where he is to secure passage to the Shetland Islands and thence to the Edinburgh. While in Tradgardland, he also hopes to tour the Feuerwerkfabriken and herring packing facilities of that principality.

Siege of Festung Dolmen Commences

2007-08-06T11:19:00.001-05:00

Reports from Dolmen continue to trickle out despite the imposition of martial law and establishment of checkpoints all along the frontier.

By impressing hundreds of able-bodied men from across the Lordship into service, Prince Friedrich von Waldreck has established the initial lines of circumvallation about Festung Dolmen, defended by approximately 300 men of the vom und zum Riesling regiment. It is expected that work on the first parallel will now follow.

Major Trimbach, commanding the defence, has refused the initial demand for surrender from the Waldrecker forces, relying upon the promise of relief from the balance of Herzog Ignaz's forces, now mostly detached from the pacification of Hunsruck, and mustering on the edge of the Hochwald forest which forms much of the border between Waldreck and Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn. Major Trimbach, before the encirclement of Dolmen was complete, also assumed personal command of the Dolmen Stadtwache, and was able to bring an undetermined number of the city guardsmen into the citadel to man the bastions.

Marshal von Browne Benefit Cancelled

2007-08-04T09:58:00.000-05:00

In view of the sad news arriving from Spain of the death of featured performer Domenico Scarlatti, along with the present unrest both in Hunsruck and throughout the region, the Hunsruck Opera House has announced that the Marshal von Browne benefit concert has been cancelled.

A Sad Tally

2007-08-03T09:35:00.000-05:00

As order is restored to the streets of Hunsruck, the costs of the late riot are beginning to be quantified. Of the 6 major districts of the city, the overwhelming majority of the physical damage was confined to the working-class Glazierquartier and Kernerhausen neighbourhoods, with the worst looting and arson occuring in the rundown alleyways of the especially blighted parts of the Kernerhausen district just off the waterfront known to locals as the Warrens.

The more burgerliche neighbourhoods of the Bogenviertel and Skt. Cäcilien experienced significant vandalism and scattered looting, but most fires were quickly contained by the guild fire brigades.

The Weinenau district suffered significant damage around the Kanzlerplatz, where rioters engaged in hand-to-hand combat with grenadiers of the von Bacharach and von Bernkastel regiments for possession of the Ducal chancery building, and the old Rathaus across the square.

In the Altstadt and Herzogpark districts closest to the ducal residence, looting was almost nonexistent, kept at bay by the proximity of the palace guard and the vigilance of the footmen of the many noble houses in those neighbourhoods. The only disorder reported to date in those districts was a brawl in the Englischer Kaffeehaus and the brazen looting of the house of the late Kapellmeister Volker, both on the first full day of the riots on Saturday.

Scenes from Dolmen

2007-08-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

The final courier to escape the Waldrecker noose descending about Festung Dolmen brings reconnaissance dispatches, hastily penned letters to loved ones back in Hunsruck and a handful of sketches rendered as colour etchings by HAZ staff artists:

Dolmen militiamen crew the antiquated guns defending the fortress.

Major Andreas Trimbach commands two companies, who man the ramparts with grim resolve.

Waldreck Blazon

2007-08-01T10:07:00.001-05:00

By request of our subscribers, the arms of Waldreck are here displayed as an aid to identifying the forces of the Prince of Waldreck. The blazon is "or, a lion rampant sable, armed and langued gules, holding in dexter a mullet of six points gules."

Update: at the request of a subscriber, the following explanation from the College of Arms at Achselfraktur is appended: "The overall arms are those of Flanders, the mullet is a cadency marker denoting the Waldreck descent from the third son of Guy Dampierre, Henry of Flanders, who married Margareta of Cleves, establishing the family along the Rhein. The first count of Waldreck was Henry's third son as well, who was established in the ancestral estate along the Mosel near Koblenz which the family holds to this day."

