Grantville Gazette Volume 93

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Grantville Gazette Volume 93 Page 9

by Bjorn Hasseler

That was different, enough to make Nicholas wonder at Woodruff's veracity. Nicholas' father was sparing with his praise, as any Puritan father was expected to be. It would never do to let a child become too arrogant in his ability. Down that path lay hubris, the idea that the child knew better than his parents did. Down that path, chaos caused by each person doing as they wished, when they wished with no concern to others. Nicholas paused for the first time in years to consider it. He saw his father through a child's eyes. Did his sons also view him as such? Hard to please and sparing with any praise? Perhaps. Even probably.

  But, Nicholas began to change his perspective, seeing his father through the eyes of another father. He remembered the love and tenderness that his father had shown his mother. He remembered the pride in his eyes when Nicholas was able to recite passages from the Bible by memory. Nicholas chuckled as he remembered the humor in his father's eyes as Nicholas once again came home dirty, usually followed by a neighbor to inform him that Nicholas had been causing mischief again. As a child, Nicholas had quailed before that stern visage of disappointment. But, as a father himself, he saw the barely constrained humor in his father's eyes. Even the neighbor's eyes had been more amused than angry. To be sure, his actions were wrong and unacceptable. They had needed to be corrected in the best way that his father knew how. But that didn't mean that Nicholas didn't remind his father of his own childhood. Much as his son, Timothy, reminded Nicholas of his own childhood.

  "But you wished to discuss matters relating to our Puritan community, I believe you said in your note." Woodruff changed the subject, getting to the purpose of this meeting.

  ~ Yes. I wish to confer with you regarding a new settlement for our brethren, both Puritan and Scots. Nicholas nodded to Baird. Massachusetts Bay has become too dangerous for our faith or anyone other than another Frenchman.

  "I see," Woodruff said. "I've known about the French purchase of New England. It is what prompted me to journey here to find alternate locations. I heard that the French had begun taking possession of it, but few details of their suppression and brutality."

  ~ The French broke my brother-in-law at the wheel in front of the town for speaking against them. My own family and that of my other brother-in-law have had to flee to live with natives for safety.

  "Then things are worse than I had expected." Woodruff pursed his lips and opened his satchel. "It would have to be somewhere in the New World. Your branch of our family is already there. Even if King Charles were to let you return to England, moving everybody across an ocean would be wasteful."

  He pulled out a map and a notebook covered with scribblings. He set the notebook aside and unfolded the map. There were annotations on the map, sometimes words, but mostly numbers, probably page numbers that corresponded to the notebook.

  "Let me see," Woodruff said absently. "Staying in Massachusetts is not an option. Probably nowhere in the rest of New England, for that matter. We don't know what the French in Quebec are going to do now that they have a new king. If I were to guess, I would say that they wouldn't be so accepting of Gaston. That would mean conflict. So, you would need something far enough outside the area of conflict to be safe, but close enough to be able to relocate with children and the elderly."

  Woodruff pored over his notes, both on the map and in the notebook. "I think I have a place to recommend." He pointed at the map.

  "Lake George?" Baird read.

  Woodruff nodded. "Yes, that's what the up-timers called it. I'm not sure what name it goes by in our timeline. The lake itself is of the utmost quality. Its residents drank directly from the lake without the need to filter or purify."

  "And these mountains will guard against any French conflict spilling over onto us," Baird said.

  Nicholas nodded. He wasn't a soldier, but he could see what Baird was talking about.

  ~ Those mountains are also going to make crossing difficult for us as well.

  "Aye," Baird responded, lost in thought.

  "When I was considering this as a site," Woodruff interjected, "I had envisioned using the Hudson River here." He traced the river from its mouth up to a point just south of the valley. "We would go up the river to this point. From there, it's a short overland journey to the valley itself."

  "Aye, but then there are the Dutch in New Amsterdam that guard the Hudson. We would have to get passage from them or find another way," Baird said.

  "True, but doable." Woodruff nodded in agreement.

