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Time to earn his pay, so to speak.

Terror and adrenaline will keep Jean going, I expect, until it is all over. Then, depending on the result, he may start to realise the enormity of what is happening.
 
excellent update, I must say. I don't get over to the Eu3AAR forum as much as I'd like, but yours is one of my favorites.
 
kingmbutu Good to hear it is easier to read now :)
Yes, there are many questions about what will happen to Jean and how he will do, and I hope some will be explained in the next update



J. Passepartout I think that is an reasonable assumption ;)



GhostWriter The situation doesn’t looked good, they were caught in a ambush
As for whom wants to capture or kill someone time will show



stnylan Indeed, time to earn his pay. I am sure the situation and the adrenalin will keep him going as long as he stays alive….



rcduggan Thanks. I am honoured that you enjoy the story



All Well we left off with our heroes in a tricky situation, so I guess you are all waiting to see what happens next. As I don’t want to force you to wait much longer I am working on the next update now and should have it posted in a couple of hours…
 
Uh-oh! If the Baron falls, this puts Jean in charge and in a risky night manuever. Damn sneaky bastards. Perhaps the Duke has some expertise to lend a hand in defeating them.
 
coz1 said:
Uh-oh! If the Baron falls, this puts Jean in charge and in a risky night manuever. Damn sneaky bastards. Perhaps the Duke has some expertise to lend a hand in defeating them.
Indeed it puts Jean in charge, so we can only hope that he is up for the challenge. But I do indeed think the Duke knows a trick or two, after all he has been campaigning and commanding English armies both in the Palatinate and in Spain…

The next update is ready so I will post it next so you don’t have to wait much longer….
 




lightningtj3.jpg





26 May 1625
Picardie region, France





As Jean saw the Baron fell forward it was as if time stopped. He didn’t feel the rain, he didn’t notice the arrows flying around him, he didn’t even notice the sound of lighting or pistols being fired as men were fighting for their lives. All Jean could see was the Baron.


It felt like it lasted for hours, but in reality it wasn’t more than a minute before Richard had reached the Baron and lifted him down from the horse. Seeing the Englishman risk his life got Jean back to reality and he jumped off his horse to help Richard carry the Baron. Quickly they moved him into the wagon.



As he saw the Baron on the floor in the wagon with the new Queen of England looking shocked Jean returned to reality and quickly he got his sword and started screaming orders.





“Louis. Take three of the men and try to clear the woods on our left. We need to get these archers…

The rest of you on me… We need to get the wagon away from here.”




”That might be difficult monsieur Jean, the wagon is trapped in mud…”





It was only as Richard pointed towards the left front wheel that Jean noticed it, the wheel was deep into the mud. The attackers had certainly chosen a good location for their attack.




“Damn it!"




Just as Jean turned around the first attacker jumped on him. The arrows had stopped falling, but instead the attackers had now moved in on the wagon and the remaining soldiers, and now one of them jumped Jean from behind. With his face in the mud Jean was unable to do anything but try to get away from the large man that had jumped onto his back.


Quickly rolling around on the road Jean was able to avoid the man’s sword as he tried to stab Jean with it. Jean tried to get up, but instead a second man jumped him from behind and grabbed his hands while the first man came running towards him with his sword ready.



Suddenly a shot rang out, the first man halted, his mouth open. He lost his sword and fell into the mud with blood coming from a wound in his back. As Jean opened his eyes he could see the Duke of Buckingham standing there with two smoking pistols. The Duke had shot the man in the back and saved Jean’s life.

Now that he had only one man to focus about Jean was able to get away fro the second man’s grip. Trying to find his sword Jean was rolling around on the ground, kicking the man in his legs every time he tried to get close to Jean. But the mud, rain and the darkness mad it hard for Jean to locate the sword. Instead he remembers his small dagger that he has hidden under his cloak. Quickly grabbing the dagger Jean gets up, runs forward and stabs the attacker in the neck. Blood starts pouring out and the man falls to the ground.