Waldrecker Forces Occupy Dolmen

2007-07-31T19:50:00.000-05:00

Declaring that "the spread of Hunsrucker unrest into the territories rightfully appertaining to the serene majesty of Waldreck must be strangled in its crib," Fürst Friedrich von Waldreck today ordered his troops to occupy the disputed Lordship of Dolmen, declaring martial law throughout the province and ordering his forces to secure the town of Dolmen and the lightly garrisoned fortress.

Waldrecker cavalry forces bearing the black lion banner of Waldreck raced across the frontier today, seizing bridges and crossroads, while at least two regiments of infantry, the von Sickingen and von Kreuznicht regiments being confirmed, mustered and marched close behind, leading many observers to conclude that the mobilisation orders must have been dispatched days ago. Communications with Festung Dolmen, garrisoned by two companies of the vom und zum Riesling infantry regiment, have been cut off, and it is unknown as of press time whether the garrison holds out against this surprise attack.

The Lordship of Dolmen, an exclave historically held in fief by the Bishops of Kognat, but whose passage to the Dukes of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn with the secularised territories of the Bishopric was not explicitly granted in the imperial edict creating the duchy in the reign of Kaiser Leopold, sits on the north bank of the Mosel, over 40 miles from the main territory of the Duchy of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, and is known chiefly for its pottery and earthenware industry, which Duke Ignaz has, in recent years, been attempting to develop to a Saxon quality of chinaware.

The Lordship was created originally in the reign of the Elector Palatine Friedrich III as partial compensation to Ulrich Fugger for the fabulous bequest of his personal library to the Biblioteka Palatina. Upon the extinction of the Protestant branch of the Fuggers, the Fugger family pledged the fief to the Church, donating it to the Bishops of Kognat, shortly before the secularisation of the bishopric in the Peace of Westphalia. The last Bishop of Kognat during the Thirty Years' War, though, was a Waldrecker on his mother's side, and the Waldreck family has persisted in its claim to the lands since that time.

Sifting through the Rubble

2007-07-30T16:01:00.001-05:00

Three days have now passed since the arrival of the new Herzoger artillery regiment, and two days since the fateful order, given by the Duke himself, to "clear the rabble from every back alley and close of the city," yet the accounts of events leading up to the Great Riot remain as conflicted and confused as the event itself. While the grapeshot of the artillery and resolute advance of the von Bernkastel and von Bacharach grenadiers swiftly cleared away the barricades which the rioters had erected about the perimeter of the Warrens and the Glazierquartier, and broke the back of the main body of rioters, the city remains under curfew and scattered incidents of violent resistance to the Duke's men are still reported.

While the bodies of rioters swing in mute testimony to the predominant restoration of order from each piling of the Kernerfluss Bridge, piecing together the exact trajectory of the events which led to those executions remains difficult. Chancellor Schirnhausen has ordered a special Chamber of Inquiry with summary powers to investigate and root out the malcontents responsible for the late conflagration, but as of press time the identities of the ultimately responsible parties are still being determined. It is alleged by captured participants that the initial riot in the Spandowerplatz was in fact orchestrated by a cabal of journeymen working through the craft guilds, who seized upon the suppression of the scurrilous version of Miss Sara Sampson as a pretext to strike out at unpopular leaders of the guilds and force the restoration of the city's self-rule under their own unprincipled leadership.

The masters of the major craft guilds have in fact been most cooperative in dispatching of the ringleaders of the uprising, identifying the troublemakers associated with their organisations, and assisting the provost-marshals in the apprehension and interrogation of suspects. While the city remains under martial law, with the assistance of the guildmasters it is expected that most of the insurrectionists will be ferreted out of their suspected lairs along the waterfront in short order.

Uniforming the Recruits

2007-07-30T14:08:00.001-05:00

To continue from the previous posts on outfitting new recruits into the Herzogerheer, we'll first do some clean-up from the texturising of the bases, and fill in any gaps from the slots on the base we missed with the first coat of sand.