  "I would have much preferred to recommend Lake Ontario here." He pointed. "However, it is far too close to the French in Quebec and the terrain that you would have to travel to get there would be far too difficult on the elderly and infirm. There is also the Five Nations. Lake Ontario would place you in a position that would challenge them, a challenge they could not ignore."

  "Besides, The Dutch are actually quite agreeable. Far better than the French."

  ~ That's not a high standard.

  Woodruff laughed loud enough that the librarian looked up at him.

  "That is true," he acknowledged. "But the Dutch have enough on their plates that they do not look beyond their holdings at Fort Orange here." Woodruff pointed at the map.

  "That says Albany," Baird remarked.

  "The up-timer name for the place. I had dismissed this site for the same reason that you can't consider anything outside the New World. We don't have the ships or resources to make immediate use of this site if there are more favorable ones available."

  ~ We did it in the up-timers' history.

  "We did indeed. However, that was when New England belonged to England," Woodruff pointed out. "We don't have that luxury in our time."

  "It doesn't feel right taking this site now that I ken you were liking it," Baird said.

  Woodruff waved it aside. "You are welcome to it. There are many sites to consider. In fact, I found this one . . . Oh, never mind."

  ~ Thank you. Can we borrow this map and your notes for a day or so to make copies?

  "You may have these." Woodruff folded the map up and placed it on the notebook. He slid them over to Nicholas.

  ~ But these are your works. Nicholas protested.

  "I have other areas to consider. Should it become necessary to look into North America again, I can find another map to work from."

  ~ You would be welcome at this new site. All of you have an invitation.

  Baird firmly nodded his agreement.

  "I shall think on it," Woodruff said noncommittally and paused. "Have you provided for a return to the New World?"

  Nicholas looked at Baird and received a shake of the head.

  "No," Baird said. "We're still gathering information to take back. We haven't had a thought to find a ship to take us there."

  "I see. Make no plans as of now," Woodruff suggested. "I may have some contacts that can assist you in that."

  ****

  “Bobby," Ziegler said.

  "Hrm?"

  Ziegler picked that same magazine up and set it on the coffee table once more. "I'm more interested in what you deem to be impossible."

  He waited a moment before speaking again. "I think you should reconsider the Scotsman's offer, Bobby."

  "I already said no." Bobby's face changed to suspicious. "You trying to run me outta my own house?"

  "No, no. I'd be going with you."

  "If you're so bent on going to this New France place, then why don't you go instead?"

  "I don't have the skills for it," Ziegler said calmly. "You do."

  "Well, that's too fucking bad for them."

  "I don't think it's for your skills that you should go, Bobby. I'm thinking of the good it will do your soul."

  "My soul?" Bobby was confused. "What are you talking about, good for my soul? Is this more of that preachy crap again, Kraut?"

  "No, God has nothing to do with this," Zigler responded. "I'm talking about how you sit here every night brooding in that chair."

  "Who are you? My mother?"

  "No, but I'd lik
e to think of myself as a friend who's concerned about you. It's not healthy that you keep to yourself as you do."

  "I got you, Kraut," Bobby said weakly.

  "No, you don't," Ziegler said. "You know that neither one of us has any interest in what the other does. I already know that you get bored when I talk about watching birds. I'm talking about those who share your interests."

  "And where is that? I can't show my face around Club 250, and the rest of the town looks at me like I just climbed off the shit wagon."

  "No, you can't," Ziegler said, bracing himself for the next round. "But you can't sit here alone."

  "And whose fault is that, Kraut?" Bobby said hotly.

  It was the question that Ziegler had been waiting for.

  "For Shithole 250, mine. But, for the rest of it? Your reputation was here long before I came along and long before the Ring of Fire."

  Whatever response Bobby had been anticipating, this wasn't one of them. He hadn't been expecting Ziegler to bring up his life before the Ring of Fire. Ziegler had long found out that no amount of force could move Bobby's foundation once he set himself to be stubborn. But, just maybe, if you could tip it, push it off balance, then it might, might, fall back in the way you wanted.

  "Why do you care so much, Kraut?"

  Ziegler let the silence hang in the air for a few moments while he gathered his thoughts.

