Manchurian Books

A sudden pallor swept
the usual ruddiness from his face. The Lord of Mayence gently inclined
his head as if awaiting an answer, and when it did not come, went on
impassively:
"I may inform you, my Lord, that my army occupies the capital city of
Frankfort, able and ready to quell any disturbance that may be caused by
the announcement of the Emperor's death, but there are still plenty of
seasoned troops ready to uphold the decisions of this Court. When your
spies scoured the country in the forests, and along the river almost to
the gates of my city of Mayence, they appeared to labor under the
illusion that I could move my soldiers only overland. Naturally, they
met no sign of such an incursion, because I had requisitioned a hundred
barges which I found empty in the river Main by Frankfort. These were
floated down the Main to Mayence, and there received their quota of a
hundred men each. The night being dark they came down the Rhine, it
seems, quite unobserved, and are now concealed in the mouth of the river
Lahn directly opposite this Castle.


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