Finishing that, we are still confronted with a flat white figure with little contrast between the raised and lowered parts of the figure. We'll begin by enhancing that shading significantly with a wash of grey paint--I'm using one of GW's newish foundation paints--Dheneb Stone. These paints give excellent coverage, but tend to separate, so we begin with a shake-up.

Putting shading on first does three things: 1) It increases contrast, making it easier to see and pick out details as painting proceeds; 2) It provides a dark undertone in recesses, accomplishing the first shading undertone achieved by priming black, but without the headache of attempting to paint yellow or red over black primer; and 3) It gives gives a darker background for areas to be painted metal, which can be a little too shiny with a pure white undercoat. To enhance the contrast, and encourage the pigment to settle in the recesses of the figure, I thin the paint with flow enhancer to make my wash. In my experience, the biggest mistake I made as a beginning painter is not thinning my paints sufficiently--starting with a wash makes this especially important going forward to not obliterate the established shading.

This company of grenadiers gives a blurry impression of what this accomplishes. The two figures nearest the camera are unwashed--the blank whiteness makes picking out detail difficult, while the two in back have had their detail greatly enhanced by the additional shading. This will be fundamental to later painting, since these troops are going to be modeled on a white, Habsburg, scheme. We'll build up thin layers of white, from khaki, to unbleached titanium, to bleached titanium over the underlying shading.

Another blurry shot, unfortunately, but it shows the first, khaki, layer on the figures tunic, along with the first layer on the hat and exposed flesh. My technique is to work first dark to light, and then inside out, so anything darker than flesh adjacent to exposed flesh gets done before the flesh tone.

The cannoneers take a similar approach, but after the shading wash we follow up with a brown ink wash for the tunics--this is basically all the artillery uniform needs, except to pick out the lanyards, slings and pouches in a moderately contrasting leather tone.

Infantry Units Reuniformed

2007-07-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

In the aftermath of the carnage of the pacification of Hunsruck and the accompanying fire which occasioned the unfortunate cessation of publication of the Hunsrucker Allgemeine Zeitung these past days, new uniforms for all infantry regiments have been bespoken. The new standards will be as follows:

Infanterie Regiment vom und zum Riesling

Infanterie Regiment von Bernkastel

Infanterie Regiment von Bacharach

French Forces on the Move

2007-07-24T10:08:00.000-05:00

Höxter--Our correspondents in Westphalia inform us that the main French army under his grace Marshal Louis Charles d'Estrees has indeed crossed the Weser into Hanover proper and seeks to engage the Hanoverian Army of Observation. The impact of the consequent diminishment of French forces between the Rhine and Weser on the ongoing unrest in the Palatinate remains to be determined.

Prinz von Waldreck Protests Spread of Unrest

2007-07-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

A visibly disturbed Prinz von Waldreck, addressing the gathering of notables come to pay condolences, angrily denounced the failure of Duke Ignaz von Pfaltz-Kognat-Obersayn to arrest the spread of the civil disturbances which have wracked the duchy for the last three days to which unrest the Prinz attributed the mysterious shooting death of his trusted adjutant and nephew, Graf Götz von Sickingen, whose badly mangled body was discovered outside the gates to Schloß Bruttig, dragged there by his stirrup by his prized charger, Concorde. The body of the Graf, upon examination, was found to have been shot twice, once in the shoulder, and once in the thigh. Mercifully, it is believed, the Graf likely bled to death and sustained the subsequent disfiguring injuries post-mortem in being dragged several miles back to Schloß Bruttig by his horse.

The Prinz, in addition to offering a reward of 500 pfalzthalers for the apprehension of the responsible party, has also ordered his troops onto their highest state of alert, cancelling all leaves and recalling all military personnel from their peacetime dispositions.

Infantry Battalions Reach Strife-Torn City

2007-07-22T12:45:00.000-05:00

The main body of the von Bernkastel and von Bacharach infantry regiments arrived on the outskirts of riot-plagued Hunsruck today and encamped on opposite sides of the Kernerfluss, awaiting further orders pending the return of the Duke. The steady stream of wealthier burghers moving their families and valuables from the city continued, though, and reports from inside the city indicated that disorder and fires continued to plague most neighbourhoods.

