The Eternal Empire

by Geoff Fabron

  Cornelius did not know what to say. Sensibly he decided to say nothing and just smiled, leaving the talking to Katherine who seemed to be completely in control of everything.

  "Dinner will be served in a couple of hours," she said, "that gives us time to freshen up, relax and change." She started to ascend the stairs, "come on Cornelius, I'll show you to your room."

  He followed her to the first floor and along a corridor that led off the landing. Katherine opened one of the doors and gestured Cornelius inside. His bag was sitting neatly at the bottom of the bed.

  "I'm off for a long hot bath," announced Katherine, "I'll see you at dinner."

  Cornelius nodded his acknowledgement and Katherine turned to leave. Before she closed the door she turned back to him. "Oh, and one more thing Cornelius," she said, the grin back on her face, "there is a bearskin rug."

  Roman Embassy, Minden, Saxony

  The telegraph office had been busy all morning. Lengthy coded messages from Constantinople were arriving non-stop and the duty officer had to call in additional staff. The first message decoded was marked ‘Urgent – Ambassadors eyes only’, and Taronites was contacted in his residence immediately. The message warned him to expect new instructions in respect of the current trade negotiations.

  The ambassador send messages for the rest of his senior staff to attend and waited with a sense of foreboding whilst the coded messages were received and carefully translated by the embassy staff and typed up for delivery. The messages described the developments in the political situation at the Capital and the declaration of the State of Emergency. They were followed by the details concerning the new trade tariffs and regulations that Exanzenus had devised.

  The ambassador read these twice to be sure that he had read it correctly. He then put the document down on his desk, closed his eyes and shook his head in despair. “They have all gone fucking mad!”

  Maleric Hunting Lodge, Saxony

  Although there were only the two of them, dinner was a formal affair. Cornelius had not expected this and so had not packed a toga, so he wore the most respectable of the casual clothes he had with him. Katherine wore an elegant, low-cut green evening gown which made him even more self conscious.

  Like his vision of the roaring fire and the bearskin rug, Cornelius had imagined a simple and intimate supper with Katherine, not a five course dinner with half a dozen servants hovering around waiting to fill a wine glass, serve a course or clear a plate. Still, once he got over the feeling that the servants were all staring, or disapprovingly of his clothes, Cornelius found that he was enjoying the meal. The food was superb, a great deal better than what he normally ate.

  Katherine could see that Cornelius was not comfortable talking in the presence of the servants, and kept the conversation light and superficial. After the final course had been cleared away they retired into the drawing room, where as promised there was a bearskin rug in front of an open fire.

  A small table stood nearby, on which a jug with a matching pair of stoneware goblets had been placed. Katherine went over to the table and poured each of them a drink. She passed Cornelius one, and then sat down on the rug. Cornelius sat down opposite her and they both watched the flames dance in the fire while sipping the hot wine.

  Without the inhibiting presence of the servants they began to talk more freely. Katherine asked him about the time he had served in the imperial army, casually at first but then the questions became more probing. Finally Cornelius asked her what she really wanted to know.

  She stared into her goblet, not looking directly at him as she spoke. "I want to know what you really think and feel about war."

  Cornelius looked at her for a few moments, but she did not look up. He turned his face away to stare into the fire. He cast his mind back to Africa, to the Atlas mountains in the interior and recalled memories that had been suppressed but never forgotten. Ambushed whilst pursuing Moorish raiders, his patrol had been pinned down in a pass for four hours in the midday heat. Half his men had been killed or badly wounded before a relief column had found them.

  "Cornelius?"

  He snapped out of the trance he had fallen into and looked at Katherine. She saw in his face that her question had triggered some painful memory and did not push him to elaborate.

  "As I’ve mentioned to you before, when I was little-I used to play with the children on our estates. As I grew older I realised how few had a father, so many of them had been killed in the war. That's when I learnt to hate war and the misery and pain it brings."

  Cornelius nodded slowly. "War is a tragedy, a sad indictment on us all. For all our technological achievements we are as morally deficient now as when Rome was founded. After the army I joined the diplomatic service in the hope that I could find peaceful solutions instead of fighting. It's better to talk than to fight."

  Katherine looked relieved and smiled at Cornelius. "I'm glad you feel that way," she said and then looked away again, into the fire. "I've grown very fond of you Cornelius." There was a vulnerability in her voice that he had not heard before. "There was someone a while ago," her voice sounded dry and she coughed to clear her throat, "that I was very close to. We loved each other and there was talk of marriage, but his burning passion was not for me but for another war - a war against your Empire." The memory was obviously strong and she was taking deep breaths to control herself. "I couldn't accept that and eventually stopped seeing him. It was very hard and it hurt us both a great deal, but I had to do it." She turned away from the flames to look directly at Cornelius. The light from the fire reflected off the tears in her eyes. "I won't put myself through that again."

  Cornelius moved closer to her, and took her hands in his. He now understood her brother’s concern. He spoke quietly. "I'm very fond of you too, Katherine. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. I've seen the horror of war, the death and destruction that it brings. I would do anything to prevent another war between our nations."