  "Bobby, remember when I first came here and began cleaning up this dump?"

  "Yeah." A small grin came to Bobby's lips. The place had been a dump after all.

  "While I was working in the back, I came across these wooden pieces you had carved and thrown away."

  "How do you know they were mine?"

  "They were exquisite pieces. You wouldn't have bought them. You would have passed by them without even thinking about it."

  "So, too rich for a redneck like me?" Bobby said.

  "Yes," Ziegler said frankly. "But, those carvings were something else. The details were amazing, you had even done the pubic hair on the woman figure."

  "It was just wood." Bobby tried to dismiss it. "It broke and I threw it away."

  "You give yourself far too little credit here, Bobby," Ziegler said. "And that's why I think you need to accept the Scotsman's offer. Staying here is doing you no good. You can be so much more."

  "I don't need to be more," Bobby said, but it was with fading strength. "I got all I need here."

  "Which is why you're stuck here."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "That you're letting yourself hold on to all of this because you're afraid to let go." This was the dangerous part. Luckily, Bobby was more stunned than offended.

  "What did you just say?"

  "I'm saying that you have no bridges here, Bobby." Ziegler moved quickly. "There is nothing here to challenge you. If you stay here, then that means you accept the judgment that the rest of Grantville has already passed on you. You can't tell me that you find that accurate."

  "No," Bobby said mulishly. "It ain't fair. I ain't stupid, just like to take my time thinking things through."

  "And you're certainly not a racist." Ziegler threw a proverbial bone. "You've treated me as a guest, even if I was an annoyance. I've never felt anything less than an equal."

  Bobby grunted. "I appreciate that, Kraut. You're just as much a man as I am."

  "Then prove it to yourself, Bobby," Ziegler said. "Take the Scotsman's offer and let's start something new. A clean slate that you can contribute. You've got the talent and I hate to see you less than you are able. You're too good a man for that, Bobby Jones."

  "I'll think about it," Bobby said.

  Ziegler knew they were going to the New World.

  ****

  Next, 8 Free Imperial Cities:

  There are eight free imperial cities of the United States of Europe. Each city also owns a more-or-less small amount of hinterland.

  The cities are not part of any particular province or state, and each has representation in the House of Commons, but not the House of Lords. There is a movement within the United States of Europe government (spearheaded by the Fourth of July Party) to grant each free imperial city a seat in the House of Lords, but as of the end of 1636, this has not yet come to pass.

  Augsburg

  Augsburg is one of the oldest cities in Germany. It was founded by the Romans in 15 BCE with the name Augusta Vindelicorum. The town prospered over the centuries because it lies at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers, both of which were used to transport goods between Italy and Germany, and its proximity to several Alpine passes. In 1276 Augsburg was made a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, and was also the seat of the Bishopric of Augsburg, which extended south from Augsburg into the Vorarlberg.

  Augsburg was originally known for its grapes and wine. In fact, a specific variety of grapes, called "Augster," originated in the locality.

  According to legend, sometime in the fifteenth century a very old pine cone was found inside the city.

  The oldest known specimen of the town seal dates from 1279. It depicts the walled city with a six-pointed star above it, and a roughly spherical bunch of grapes in the city’s gate. Originally, the symbol on the town seal was a roughly spherical bunch of grapes. Eventually the design of the grapes evolved to look more and more like a pine cone. By the 16th Century, the pine cone had replaced the grapes as the symbol of Augsburg.

  The cone of the Swiss Stone Pine has become a symbol closely associated with Augsburg. On the seal and flag of the city it is shown atop a capital (the topmost section of an architectural column). The angel’s face was added to the capital in 1521. A crown was added to the angel’s head in the capital in 1811 OTL. The crown appears on the twenty-first-century flag and coat of arms of the city, but not on the ones used in the 1630s.

  Cologne

  Cologne (Köln in German) is also one of the oldest cities in Germany. It was founded by the Romans around 50 CE as a military camp. The Latin name for the camp was Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. Its location on the left bank of the Rhine led to its prospering from the goods transported up and down the Rhine by traders and merchants.

