The Tangled Web(139)

"Damn," Deveroux said. "We have to get south. We have Brahe on our tail. South and east. Every scout I send out says that Horn is blocking us. Pforzheim is blocked. Leonberg is blocked. He's turned the whole Stuttgart area into a garrison. The damned Swede seems to have thrown every man in his regiments into the screen. What's he trying to do?"

"Herd us north," Geraldin said pragmatically. "Keep us from passing across into Bavaria. Push us north, right into the Franconian border, if he can. Then let the USE troops take us."

Butler slammed his fist on the table. "Let's try to swing around to his north, by way of Bietigheim and Backnang. Maybe we can get on a southeast track from there."

Maulbronn, Duchy of Württemberg

"Nice monastery," Jeffie Garand said. "I thought that Protestants had given those up."

"The first Duke Ulrich secularized it when he turned Lutheran—took it away from the Cistercians," Friedrich said. "He kept the name 'monastery' for it, but it's been a boys' school ever since. Well, that is, it was up until the wars came. I was surprised to find anyone here at all. God knows, there's hardly anyone in Mühlacker. Before the war started, it had over a thousand people."

Johan Botvidsson appeared on their horizon, a letter in hand. "Do you know this man?"

Eberhard took the letter. "Konrad Widerhold? From Ziegenhain, up in Hesse? Of course I know him. I've known him since I was a child. He came into Württemberg military service in 1622, after Margrave Georg Friedrich of Baden lost that disastrous battle at Wimpfen to the imperials. Our father respected him immensely. When it comes to siege craft, nobody in this part of the Germanies is his equal."

"I know him, too," Sergeant Hartke said unexpectedly. "At least, Dagmar knows his wife."

Everybody in the room turned around.

"Widerhold is married to Anna Armgard. Her father used to be the commandant of Helgoland. It's a pretty small island. Dagmar's father was—still is, for that matter—the schoolteacher there. He—Dagmar's dad, his name is Niels Pedersen Menius—is something of an antiquarian, too, which is why he gave Dagmar and her sisters such peculiar names."

"Back to the topic," Derek Utt said.

"Anna, Wiederhold's wife, and Dagmar are the same age. They went to school together—all the years they went to school."

Utt smirked at Brahe. "Shall we tell Horn?"

"Only if we want to watch his hair turn white before he goes entirely bald."



Nils Brahe and Derek Utt were sharing a copy of the latest Frankfurt paper. The latest to reach them, at any rate.

"To be honest," Brahe said, I'm more relieved than anything else. The king may not be overjoyed by this latest joint behind-our-backs maneuver of Bernhard and the king in the Netherlands, but it turns Lorraine into a shield, albeit a very thin and narrow one, between the USE and France."

"By which you mean that if Turenne raids again, at least he'll have to go through somebody else's army first."

"Basically. Also, Fernando has conveniently swallowed up a very large number of Catholics. If those territories had been folded into the Province of Westphalia, they would have seriously changed the complexion of the region that Frederik of Denmark is administering. I can't quite see Wettin and Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel, or, for that matter, Gustavus, wanting to add another province with a predominantly Catholic population to the USE. Either way, it would have turned into a huge bone of contention in parliament, right in the middle of the campaigning in the east."

"Which way next?" Derek Utt asked.

"Horn's block succeeded." Brahe gave one of his first genuine smiles in days. "So far, at least. How I love radios. His scouts say that the Irishmen are headed due east. If they keep going east, they'll hit Backnang, but the terrain isn't easy. Horn is moving his regiments east, south of Stuttgart, generally toward Schwäbisch-Gmünd. His cavalry's moving ahead. If they get there fast enough, before Butler gets past, the infantry are following in a forced march. Once they are there to hold the southern screen, the cavalry will start a screen to the north. He'll have a line between the dragoons and Bavaria."

"Well, then. Onward and upward, I suppose."

"General," Ulfsparre said. "General Brahe, sir, it's Duke Friedrich. Er, that is, it's Lieutenant Württemberger. He's back from our latest scout. What he saw doesn't match with what we were getting from General Horn."

Mainz, April 1635

Springtime at the Horn of Plenty meant spring cleaning at the Horn of Plenty. Kunigunde and Ursula, with a fleet of temporarily hired maids, were turning the inn upside down and inside out. Bedding fluttered from the window sills. Sweeps shook soot down from the chimneys.