At the request of the burgomeister, the von Bernkastel grenadiers and two companies of musketeers ventured into the city to secure the court administration buildings within the city, but met considerable resistance from the rioters. Volley fire was required on several occasions, and a bayonet charge by the soot-and-grime-covered grenadiers proved necessary to expel the rioters from the chancery [pictured, right].

Mustering in Recruits to the Artillery and Infantry Part III

2007-07-21T23:19:00.000-05:00

The crucial element of drill instruction is breaking the recruit down into his most basic element and then rebuilding him into the soldier he can become. Here we see the soldiers being clipped from their framework for individual attention.

It is at this point that each individual element of the army, soldier, cannon and horse must be examined and every detectable imperfection removed.

Reduced to his basic form, and freed of flaws, the soldier must then be built back up. We begin this at the base, bonding him to his support with the strongest possible join.

This particular bond is binary, using an epoxy and hardener in equal amounts. The 30 minute epoxy permits maximum fiddling time to ensure the individually based soldiers rank up properly.

One by one, each soldier to be based is dipped in the epoxy and affixed to his base.

The vom und zum Riesling infantry regiment begins to take shape.

Planning to use the troops with the promising Tricorne Wars rules, we then group the individual soldiers into companies using 1½" square sabots cut from plasticard. Ultimately, we'll mount metallic paper on the sabots and magnets under the soldier bases, but for now we'll secure them with bluetack.

Texturising the bases is an extremely subjective area. I paint a bit of white glue (many people say PVA--polyvinylacrylic--but the white glue one typically buys at the normal discount store is not strictly speaking PVA) with a wet brush, and dip the base in fine sand (I use sandblasting quartz) to break up the smoothness of the plastic base and give more of an impression of earth and ground--later on we'll paint and flock the base as well.

We form the men one more time for review with the texturising complete, and dismiss them for retreat and the night.

Mustering in Recruits to the Artillery and Infantry Part II

2007-07-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

As evening approaches, the men are mustered on the parade ground for review. Their drill instructors regard them sardonically. In past years, most of these men would have proven completely unsuited to the call of Mars; their uniforms shed like peeling paint upon the first encounter with the enemy. As a consequence, many, perhaps even most, generals have come to speak with contempt of such malleable recruits.

These drill instructors, however, have new technologies at their disposal, which allow them to bond these men to a military polish for lifetime service. Increasingly well-known, such tools as this plastic primer have allowed the fine detail and realistic proportions of such recruits to gain increasing respect.

With grim purpose, the drill instructors set to bonding these men to their undercoats.

The observant student of the art will note that the individuals have not been removed from their initial framework. This is so that the undercoat may be more uniformly applied by rotating the entire battalion of recruits on its frame while being undercoated.

While the men accustom themselves to their basecoat, their boots are piled before them on the parade ground, and cleaned and degreased as were the men before. The boots are separated into bases for each man and readied for issuance.

Mustering in Recruits to the Artillery and Infantry Part I

2007-07-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

As the Sara Sampson riots enter their second day in the seething streets of Hunsruck, a grim urgency catalyses the drillmasters of the vom und zum Riesling regiment, and of the Herzoger Artillery regiment as they muster in their new recruits.

With the dismissal of the Krantz Stahlwerke appeal, the new guns arriving from Bünde are unpacked and readied for their new gunners, as well.

The first order of business in forming these raw misfits into men capable of defending the honour of His Grace is stripping them of their disreputable civilian aura and attire. Removed from their civilian habits, they are exposed as the raw matter of future greatness.

Personal hygiene amongst the new recruits is often lamentably lacking, and a good scrubbing is usually necessary as part of the degreasing and delousing protocol introduced into the army by the Duke's new technical counselor. Note the use of a soft bristle brush with a suitable degreasing agent, such as dishwashing soap.

