[Forum Game] Destiny of the Republic

[Harpsichord]

Général Javert Valjean,

My experiences in leadership are wasted in the Paris, where I have no men to lead and no battles to fight. I humbly request a command in your army so that I may aid the Revolution as best I am able.

Yours,
Francois Rousseau

 

[m.equitum]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR

A LETTER TO THE WAR SECRETARIAT​

Cher General Aulard,

Having laboured with diligence in the French Diplomatic Corps and having come to cherish peace, it may strike you as peculiar that I should write this letter to the War Secretariat. Yet there comes a time – and there have been scarcely more trying times than these –when the universal preference for peace must be secured through force of arms. The task at hand is the repulse of our old enemy, Austria. While deep ideological differences may divide the people of France, we must present a united front against the hostile invader. Therefore, in the spirit of patriotism, I offer my services to the War Ministry and place myself at your disposal.

Comptant sur une prompte réponse,​

DUC DE RICHELIEU
Commandant du corps d'artillerie de l'armée du Rhin​

 

[alexander23]

Général Javert Valjean,

My experiences in leadership are wasted in the Paris, where I have no men to lead and no battles to fight. I humbly request a command in your army so that I may aid the Revolution as best I am able.

Yours,
Francois Rousseau

Francois Russeau. Yeas I have hear of you and your revolutionary zeal. If you are willing to fight fpr the revolution and do what its necesary for its inmeduate and long term survival, no matter what it is, then you are more than welcome to serve in the centre armee. I will expect you as aaon as possible. The army is reorganizing and I am sure a position for you will soon be open up.

General de brigade javert valjean.

 

[m.equitum]

 

[Dadarian]

Vincent sipped on his tea across from the Duc de Richelieu during an afternoon at his estate. Knowing that the Duc was a newly active member of Le Socitété, Vincent thought it best to talk to him personally.

"I wanted to thank you for creating the Journal de Paris, I have been wanting to create a publication for awhile, but had neither the time nor the tools. I wish to personally thank you for your assistance to Le Société, it shall not be forgotten.

Only interrupted rarely to sign important execution documents, Vincent treated the Duc to lunch and inducted him formally to the internal rolls of important members of the Société.

 

[Maxwell500]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR

A LETTER TO THE WAR SECRETARIAT​

Cher General Aulard,

Having laboured with diligence in the French Diplomatic Corps and having come to cherish peace, it may strike you as peculiar that I should write this letter to the War Secretariat. Yet there comes a time – and there have been scarcely more trying times than these –when the universal preference for peace must be secured through force of arms. The task at hand is the repulse of our old enemy, Austria. While deep ideological differences may divide the people of France, we must present a united front against the hostile invader. Therefore, in the spirit of patriotism, I offer my services to the War Ministry and place myself at your disposal.

Comptant sur une prompte réponse,​

DUC DE RICHELIEU
Commandant du corps d'artillerie de l'armée du Rhin​

Auluard penned a quick response to the letter.

Secrétariat guerre​

Cher Citoyen Emmanuel-Philippe du Plessis,

I thank you for writing to me and I am most delighted by your credentials, although I am the Secretary of State for War and the Secretariat itself has everything to do with war itself, which generally goes against diplomacy it is always wonderful to have an individual skilled in the art of it. Further, I share your opinion that during these times of struggle and war that ideology should not have us stand apart but that we should rather be united against the true enemy. Finally, owing to the fact of the matter that there are indeed roles left vacant in the Secretariat and that you so humbly offer yourself to it, I would be pleased to appoint you as Sous-secrétaire d'État à la Guerre and further promote you to Général de brigade to reflect upon this.

I hope this letter finds you well.

Vive la Revolution!
Vive la France!

Sincerely,

Citoyen Jacques Nazaire Aulard
Secretary of State for War
Mayor of the Commune of Paris

 

[m.equitum]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR

A LETTER TO THE WAR SECRETARIAT​

Cher General Aulard,

It is with sincere gratitude that I accept the promotion to the office of Sous-Sécretaire d’État à la Guerre and the rank of Géneral de Brigade. I will endeavor to fulfil the duties of these posts to the best of my ability.