Not even thinking about the dead man Jean grabs his dagger, wipes off some of the blood on the dead man’s cloak and runs to aid Francois who is fighting against two attackers at once. Jean attacks one of them, stabbing him quickly in the arm causing him to lose his sword. Francois smiles and quickly grabs the sword and tosses it to Jean, Jean picks it up and strikes it quickly around right into the man’s chest. Then with his dagger in the left hand he tosses the dagger against a man running against Francois from behind. Getting hit by the dagger in the chest the man stops and falls backwards, the same second Francois finishes off his second attacker with a stab right through his heart.


As Jean turns around he can see small fires from pistols and muskets in the woods and then he hears Louis’s voice.





”Monsieur Jean, we have killed seven of these archer bastards… I don’t think there are anyone left alive.”



“Splendid Louis. Search the woods one more time!”





The same moment that Louis announced the death of the archers Jean sees something horrible. In front of the first wagon he sees four of the attackers have managed to get to overwhelm what looked like the Duke and now they are lifting him up trying to carrying him away. From the carriage the can hear the English Queen scream and quickly he runs to the wagon door. There he sees on of the attackers trying to get close to the Queen, but before Jean can do anything the men falls to the ground. As the smoke slowly lifts Jean thinks he can see Richard on the other side of the wagon with a pistol in his hand, and instead of staying the runs towards the attackers that have grabbed the Duke.



“To me men. We can’t let them get away!”




He can see the four attackers have lifted the Duke up and is running while carrying the Duke. Then he can see Charles coming out of the woods just in front of the attackers. Jean thinks that they might still have a chance of saving the Duke before they get him into the woods, but then suddenly he notices that Charles isn’t walking properly. He is stumbling along, and then Jean notices the blood coming from his chest. He had been shot and would be unable to halt the fleeing attackers.

A couple of seconds after Jean noticed Charles stumbling out of the woods he also sees several more attackers coming out of the woods. Behind him he hears a musket shot and as he turns his head he sees Francois firing a musket. One of the men carrying the Duke falls to the ground, but as five more attackers had just come out of the woods they take his place and now they are able to move even quicker with the Duke.


Then suddenly Jean feels something hit his head and everything goes black.




………………​






As Jean returns to life he finds himself in an inn resting close to the fire. He thinks he can see the Queen sitting in a corner with two of her maids that were travelling with her. Jean’s eyes are blurry and his head is hurting him so he can’t see straight, but as he looks up he notices someone wearing Richard’s cloak standing there looking at him.





”Ah the hero awakens…


Good to have you back among the living monsieur de Nogaret! Oh and don’t worry about Baron de Coligny he is resting upstairs, the doctor manage to remove the arrow. He was lucky it only hit him in the shoulder….”





Jean was certain it was Richard from the colour of the cloak, but as he hears the voice he is uncertain, it wasn’t Richard’s voice. It was the voice of the Duke of Buckingham, it was then Jean knew his head had to be playing games with him. It had to; he had seen the Duke be kidnapped with his own eyes. Then Jean feels his head go all dizzy and he passed out again.
 
I was worried for a minute there. These are some pretty intent foes, and I thought we had lost when Jean saw them carrying Buckingham off. But apparantly not. Now, will the Duke stay in France to help save Richard, or delegate the task to Jean?
 
A set-up!

This gets more and more interesting.
 
J. Passepartout said:
This gives me another idea that hadn't occured to me, that the Duke intended to be attacked, in order to distract his enemies.

Intriguing idea
 
J. Passepartout The enemies sure were intent, and that was a very hard fight. But as you say the Duke has obviously outmanoeuvred the attackers… Just how and why you will get to know alter today



stnylan Good, it is supposed to be interesting and intriguing ;)



J. Passepartout That is an idea, if it is correct… you will have to wait and see



kingmbutu Indeed it was



All It seems like the Duke has managed to outmanoeuvre the enemies, but there is still the question who they carried away and what they will do when they find out it isn’t the Duke… will they even find out? Also what did the Duke actually do? There are many questions, and I haven’t got all the answers now, but I can promise you one thing. Some questions will be answered later today when I post the next update.
 