Properly rid of the ordure of their industrisal and mercantile past, the men take a quick rinse in the bracing waters of the Kernerfluss.

A quick march back to the barracks, and the men are permitted to refresh themselves and dry their kit.

Then, issued their bedrolls, they are allowed to recover their bearings before moving to the next step of their indoctrination.

"Sara Sampson" Riot Sweeps Hunsruck

2007-07-20T11:18:00.000-05:00

A mob gathered at the public burning of the confiscated scripts of the Hunsrucker Opera Company's cancelled performance of Lessing's "Miss Sara Sampson" this evening angrily confronted the Duke's Chief Censor, Hermann Blaustift, as he attempted to carry out the ordered burning, pelting him with turnips and rotten eggs. When ordered to desist by Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, commander of the Leib-Kurassier providing security for the event with a troop of heavy horse, the mob instead began hurling cobblestones and roofing tiles at the Kurassiers as well, prompting Oberst von Thurgau to order the mob to disperse.

Emboldened, rather than cowed by the Freiherr's command, the mob began to move carts and wagons toward the square, blocking most of the main streets to the square. Observing the deterioration of the situation, the Oberst formed his troop into line, and ordered the men to present their sabres and again ordered the crowd to disperse. The crowd drew back a bit at that, but a chant of "Miststück Marwood, Miststück Marwood," spread through the mob, renewing their ardour and the hail of vegetables. The mob and the kurassiers thus confronted each other for nearly an hour, until the crowd, drinking freely throughout the standoff, began to hurl lighted brands from fires lit amongst it.

The spinning, flaming debris began to agitate the kurassiers' mounts, and Oberst von Thurgau gave a third and final order to disperse, met with a redoubled hail of vegetables, obscenity and detritus, a flaming barrelstave of which struck Oberst von Thurgau's horse, causing it to rear violently and throw him to the cobblestones below. Momentarily stunned, Oberst von Thurgau lay prone on the square, motionless. Accounts vary as to the exact sequence of events following, but as the mob surged forward to get a better view of the discomfitted Oberst, one of his officers seems to have ordered a warning shot from the troop, which panicked the crowd and resulted in a stampede towards the exit avenues from the square, most of which had already been blocked by the makeshift barricades erected earlier.

Redirected by these obstacles, the panicked crowd turned back towards the Opera House end of the square, the only end not barricaded, because of its proximity to the original position of the kurassiers, and began to rush towards the kurassiers and the open streets behind them. Confronted by the surging mass of humanity coming towards them and the confusion of attending to their fallen commanders, the kurassiers wavered until someone along the line shouted "Save the Oberst!" and spurred his mount forward. The wedge of kurassiers launched itself forward in reflexive solidarity, and collided with the wave of hysterical burghers rushing towards it. In the ensuing mayhem, scores, perhaps hundreds of townspeople were trampled, either by the kurassiers' mounts or by other members of the mob, and dozens more were cut down by the kurassiers' sabres as they formed up around their fallen Oberst and restored him to his mount as his recollected his faculties.

Absent an organised pursuit by the kurassiers, the mob spread out across the city from the Spandowerplatz, breaking windows and looting shops across Hunsruck as the breakdown of order fed upon itself, spreading into the blighted neighbourhoods with the word of the discomfiture of the commander of the Duke's kurassiers sparking further opportunistic violence and looting. As night fell, much of the Glazierquartier, the workingmen's neighbourhood around the glassworks was in flames, and law abiding townspeople bolted their doors and shuttered their windows as drunken hooligans roamed the streets.

Duke Bespeaks Prinzessin's Landau

2007-07-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

The Duke and his family departed from Schloß Johannisberg this evening escorted by a squadron of Von Schirnhausen's dragoons en route to a series of interviews with carriage-builders in Landau, in order to select suitable equipage for the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria on the event of her debut this coming Feast of the Assumption.

