Ignoring the interruption, de Geer's informant continued on. "Also, our men have lost track of Felix Gruyard."
"Any idea where he may have gone?" the secretary asked, steno book in hand.
"Wherever the charming Ferdinand of Bavaria, archbishop and elector of Cologne and faithful minion of his elder brother Maximilian, chooses to send him—with uniformly undesirable results, from our perspective."
"Such sarcasm. Your Calvinism is showing, Louis. Ferdinand's not the only ruler who employs a full-time torturer."
"He's the only one who employs Gruyard."
"There is that."
"It's not that I don't have faith in God's providence," Louis de Geer said. "It's just that there are days when I suspect that He's resting again."
Section Two: A good and spacious land . . .
Mainz, May 1634
Morning prayers could be hard on one's conscience, if one went about the process of self-examination honestly.
Nils Brahe was inclined toward honesty, as much in judging himself as in judging others. As Montaigne had written, quoting Cicero, "to judge a man, we must for a long time follow and mark his steps, to see whether constancy of purpose is firm and well-founded within him." Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est. Not to mention that the Bible also contained more than a few well-chosen words on the topic of hypocrisy. So.
Ahrensbök.
Envy was not an admirable characteristic. Indeed, it was a sin. The Catholics classified it as a mortal sin. Although Lutheran theology insisted that all sins were equal in the sight of God, perhaps it was particularly sinful to envy Lennart Torstensson, who had just brought Gustavus Adolphus such a great victory. Even if the king had been heard to say that "after Torstensson," one was the prospective best strategic talent in the Swedish army.
Oh, but the word "after" did grate.
Envy of one's older brother was not an admirable characteristic. In anybody, at any time. Being a younger brother was a dispensation of divine providence. It was particularly un-admirable when one discovered it in oneself. Still, Per's political career in Sweden was taking off like one of the airplanes at the USE's landing field in Mainz.
Whereas one was more or less stuck in Mainz.
Or was one?
Nils Brahe, still a few months away from turning thirty years old, looked up from his daily Bible readings and folded his hands behind his head, shifting his thoughts from the impersonal mode to the personal.
According to his own close friend Erik Hand, the king had approved Johan Banér's project against Ingolstadt. Which was exasperating.
In spite of that grating word "after," he drew some consolation from knowing the king trusted him enough that there was no equivalent of Hand watching over his activities.
His sister Ebba was already married to Banér's brother Axel.
His sister Kerstin was still unmarried. She was only about fifteen years younger than Erik who was, after all, the king's cousin, even if his mother was illegitimate. Fifteen years wasn't bad. Even with the crippled arm, Erik was a handsome man. Almost everyone agreed on that. Opinion was as close to unanimous as it ever got.
He missed his wife. He would write her and ask her to come to Mainz, bringing Kerstin along. They could stay for a while—preferably until such time as Anna Margareta was expecting another child. Then she could go home again. After all, somebody had to run the estates while he was himself off contributing to the king's imperial dreams.
Anna Margareta could bring the children. He missed his children, too.
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can possibly be," Botvidsson answered. "My information is absolutely reliable. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar has withdrawn his cavalry units to the south. Ohm, Caldenbach, and Rosen—all three of them. They should be south of Strassburg by the day after tomorrow, which is, in my best opinion, about where they will halt and set up a screen. Which means that he's not contemplating a Turenne-style raid up the Main into the State of Thuringia-Franconia, which makes me happy. Nor is Bernhard moving any of his infantry north from the Franche Comté, so it doesn't look like he plans to meet up with the cavalry and strike east against Württemberg again, which probably is making Gustav Horn a happy man, or at least as happy as he ever gets."
Nils Brahe smiled at his council. "True. Now he'll be worrying about what else Bernhard has in mind as far as Swabia is concerned. Or where else. If I were in the Breisgau, I would be nervous. But come, gentlemen, we have no time to waste."
"What?"
"Since Bernhard has been so kind as to make straight what long was crooked and the rougher places plain . . ."
Every man at the table grasped the reference to the fortieth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah at once.