– Report on the Frontier –​

Returning from the front, where I was stationed with the Army of the Rhine, I am sorry to report that the soldiers are thoroughly demoralised and are in no present condition to give battle to the enemy. A dangerous sense of despondency has set in amongst the men. Low morale following the catastrophic rout at Sedan has been compounded by shortages of munitions and supplies. Urgent measures need to be taken to prevent the collapse of our northern defences. Understanding that our forces may no longer be able to hold their position along the River Meuse, I encourage the War Secretariat to consider withdrawing to a more defensible position along the River Aisne, where the Army of the Rhine can be readily reinforced from the Capital.

Comptant sur une prompte réponse,​

DUC DE RICHELIEU
Sout-Sécretariat d’État à la Guerre
Géneral de Brigade​

Current Positions of the Armies of France

 

[Ab Ovo]

"Do you hear the people sing!
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!"​

Suddenly, Javert sprouted wings and began to fly around the palace; still singing that awful song. I screamed in horror and ran away from such an evil visage; but it only got worse.

"Wheeeee, pony! Pony, pony, pony!"

The First Minister barreled past me with the King riding on his back yelling with joy. I turned around to order such foolishness to a stop but the First Minister bore the head of a horse and wept bitterly through dark black eyes.

"Mon Dieu, pourquoi m'as-tu abandonné? Arrêter la douleur, s'il vous plaît arrêter la douleur!"

Backing away in fear I began to run again but I tripped and suddenly the floor was crawling with a thousand bones and the withered head of Louis XVI stared at me. The air thundered with cries: give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas! I began to sob openly and prayed for an end to the madness but I knew there was no-one listening.

The Tuileres,
Kingdom of France

Francisque St Denis-Paternoster awoke with a shuddering scream of terror, covered in sweat and searching his small room with wild eyes.

"Oh thank God. It was just a dream."

 

[alexander23]

It was late at nigh after the reorganization of the centre armee and javer valjean was hard at work. Javert was a hardly man, grown from the street of paris, with no time in his growing for the arts. He had come to appreciate some of it as and grown man, but by no mean knowledge of it and how to use it to inspire or enlighten people.

There was one thing Javert knew however and that was that he loved singing, meanwhile growing up with the gang. They sang about happier lives , they sang about not being hungry...they sang to pass the time when walking around the city or in the cold nights. There was no other way he could express the feeling he had at the moment but by singing and so he wrote a song. maybe it wasn't any good but it carried with it his fervor and his believes of the future.



So a letter was sent to every post and headquarter of any party or militia and to papers around the nation:

It is my deepest hope this song will inspire people and make them realize what we stand to lose.
I dedicated this song to my compatriots, every french citizen, in our darkness time and for the future we will obtain by enduring:


Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!.

Javert Valjean, Commander of the carabineer guard, General of the Centre armee, cordelier, and revolutionary to the death.

Maybe no one else would like his song but at least he would make his army love it.

 

[m.equitum]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR

THE FIRST RICHELIEU SALON​

France has long regarded herself as the eldest daughter of the Church. Indeed, it was a heavenly hand that prompted the Maid of Orléans to redeem France from her English captors; a national miracle celebrated to this day. While the people of France may have occasionally given in to bouts of anti-clericalism, these brief and exceptional instances pale in comparison to the numerous occasions when then Crown and the Cross were near inseparable.

It must not escape mentioned that our country also served as a home for the Holy Father, whose seat at Avignon remains a site of pilgrimage. Moreover, the link between Church and State was perhaps made most manifest when my own forebear, the Cardinal Richelieu, served as the chief aide and advisor to the King.

The great tumult that has occurred in recent months has caused some to question the long-standing doctrines which have hitherto been so central to our form of government and way of life. The seemingly inextricable bond between the Monarchy and the Roman Catholic faith has been a cause of some unease, particularly amongst members of the Societé, given the prevailing disdain for the former but deep devotion to the latter of the two institutions.