Generalquartiermeister Releases Revised Table of Ranks

2007-07-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom un zum Riesling today authorised publication of the following revised table of ranks and precedence for His Grace's armed forces:

Generalmajor Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling, Generalquartiermeister

Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, Generalinspekteur der Kavallerie
Leib- Kurassier; 3 squadrons, established strength 515 men

Oberst Jakob Freiherr von Silvaner
Von Schirnhausen (1st) Dragonen; 4 squadrons, established strength 745 men

Oberst Bruno Freiherr von Scheurebe
Von Kostenwand (2nd) Dragonen; 4 squadrons, established strength 745 men

Oberst Heinz Graf von Trollinger, Generalinspekteur der Infanterie
Vom und zum Riesling (1st) Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.

Oberst Josef-Maria Freiherr von Spätburgund
Von Bernkastel (2nd) Regiment Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.

Oberst Hermann Baron von Dornfeld
Von Bacharach (3rd) Regiment Infanterie: One Battalion—Five companies musketeers, one company grenadiers; established strength 810 men.

Oberst Leopold von Rebholz, Generalinspekteur der Artillerie
Herzoger Artillery Regiment, established strength 625 men
2 batteries 6-pounders
2 batteries 3-pounders

Kapellmeister Found Drowned

2007-07-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

The body of Hofkapellmeister Dietrich Volker was recovered last night from the Ducal Snuff Millworks on the Kernerfluss. The preliminary cause of death has been ruled drowning, although the damage the body sustained in its passage through the mill race and wheels makes further investigation necessary to establish the definitive cause.

Herr Volker was well-known for his enjoyment of snuff and other epicurean indulgences, but his motive for entering onto the grounds of the Snuffmill after business hours remains unclear. Personal effects recovered with the body, consisting only of the remains of Herr Volker's leather satchel, containing scoring materials and a half-eaten lunch of herring and figs, provide little insight either.

A requiem mass will be held at the Sankt Cäcilia-Kirche in Hunsruck on Saturday.

Subversive Drama Suppressed

2007-07-18T10:22:00.000-05:00

The presentation of the latest drama by Lessing at the Hunsrucker Opera House, scheduled to open this Friday, has been suppressed due to subversive editing by unknown parties of the text previously approved by the Chief Censor, Hermann Blaustift of the Ministry of Posts. All copies of the edited script, bearing the printer's marks of the Waldreck publishing house of Herren Sturm und Drang, have been confiscated from the cast, the Opera House staff, and the local booksellers registered to trade in scripts and pamphlets and will be burned at the Spandowerplatz in front of the Opera House on Friday at the time originally scheduled for the play's debut.

Prinzessin's Debut Takes Shape; New Remount Programme Launched

2007-07-17T10:56:00.000-05:00

As preparations for Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's debut ball at the ducal palace of Schloß Johannisberg begin to become visible with the pavilions and trellises being erected all along the parterre, plans for her international debut throughout the courts of Europe are taking shape as well. The Prinzessin is renowned for her acomplishments with the harpsichord, watercolours and lacework, as well as her mastery of the chaconne, the gavotte and the French historical past tense. In person the Prinzessin, portrayed with her mother at left, stands just over 16 hands, and is well known for her good temper, great endurance, fine head, well-formed neck, strong back, and well-ribbed toning.

IN related news, Monsignor Chiaroscuro, Tutor and Confessor to the Ducal Household, announced today that Oberst Otto Freiherr von Thurgau, commander of His Grace's Leib-Kurassier regiment and Generalinspekteur der Kavallerie, will serve as commander of the Prinzessin's honour guard throughout her tour of the courts of Europe, in which rôle he will also pursue negotiations with his military peers at those courts for new sires for the ducal cavalry remount programme just launched by the Quartermaster-General. Oberst von Thurgau will especially seeking new hotbloods to spark the existing Ardennes breeding stock, which has proven to be susceptible to softness due to an ill-advised admixture of draft coldbloods in earlier generations. Oberst von Thurgau has expressed especial interest therefore in debuts at the Scandalusian, Gallian and Britannian courts.