Lord E: ...Jean was certain it was Richard from the colour of the cloak, but as he hears the voice he is uncertain, it wasn’t Richard’s voice. It was the voice of the Duke of Buckingham...

so, the Duke really did not trust the Cardinal ? ? ;) wise man, to be sure ! !

he has himself replaced with someone, and shadows the wagon company with his own men ! ! :)

awesome ! ! :D

magnificent update ! !
:cool:
 
GhostWriter said:
Lord E: ...Jean was certain it was Richard from the colour of the cloak, but as he hears the voice he is uncertain, it wasn’t Richard’s voice. It was the voice of the Duke of Buckingham...

so, the Duke really did not trust the Cardinal ? ? ;) wise man, to be sure ! !

he has himself replaced with someone, and shadows the wagon company with his own men ! ! :)

awesome ! ! :D

magnificent update ! !
:cool:
Thanks glad you enjoyed the update. :)

Well the Duke is a smart man I think and seeing as they were attacked he did a smart move… You shall get to know what he did in a minute. But he didn’t bring any men with him into France, but after all this has happened he might…


New update up next.
 




churchhseoveryma2.gif



27 May 1625
Picardie region, France




Jean awakened in the early hours. Outside he could see it was still dark, and as he looked through the window he noticed the flash of lightning. The rain was still pouring.

Turning his head around he could see two of the men sit near the door obviously guarding it, and close to on of the walls five other men were sleeping. It was then Jean remembered what had happened last night and he immediately started looking around for the Duke. At first he thought it was Richard that was sitting in the corner looking out the window, but as the man turned around Jean could see that it was the Duke.





”Good morning. Glad to see you return de Nogaret. I see you are still surprised to see me…”




“Y…y…yes… I am sure I saw them carry you away Your Grace!”





”Let us hope they think so as well…. No as you obviously understand they didn’t get me, but they got dear, noble Richard.”




“Richard? So that is why you are wearing his clothes? Did you change clothes?”




”Yes, while you were fighting on the outside Richard volunteered to change clothes and then pretend to be me… We feared they might want to capture me and we hoped that these men wouldn’t see the difference at night in the dark. And it worked; they grabbed the one wearing the fine, noble clothes and didn’t care much for the servant.



And although I feel sad for Richard I am still glad it worked…”




“So they captured Richard instead… We need to rescue him!”





As Jean tried to stand up he feels pain in the back of his head and is unable to stand for long before having to sit back down.





”I am afraid you are too weak to go anywhere for now. It was a very nasty hit you got to your head. But at least you are still alive, the Baron might have been wounded but he still managed to use his pistol and shot the man attacking you just as he was to stab the sword right through your chest after having knocked you to the ground.”




“The Baron saved my life…again… How is he?”




”I think it is safe to say you saved his life first, and you also saved the life of Her Majesty, the remaining soldiers and me… You did your duty and showed that you are an excellent battlefield commander.


If you hadn’t been French I would have invited you to come back to England with me and given you a commission in His Majesty’s armies… But knowing you Frenchmen I am guessing you wouldn’t like to fight for anything else than France, and especially not as it might mean you would have to fight against France!”





“I am honoured that you think so well of my abilities Your Grace, but as you say I am French and proud of it. And therefore I will have to decline your offer…”




”He he yes as I said I knew you would… “




“What about the Baron, how is he doing?”




”Well as I said before you passed out against last night he is doing well under the circumstances. The doctor managed to remove the arrow and he was very lucky, it hit him in the shoulder and didn’t damage any important areas… He will survive, but he will need to rest for a while.

I don’t’ think he can ride for several days…”




“Good, I am glad to hear he will survive. But what about Her Majesty and Your Grace, you need to get to Calais…”




”Yes… I am still intended to get to Calais as soon as possible. But I still think we can rest for a day. I think you will be better tomorrow and then you can take us to Calais…”




“But what about the Baron and the men?”




