The Dreeson Incident(212)

He still didn't know the reasons for that, beyond the fact itself, in the case of Bulgaria. Grantville's records concerning Bulgarian history were essentially non-existent, and even that seemingly endless fount of historical knowledge Melissa Mailey had admitted she knew hardly anything on the subject.



But Grantville's records on Italian history were quite good. Not surprisingly, given the high percentage of its inhabitants who came from Italian stock. And the logic in the case of Italy was quite clear, once you knew where to look.



In Germany, anti-Semitism had become a tool of the emerging nationalist movement and became an integral part of it. One of the early nationalist leader Father Jahn's complaints against the foreign tyrant Napoleon had been that the French bastard prevented the Germans from indulging in their ancient custom of pogroms.



The logic developed in an opposite manner, in Italy. There, anti-Semitism was seen as a tool of the papacy—and it was the papacy and the papal states who were the principal internal obstacles to Italian unification. As it emerged, therefore, Italian nationalism was deeply hostile to anti-Semitism. Where Germany's Father Jahn had stirred up anti-Semitism, one of the first acts of the revolutionists in the great 1848 revolution in Rome had been to tear down the walls of the ghetto.



So. Who was to say that the rise of German nationalism in this universe couldn't develop in a nicely Latin manner?



Not Francisco Nasi. Who was, after all, himself a Jew.



He began humming a tune.



"Catchy," commented Achterhof. "What is it?"



"Oh, it's an up-time melody. Composed by a fellow named Verdi."



And then, of course, there was the second reason. Whatever doubts Francisco might have had were simply overwhelmed by the delightful possibility that opened up in the course of the final discussion between himself and Stearns and the CoC leaders.



"We need a name for this operation," Gretchen had said at one point. "Something striking and memorable."



Mike scratched his chin, thoughtfully.



It came to Francisco, in a flash. And by the sudden change of expression on Stearns' face, to him as well. They exchanged glances, and much as the poet said:





Looked at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.





"I have it," said Francisco. "You should call it 'Operation Krystalnacht.' "



"Absolutely," said Mike.



Gretchen and Gunther and Spartacus rolled the name around.



"Krystalnacht," mused Achterhof. "I like it. It's catchy and memorable. 'Crystal Night.' It doesn't make any sense, but I like it."



"Krystalnacht' it is, then," said Gretchen.





Later, when the two of them were alone, Mike shook his head. "I can't believe we did that."



"Don't be silly," said Francisco. "It's perfect."





Chapter 68





Kassel


The first thing Landgrave William did upon his return to his capital city was summon his military commanders.



"Here," he said. He placed a small sheaf of papers on the table in the salon where they'd gathered. "I want every man named here—every member of every organization named here—arrested immediately. And I don't care what level of force you need to use to bring them in. Dead is fine. I'll have a fair number of them executed anyway."



One of the officers picked up the list and studied it. By the time he got to the third sheet, his eyebrows were lifted.



"If you don't mind me asking, Your Grace, where did you get this list?"



"It was handed to me on the border of the province, as we passed across," William said grimly, "by the commander of a large force of the Committees of Correspondence. A large and well-armed force. The same flintlocks provided for the federal army—and better guns than most of our own soldiers have. They seem quite well disciplined, too."



The officer's eyebrows lifted still further.



"Just do it, colonel. I don't need to see anti-Semites and witch-hunters hanging from gibbets in Hesse-Kassel, or lying by the road where they were shot by firing squads. I saw quite enough of that already on our way here from Magdeburg. The best way to keep out the CoCs is to make them unnecessary."



He sat down heavily in a chair by the table. "I'm sick of those bastards anyway."



"Stinking CoCs," agreed the colonel.



"Not them," said the landgrave. "The anti-Semites. The witch-hunters. As if we didn't have enough trouble!"





The worst bloodshed was in Mecklenburg. The nobility in that province was still solidly in place, and it had long been the most grasping, piggish and narrow-minded in the Germanies. The reason for the Fourth of July Party's popularity in that largely rural province was due to the aristocracy's greed, in fact. The peasantry hated them.