Knowing that the unrest in France springs not only from brute violence but also from an intellectual restlessness, we must ask ourselves these difficult questions, we must grapple with seeming contradictions, and must delve deep in search of answers.

The recent changes in France have seen the monarchy so reduced in power and prestige that many at home and abroad have begun to regard our country as a Republic. Yet, for countless thousands in the countryside as well as the cities, the Catholic creed remains central to their daily lives.

Therefore, I am pleased to invite men of letters and learned women from throughout France to attend a salon at the Château Richelieu to share their views on the question: Is there a religious and scriptural basis for monarchy?

Comptant sur une prompte réponse,​

DUC DE RICHELIEU
Sout-Sécretariat d’État à la Guerre
Géneral de Brigade​

 

[Gen. Marshall]

First Minister De Cartelège examines the military maps before him. While a courier is rushed to his office, Le Préfet sits down to write a letter.

Jacques,

Our troops in the Rhine Army and National Guard are lacking artillery, at a moment when artillery could be so valuable to defend the rivers. Without artillery, we are forced to engage in offensive operations, forcing engagements at close range, keeping the initiative on our side at all times. With artillery, we can afford to dig in and win time; time we desparately need to draft more conscripts.

I propose that we transfer a detachment of horse artillery from the Armée du Centre to the National Guard with great speed. A sufficiently mobile unit should be able to catch up to our larger formations before they reach the front, especially so since a forced march would take its toll primarily on the horses, which shall not be in direct combat. I realize that this manoeuvre weakens and might slow down the Army of the Centre, but it is absolutely essential. The effect of artillery on a defensive battle in open ground may very well prove decisive, for the battle and the war alike.

Additionally, I expect a report of military maneuvres as soon as the information is available.

Renaud

As the courier arrives, he is immediately tasked with delivering the letter to General Aulard.

 

[tonkatoy5]

 

[m.equitum]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR​

In anticipation of the guests arriving at the Château Richelieu for the First Salon, the liveries of the footmen have been altered in honour of the Constitution. Clad in canary yellow, the footmen now have smaller powdered wigs than before, and sport the tricolour cockade in their bicornes.

A footman's livery at the Château Richelieu​

 

[Gen. Marshall]

French affairs are of no concern to the Vatican

I am not sure how I feel about the most recent of posters for the Carabinier Guard. The Cordeliers, and the Carabinier Guard by extension, are a devout Catholic organization, which is not at all mutually exclusive with being prominent Revolutionaries. I think that we should consider this pamphlet as a call for less power for the Church as institution, which I can approve - but I must stress that in no way it is the Cordelier aim to encourage heresy.

My fellow Catolic brothers can be safe in the knowledge that we shall not be aiming for secularization. Such radicalism can be left to the Phrygians.

- First Minister De Cartelège

 

[m.equitum]

RICHELIEU
VÉRITÉ SANS PEUR

A LETTER TO HIS HOLINESS THE SUPREME PONTIFF​

Most Holy Father,

The Mother Church is beset with enemies. Those who have long envied her piety and power now seize the opportunity to mutiny against her divine authority. The lamentable reality, Most Holy Father, is such that the Christian virtues taught by the Church for centuries no longer have currency amongst the French rabble who, like the crowd that came with swords and clubs to capture our Saviour at Gethsemane, seek now to subject the Church to the same trial and martyrdom.

The baseless propaganda directed towards the first and second estates springs from a dangerously misguided if not purely diabolical source. It was imagined in this Age of Enlightenment that the forces of darkness would be forever dispelled. How wrong we were. Satan yet prowls the land, preying on the malleable hearts and minds of men, prompting them to stumble, and in stumbling to bring others down with them. As the nation of France enters this Grand Noicueur (trans. Great Darkness), may the saints give us the fortitude to face what tribulations may be in store, and the strength to overcome these enemies of the Church.