  The patron saint of Cologne is Saint Ursula. Legend has it that Ursula was the daughter of the king of Dumnonia (known as Cornwall in the twenty-first century, but then still part of Wales). The king betrothed her to the pagan governor of Armorica (Brittany) in Gaul, ignoring the fact that she was a Christian. In or around 383 CE, Ursula boarded a ship with 11,000 handmaidens (it probably was originally only eleven handmaidens, but the number was inflated to 11,000, probably due to a misinterpretation of an abbreviation ["XI. M. V." interpreted as "Eleven Thousand Virgins", rather than "Eleven Martyred Virgins"] in a recorded text of the legend.)

  A "miraculous storm" carried Ursula’s ships to a Gaulish port in a single day, when such a voyage usually took much longer. On arrival in Gaul, Ursula decided to postpone her wedding until after she completed a pilgrimage across Europe. Ursula and her entourage then travelled to Rome, where she persuaded the pope and the bishop of Ravenna to join her pilgrimage. They then set off for Cologne, which was under siege by the Huns at the time. Ursula herself was killed by an arrow in her chest, shot by the leader of the Huns (that would have been Attila), and all 11,000 of her handmaidens were beheaded by the Huns, because of their Christianity. The fate of the pope and the bishop was not reported.

  The Coat of Arms of Cologne in the 1630s consisted of a field divided fesswise, red on top and white on the bottom. In the top half are three crowns, representing the three kings, or "Wise Men", who visited the infant Jesus shortly after his birth, according to Chapter 2 of the Gospel of St. Matthew. The crowns commemorate Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa’s bringing relics of the Three Kings to Cologne in 1164. The white field on the bottom of the arms has eleven black flames (they were originally ermine spots), representing the 11,000 virgins who accompanied Ursula. The virgins were represented by ermine spots because the coat of arms of Br
ittany is a simple field of ermine, and Ursula was to become a princess of Brittany upon her marriage. (See the upcoming chapter about the flags of France.)

  This flag was the historic flag of the City of Cologne in the seventeenth century. The twenty-first-century flag of the city is the same. A white flag divided into quarters by a black cross was also used, but it represented the Prince-Bishopric of Cologne, rather than the city.

  Frankfurt

  Frankfurt was founded as a Roman military post in the first century CE. It was initially located on a low hill in the middle of a marsh adjacent to the Main River. The marsh has long been drained, and by the seventeenth century the city had spread beyond the original limits of the marsh.

  Its original Latin name was Vadum Francorum, which seems to mean "Ford of the Franks." Eventually it was Germanized and became Franconofurd or Frankenfort in the Middle Ages, both of which meant the same thing.

  Frankfurt prospered and grew from its founding, due to its location on the Main, a major trade route. After the Treaty of Verdun (843), Frankfurt effectively became the capital of East Francia.

  By 1180 Frankfurt had become one of the largest and most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. In that year it was elevated to a free imperial city.

  In the original timeline, Frankfurt managed to remain neutral in the Thirty Years’ War, but was ravaged by Bubonic Plague, apparently brought to the city by refugees from the fighting. In the new timeline, Frankfurt was taken by the Swedish army by 1634, and after the Congress of Copenhagen, Frankfurt was first made the capital of the Province of the Main, and shortly thereafter was made a free imperial city of the United States of Europe.

  The coat of arms with the white eagle was granted to Frankfurt by the Holy Roman Emperor when it became a free imperial city. The red and white stripes were the traditional colors of Germany. Historically, sometimes there were only two stripes, sometimes four.

  Hamburg

  In 808 CE, Charlemagne ordered a fortress built on the present site of the city. The name of the fortress was Hammaburg. In 834 Hamburg was designated as the seat of a new bishopric, which was later temporarily united with the Bishopric of Bremen. In 1189 Frederick I ("Barbarossa") elevated Hamburg to a free imperial city, and Hamburg became a major port city. In 1241 Hamburg and Lübeck formed a trade alliance. This alliance was the origin of the Hanseatic League.

 

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