  She moved closer to him and he put his arms around her. They just sat there for a while, looking into the flames. Then they looked at each other and kissed, softly and tentatively at first, then with more confidence, their hands beginning to caress each other. They lay down on the rug and Cornelius was wondering where this would lead, when the sound of heavy boots on the wooden floor outside the door broke the spell. They quickly separated and sat up as the door opened and a man entered the room and came to a stop staring at them.

  They stood up, and looked at the intruder. He was about the same age as Titus, with the bearing of a military man, erect and confident. He looked at them both but addressed himself to Katherine.

  "Well, isn't this cosy," he said mockingly, "I'd no idea that you had dragged yourself away from your books to come down this way. And with an ‘admirer in tow."

  Katherine looked at him coldly. "I didn't expect you here either." As they both stood up she turned to Cornelius.

  "This is my younger brother Franz," she said, "and this," she indicated Cornelius to Franz, "is Cornelius Petronius, from the embassy in Minden. He's working with Frederick on the trade negotiations."

  A scowl came over Franz Maleric's face. "A Roman! You really have come down in the world, haven't you Katherine!"

  To Cornelius surprise, Katherine was quite calm as she replied. "When I need your opinion about the company I keep, I'll send you a letter." The tone of her voice was cutting and sarcastic. It was clear that she was used to trading barbs with her sibling.

  "In that case," he snapped, "I'll leave you two alone." He turned and walked out of the room, but paused at the door for a final verbal shot.

  "I won't mention this to poor Edwin, he was hurt enough by your rejection of him. If he knew that you are now consorting with Saxony's enemies, I would just be rubbing salt into his wounds."

  Cornelius noticed that Katherine tensed and balled her hands into fists at that last remark but did not say anything. She just stared at her brothers back as he left the room. He went over and stood behind her,
putting his hands on her arms. "Are you all right?"

  She nodded. "As you can see, I don't get on with Franz as well as I do with Frederick."

  He held her close and she seem comforted by his proximity. "Was Edwin the one you mentioned earlier?"

  "Yes. He was a friend of Franz from the military academy." She moved out of his arms and sat down on an armchair, Cornelius sat on the rug in front of her. She continued, "at first he laughed a lot and was fun to be with, but after he went to the staff school he became almost obsessed with a hatred of the Empire. Franz was the same."

  Cornelius had heard about the Saxon Army's Staff School. Count Godisger took a close interest in the officers selected for the staff course, and his hatred of all things Roman was well known. If Godisger ever got his way, another war would be a certainty.

  Katherine looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece. "It's late and we have a busy day tomorrow," she said as she rose from the chair, "I think I'll go to bed now."

  Cornelius got up and she kissed him. "Goodnight Cornelius. I'll see you at breakfast."

  Cornelius watched her leave before pouring himself another drink from the jug on the table. The romance of the evening had been ruined by the intrusion of Franz and whilst he felt frustrated, he was also slightly relieved. He was very fond of Katherine and he was certainly attracted to her, but should he, an imperial diplomat be getting that 'involved' with the sister of the head of the Saxon trade delegation? The fact that Katherine's brother and his ambassador did not appear concerned only marginally reduced his anxiety.

  He drained the last drops of wine and holding the empty goblet resumed his staring into the flames, as though he was looking for an answer in the shapes formed by the flickering tongues of fire.

  After a few moments reflection he realised that he was already involved and he believed that Katherine was too. All that was left to be decided was the depth of that involvement.

  Chapter Seven

  5th April 1920

  Minden, Saxony

  Katherine had promised to get Cornelius to the trade talks at her brother's estate by nine o’clock, so they had left the hunting lodge early that morning. The previous days trek through the Teutoburger Wald had been quite exhausting. They had covered a fair distance, and Cornelius was pleasantly surprised that Katherine had managed to keep up with him. The paths through the dense, dark forest were well worn but with few signposts, and without Katherine as a guide Cornelius would have missed many of the sites that he had wanted to see. She had shown him the location of the first camp made by Varus and his three legions. The neat, straight lines of the ditch and ramparts were still visible after nearly two thousand years beneath the undergrowth and tree. When they had come to the legions second camp, it was clear that the morale of the army had begun to collapse under the harassing attacks of the German tribes. The ditch was shallower and the ramparts lower than the first camp, and the outline did not have the same military precision.

  Finally Katherine had led him to where the Romans had been trapped in a gorge that ran through the Teutoburger Ridge. It was here that Arminius and his warriors had destroyed Varus and his men. Many of the senior officers were sacrificed on hastily built altars to the pagan gods of the forest and their skulls nailed to the trees. When a Roman army eventually returned to the site of the disaster, six years later, they found piles of bones where groups of legionaries had fought and died.

  On a hill overlooking the battle site there was a forty foot high statue of Arminius, with his right arm pointing a sword skywards and his left hand holding three Eagles. The three legions that had died with Varus that fateful autumn in 9 AD were never reformed and no legion since then had ever been numbered after them.