Waldreck Firm, Ambassador, Protest Arms Contract

2007-07-16T09:19:00.000-05:00

The award of the contract for the modernisation of His Grace's artillery train to Herren Revell & Revell of Bünde announced today by the Ministry of War was vehemently protested by the ambassador from the Principality of Waldreck and the Waldreck munitions firm of Krantz Stahlwerke. Krantz Stahlwerke seeks the complete review of Revell and Krantz's bids by Schatzmeister-Kammerer Ernst Graf von Kostenwand. Testing on the Revell models--pictured left--has been suspended pending resolution of the appeal.

Herr Bertel Stechung, Krantz Stahlwerke's representative in Hunsruck, publicly challenged Revell's representatives to an open demonstration of the competing products, declaring the Krantz 4- and 6-pound Kartoffelgewehren, derived from their well-known agricultural implement designs, clearly superiour on performance, cost of maintenance, and transportability to the 3- and 6- pounder system offered by Revell. Representatives from Revell declined comment on the challenge, pending the outcome of the appeal.

Herzogertiergarten Opens to Public

2007-07-14T20:49:00.000-05:00

The Tutor and Confessor to the Ducal Household, Monsignor Baldesar Chiaroscuro, today announced the opening of the ducal menagerie to his grace's subjects on alternate Thursdays commencing July 19th. The ducal conservatory will also be opened to the public next spring, but remains closed the balance of the year pending final installation of the Hindoo Orangerie.

The Tiergarten, one of the leading institutes of zoölogical research and study in the Rheinland, boasts the most complete taxidermatological study of Rheinland fauna, along with life exhibits of particular significance. Among the living exhibits of particular note are the flocks of Great Auks and Great Bustards, the Altaic steppe ponies, and the only breeding pair of Anabaptists in captivity. Monsignor Chiaroscuro, in announcing the opening of the Tiergarten, expressed as well his hope to expand the range of specimens and exhibits further in the course of his travels as chaperone to Prinzessin Sophie Vittoria's international debut this upcoming social season.

Artillery Regiment Uniform Standardised

2007-07-14T09:29:00.000-05:00

With the planned modernisation of the ducal artillery train into a full artillery regiment, new uniforms for the regiment are being bespoken. The general pattern has been displayed by the office of the Quartermaster General, for the use of tailoring enterprises interested in contracting with the Ministry of War.

Request for Proposals

2007-07-13T16:34:00.001-05:00

By order of his grace Duke Ignaz, Quartermaster-General Gerhard Graf vom und zum Riesling of his grace's army today announced that the War Ministry will be accepting proposals from manufactories both foreign and domestic for the modernisation of the artillery train of the ducal army. The specifics:

The Ministry seeks

16 4-pounder guns, along with suitable limbers and carriages for each gun, along with caissons, powder chests, and accompanying hardware necessary for the routine operation of such guns as two independent batteries of 8 guns each; and

16 6-pounder guns, along with suitable limbers and carriages for each gun, along with caissons, powder chests, and accompanying hardware necessary for the routine operation of such guns as two independent batteries of 8 guns each.

Interested parties should submit their proposals in confidence no later than 15 July to:

Ministry of War
41 Bronzekaufergasse
Hunsruck, Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn

His Grace Subscribes to Musical Benefit

2007-07-13T12:36:00.000-05:00

His grace Duke Ignaz has announced his subscription to a special performance by the renowned Spanish court composer, Domenico Scarlatti, for the benefit of the family and regiment of the late Marshal von Browne, scheduled for August 15, at the Hunsruck Opera House.

Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn Heraldry

2007-07-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

Quarterly first gules a lion rampant or, second and third paly of seven argent and sable, fourth azur a lion rampant reversed argent.