In this era of unrest and anti-clericalism, I am reminded of the words of Vergil:

The Gates of Hell are Open Night and Day;
Smooth the descent and easy is the way;
But to return, and view the cheerful skies;
In this the task and mighty labour lies​

In this age of uncertainty I am reminded also of the Divine Assurance given to the Mother Church. The foundation upon which the Church stands is not that of mortal design, but a guarantee uttered from the lips of the Saviour Himself:

TU ES PETRUS ET SUPER HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM ET PORTAE INFERI NON PRAEVALEBUNT ADVERSUM EAM.
(Trans. Thou art Peter, the rock. Upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.)​

Finding confidence in the promise made by the Redeemer, and ever-trusting that these times of trial will pass, I can’t help but realise that while the First Estate may count upon divine succour, the Second is left to its own devices to ensure its survival. Had the Church the opportunity to sacrifice the Nobility to save Her skin, she would not have hesitated to do so. Should the Nobility now entrust the Church to God and labour instead to save ourselves?

Your Holiness, I trust, will forgive the pointed nature of this inquiry. It times such as these – where old certainties are swept away in the night and new realities are thrust upon us at daybreak – it is not without some reason that one may come to believe himself utterly abandoned by the very deity to which he has devoted an entire lifetime of prayer and reverence.

I await Your reply – conveyed if it must be through a Papal legate or the Bishops of the Church – with continual prayer.

Your Servant,​

DUC DE RICHELIEU
Prince de Montagne
Duc de Fronsac
Marquis du Pont-Courlay
Comte de Cosnac, et de Chinon
Baron de Barbezieux, de Cozes, et de Saujon
Pair de France
Sous-Sécretariat d’État à la Guerre
Géneral de Brigade​

 

[Dadarian]

Vincent privately read the article of the Carabinier Guard on the religion and physically cringed at the words.

Godless heathens, at least the Cult of Reason is bound by morals and respects what is good. Heh, bloody idiots, they'll turn all of Europe against us. Least thing we need is the Spanish King deciding the this is an excellent chance for a crusade and declares war as well. Heh.

Vincent turned to another letter, this time from the good Duc de Richelieu.

Bonjour mon ami,

I am exceedingly pleased with your work organising the First Salon. I shall be attending this fine event in which I hope many an enlighted discussion will occur,

Cordially,

Lastly, Vincent turned to his duties, signing an general order to the Provincial Police Chiefs

Bonjour,

Men, we are at war and facing a dangerous situation. I want you to keep the order, be fair and orderly, and by no means allow people to panic.

You have your orders,

 

[viola]

After the last debates the Jacobin club wishes to clear its position on religious matters:

The Jacobin club asks for the full secularization of France and the complete separation of the Catholic Church from the French nation, such radical reforms are necessary because of the continued hostility of the Papacy to the Revolution and because a true Republic of Virtue must ensure full religious tolerance for all, something impossible as long as we continue to support Catholicism as our state religion.
Secularism will ensure progress, tolerance and stability!

At the same time the Jacobin club opposes the call for indiscriminate violence against Catholic priests, or any Christian priests, as such a thing would only promote infighting, support for Counter-Revolutionaries and senseless violence.
Once again, we aim for a truly tolerant society.

- André Bouchard, Secretary of State of the Navy

 

[Syriana]

General update tomorrow (no, seriously), followed by a war update within the next couple of days and an election update by Sunday.

 

[Harpsichord]

Francois Russeau. Yeas I have hear of you and your revolutionary zeal. If you are willing to fight fpr the revolution and do what its necesary for its inmeduate and long term survival, no matter what it is, then you are more than welcome to serve in the centre armee. I will expect you as aaon as possible. The army is reorganizing and I am sure a position for you will soon be open up.

General de brigade javert valjean.

General Valjean,

By the time this letter reaches you, I will already be en route to rendezvous with you and your men.

Glory to the Revolution,

Rousseau

 

[aussieboy]

As a practicing Catholic loyal to the Holy Father, General de Loiollac wishes to make it clear that any forced secularization at the hands of any party whatsoever will lead to his resignation, as well as the resignation of quite a few sympathetic officers and enlisted men. He has no intention of serving under a government of perjurers, which any member adopting the Jacobin plan will end up doing.