Re: The Prinz and the Provencal
Chapter Two: The Italian Job
Part Two
The messenger lay sprawling in the dust before the Prinz who stood over him menacingly, brandishing the gauntlet with which he had struck the man about the face.
Leopold spat on the Provencal and wheeled around to accost the captain of the guard who stood before him cringing
"So you mean to say, good sir" he snarled, "that under our very noses....through our lines of circumvallation....into a besieged city" his voice rising, "a troupe of French peasants and mercenaries simply pranced into the vaults" shouting directly into the man's face now "took what they wished and SIMPLY WALKED BACK OUT AGAIN!!"
The Prinz was clearly enraged. His face was turning a shade of purple that the onlookers had never observed before in a human being. The word 'apoplectic' sprang to mind.
The captain was in tatters, his nerves at their very end. In the smallest voice imaginable he said "Yes your highness."
For a brief moment it seemed the Prinz would lash out once more. But he gathered himself, slowly, the purple receded, he took a deep breath, turned away from the captain, clearly disgusted, and turned instead to Gustav von Melk, his trusted advisor.
"And to top it all off he styles himself Prinz! It is enough to make the blood boil in my veins. Gustav, wherefore has the criminal fled?"
"To Genoa my liege."
"Genoa? Does he not know that my father has claimed the city? The elders will not harbour him in defiance of the Kaiser."
"Perhaps he does not my liege. He has been on the march for some time, after all."
The Prinz visibly cheered.
"Then we have him! We march at once to catch the rebel Zirn at Genoa. God willing we will reclaim our gold and punish the traitor in one fell swoop."
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