”The Baron needs to rest and the rest of the men… well you can see them here. Six dead, two wounded and also the Baron were wounded… So you still have seven men that can escort us to Calais.

Also I have sent one of the servants to Calais…

I know His Eminence said Northern-France was safe, but it seems like the good Cardinal didn’t know the realities or didn’t want to understand the realities… Because of this I have sent a message to Calais, we shall see 30 of me men here by tomorrow. I know you and your men will do your best, but I intended to take care of myself also… I don’t think anyone would be as silly as attack us when we have close to 40 riders protecting the wagons.”




“So you are bringing armed Englishmen deep into France? What if this is understood the wrong way, what if someone thinks it is an invasion?”




”Well I have considered that… That is why they are not travelling as English soldiers. I still have some contacts in France and one of my friends has given us the correct equipment so that we don’t frighten the French peasant…”




“A friend you say… I don’t think I will ask more Your Grace, knowing to much might not be very smart. Who knows when we might meet again, we might even meet as enemies….”




”True… It is impossible to know… But know this the Cardinal is soon to start a war against the Huguenots, as you know they are our Protestant brothers and I don’t think this will be enjoyed in England. His Majesty might even decide to aid.

I thank you for your work de Nogaret and I pray that we shall not have to meet on the battlefield, but if we do I am certain we shall both fight well for what we believe in.


There is just one more think. I will leave for Calais tomorrow, but I have one request. Do your best for Richard will you, maybe you can even save his life.”




“Don’t worry Your Grace; I will try to get Richard alive.”






The Duke smiled and nodded.

Jean turned his eyes around the room; he could see the men were awakening from their sleep. Most of them men seemed rested and no one would have believed that only the night before they had fought for their lives. But Jean was confident now, they would get to Calais unharmed and then he would return try to save Richard’s life.

But first he needed something to eat and drink. Grabbing a glass of wine and drinking it Jean could feel power return to his body. It was a new day with new opportunities.
 
Very brave of Richard for taking the Duke's place, but it could have been a disastrous decision as it could have backfired and gotten the Duke dead if the men weren't pinned down by Jean and the rest of the party...!

I'm trying to figure out who's been the most brave and I can't make up my mind, but I know who's been the most lucky... the Duke himself!

Well, that's all my opinion anyway...!
 
Lord E: ...GhostWriter: (the Duke) has himself replaced with someone, and shadows the wagon company with his own men ! ! :)

Lord E: ...Well the Duke is a smart man I think and seeing as they were attacked he did a smart move… You shall get to know what he did in a minute. But he didn’t bring any men with him into France, but after all this has happened he might…

half right, half wrong. that said, yes, if the Duke had brought men into France, the Cardinal would have known it, and compensated for it ! ! so, this is best ! ! :D

Lord E: ...”Good morning. Glad to see you return de Nogaret. I see you are still surprised to see me…”...”..they got dear, noble Richard.”

aye, that explains ! ! :)

Lord E: ...”I think it is safe to say you saved his life first, and you also saved the life of Her Majesty, the remaining soldiers and me… You did your duty and showed that you are an excellent battlefield commander...”


i suspect that things like this are likely to happen in combat. that is why men are organized into units ! ! :cool:

it is good that France has another excellent battlefield commander ! ! ;)

Lord E: ...”...Six dead, two wounded and also the Baron were wounded… So you still have seven men that can escort us to Calais...we shall see 30 of my men here by tomorrow...”

that should be numbers for which the Cardinal will not be prepared ! ! :D

magnificent update ! ! :cool:
 
Well, poor Jean is getting thoroughly outmanoeuvred there - not that there was anything else he really could do.

Staying still, however, does not seem to be a wise idea.
 
Nice twist there, switching the Duke and Richard. And great to know the Baron is alright. The attackers must be steaming mad they were unable to get the new Queen, however. One wonders if they will try again somehow, even with the large contingent of soldiers.
 
But knowing you Frenchmen I am guessing you wouldn’t like to fight for anything else than France, and especially not as it might mean you would have to fight against France!”

Seems that Jean might soon be asked to take up arms in defense of France