  Katherine and Cornelius had had their lunch on that hill. She had laid out a table cloth and emptied the contents of the hamper which Cornelius had been carrying on his back all morning. Cold chicken, ham, assorted sausages, various breads and a bottle of Riesling wine from the Rhine valley. They had had a leisurely lunch, chatting about what they had seen and arguing light-heartedly about the pros and cons of Germany having been 'saved' from the civilising influences of the Roman Empire. Katherine had leaned back against Cornelius whilst they finished off the wine. He stroked her hair whilst she snuggled into his arms, and they talked about the futility of war and the horror it brings in its wake.

  They had taken a slow walk back to the lodge, arriving in time for supper, and gone to bed early.

  Katherine stopped the motor carriage at the entrance to the estate and Cornelius kissed her goodbye before getting out and retrieving his bag from the back seat. He was feeling rather euphoric and did not notice that the atmosphere among the occupants of the hall had changed until he was standing beside the ambassador.

  The smile on Cornelius's face disappeared when he saw the ambassadors’ expression.

  "What's happened?" he asked.

  "This!” snapped the ambassador waving a sheet of paper. It was a statement from Constantinople with the details of the new trade policy. Cornelius quickly read through the document.

  "This is madness!" he exclaimed aloud. A number of people in the room, both Roman and Saxon turned to look at him.

  "Everything we have achieved and worked for will be thrown away!" Cornelius was angry. Not just the trade agreement, but peace between the Empire and Saxony was at stake.

  "Control yourself Petronius!" hissed the ambassador, "we are servants of the Empire. Our job is to support the policy of the government. I won't have the Saxons see us divided!"

  Cornelius took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm sorry Ambassador. This came as a shock to me. You are, of course, correct; we are here to promote the views of our government."

  "No matter how stupid it is," added the ambassador under his breath so that no one could hear. "Yes Cornelius, in private I agree with you. It is madness, but we must do our best to calm the Saxons down. If they think that we believe that Constantinople has taken leave of its senses, it'll only inflame the situation. What we must do is to put the best possible interpretation on this, whilst we hope and pray that Exanzenus and the Emperor realise their stupidity in time!"

  Cornelius noticed Count Maleric coming over to them, and the ambassador alerted by the change in Cornelius's expression turned to face the Count, giving him his finest diplomatic smile.

  Maleric's face was sad but stern, unaffected by the ambassador's friendly countenance. "In view of the Empire's new policy on trade and commerce," he said carefully and deliberately, "I can't see any benefit in continuing these talks."

  Ambassador Taronites expression changed to one of shocked surprise, and when he spoke Cornelius understood why he had been chosen to represent the Empire in this sensitive location.

  "Count Maleric," he began, "I can understand that you are confused by this latest announcement from Constantinople, but I'm confident that cooler heads will prevail and that we can soon resume our talks as though nothing has happened."

  "I truly hope so, Isaac," replied a sceptical Maleric, "but from the tone of the announcement I have my doubts. The trade tariffs are bad enough, especially in the light of what we have achieved this past month, but what really fills me with foreboding is this issue of imposing a duty for using the Rhine and other waterways."

  "Just a negotiating ploy," insisted Taronites, "with all the trouble the Empire has had recently, the new chief minister must project a tough image, "he explained, "then, he can allow himself to be persuaded to moderate his policies."

  Frederick Maleric looked hard at his old friend for a few moments. He knew he was only doing his job and was probably just as concerned about the situation as he was.

  "I wish I could believe that Isaac," he said finally, "I really do, but Exanzenus does not have a reputation for being a person to moderate his views. His Majesty the King evidently thinks the same. I've just heard that a full meeting of the Royal Council has been called. I'll pass on your comments but I don't believe that my fellow Counts will
be in a receptive mood.

  Count Maleric bowed curtly to the ambassador and Cornelius and walked away.

  "He's certainly well informed about our new chief minister," commented Cornelius as the Count left the room followed by the rest of the Saxon delegation.

  "Yes," agreed the ambassador, "and I fear Frederick's observations are too close to the mark for comfort. If King Otto has called a full council meeting, things could get out of hand."

  Cornelius had spent most of his time in Saxony trying to understand the military and commercial structure of the country and had only picked up a superficial understanding of the political set up. He asked the ambassador to explain the importance of a full council meeting.

  "Normally, the King, Otto VIII, is advised by an inner council of about a dozen senior Counts who are responsible for trade, finance, foreign relations, defence and so on. On the whole they are a level headed bunch of fellows with a lot of common sense, like Maleric. However," continued Taronites, "a full council consists of all the Counts who hold any civil or military position in the Kingdom, and many of them are rabidly anti-Roman."

  "You mean like Godisger," said Cornelius. The image of Franz, the look of virulent hatred on his face immediately came to mind. How many more like him were there?

  "Especially Count Godisger." Agreed the ambassador."It's no secret that he will take any opportunity to turn the King and the nobles against the Empire and instigate another war."

  "What can we do about it?" asked Cornelius, who was beginning to feel out of his depth.

  "Well, I'm going to contact as many of the Saxon nobles as I can and try to buy some time."

  "Time for what?" queried Cornelius.

  "Time for you to try and get Constantinople to come to their senses. I want you to go directly to chief minister Exanzenus and personally appraise him of the situation here and what effect this new policy is likely to have."