By request of subscribers, the following explanation is offered from the College of Arms at Achselfraktur:

"The gules lion rampant or is for the Counts of Sayn, from whom the Counts of Obersayn descended; the paly of seven argent and sable comes from the coat of arms of the Bishops of Kognat descended historically from the Counts of Wittgenstein; the azur lion rampant reversed argent is for Palatine Wittelsbach, reversed to denote the morganatic descent. "

His Grace Presides at Mill Dedication

2007-07-11T23:43:00.000-05:00

Mochem--Herzog Ignaz von Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn today presided at the dedication ceremonies for the new millworks along the lower Kernerfluss, the first in a series of industrial improvements planned by his grace's ministers for the improvement of the commerce and trade in the duchy. The new mill, designed to process over 20 wagonloads of tobacco a day, will place the duchy securely in the front-rank of snuff producing principalities within the Empire and secure the duke's position as one of the foremost patrons of advanced engineering in the Rheinland.

The mill, a two-wheel combined overshot-undershot system powered by a 20 foot head created by the earthenwork dam constructed across the Kernerfluss, was constructed at a cost of over 650,000 pfalzthalers, including the dam, and represents the first concrete achievement by the duke's Technical Counselor, Werner von Traun, recruited successfully from his service in the imperial court as special advisor to the Hofrat on Mines and Mining. Counselor von Traun, speaking at the dedication, was generous in the credit he shared with the French engineering team hosted earlier in the year by his grace the duke on their passage through the Palatinate on their way to Vienna.

The Court of Herzog Ignaz

2007-07-10T19:55:00.000-05:00

Gratified by the interest expressed by our subscribers throughout Christendom and beyond, the Chancellor Gottfried von Schirnhausen has authorised your humble scribes to publish in greater detail accounts of the affairs of the Court of His Grace Duke Ignaz.

Any study of the court of Duke Ignaz von der Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn must begin with a study of the three central figures of the court: His Grace the Duke, the Duchess Maria Josepha, the former Countess of Sachsen-Veldenz, and the indomitable Dowager Duchess Vittoria, now approaching her 87th year. The Duke and Duchess were married relatively late in the Duke's life, only 20 years ago, after the Duke suffered an unfortunate hunting mishap and was forced, during his lengthy recuperation, to give thought to the future of the Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn dynasty should he die without an heir. These reflections resulted in the alliance with Sachsen-Veldenz, a duchy on the opposite side of the Rhein which shares a border with Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn's rivals for the Lordship of Dolmen, the Princes of Waldreck. The last unmarried daughter of the late Duke of Sachsen-Veldenz, Maria Josepha, was duly betrothed to Ignaz, and their marriage at the Kognatdom on the eve of the Neuweinsfest marked one of the last such festivals unmarred by riots. The Duke and Duchess have been blessed with 5 daughters, but the Duke's hoped-for male heir has yet to materialise, and the advancing age of the Duchess is beginning to become a cause for concern within the Duke's court.

The Duke was only 7 years old when his father met his untimely demise; his minority was overseen by the Dowager Duchess, who secured his wardship by the new Emperor after Leopold's death resulted in the first of what were to be repeated oversights by the imperial court of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn's ducal dignity, and, indeed, existence. Due to her sizable dowry's role both as the security for the massive reconstruction loans secured by her late husband, and as the chief source of income for the ducal court throughout Ignaz's minority, the Dowager Duchess' hand was eagerly sought both by the neighbouring nobility, especially the Prince of Waldreck, and various members of the court at Versailles. The Dowager Duchess instead temporised throughout her son's minority, returning the attentions of first one, and then another suitor, engineering a series of bloody encounters on the field of honour between the rivals until only an asthmatic count of the Gonzaga-Nevers family remained, with whom she maintained a warm but apologetic correspondence--he too ill to travel to court her in person, and she too retiring to travel unescorted--until his death 30 years ago. Her widowed life remained full of cultural and charitable concerns within Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, though, as she used her fortune to endow a breathtaking altar triptych for the Kognatdom cathedral, hospitals at the Augustinerkloster and at Bad Sankt Nikolaus, and the library of the university established by her late husband outside Hunsruck in the town of Achselfraktur.