Eric Flint: 1636:The Saxon Uprising

Rebecca enjoyed her children and planned to have at least two more. But she also enjoyed her political career and had no desire to see it crushed flat under the pressure of child-raising.

Being well-to-do helped a great deal in that regard. While Rebecca and Michael were not what anyone would call wealthy, they enjoyed a much larger than average income because of his salary as a major general. And if she finished her book on schedule, the income that derived from its sales might very well double or even triple their income.

Rebecca had been born a Sephardic Jew, and still maintained most of her religion's customs and rituals. When it came to theological matters, though, she tended to share her father's attitudes. Balthazar Abrabanel was not exactly what the up-timers meant by the term "free-thinker," but he came awfully close. He still considered himself a Jew even in doctrinal terms, but there were plenty of rabbis who would dispute that claim. The rabbinate of Amsterdam, which was notoriously harsh and reactionary, had even gone so far as to declare him a heretic.

On the other hand, Prague's rabbis-who had considerably more prestige than those of the Dutch city-maintained friendly relations with him. They did so partly, of course, for political reasons. Balthazar's brother Uriel was the spymaster for Morris Roth, who was by far the wealthiest Jew in Prague and was also one of Wallenstein's closest advisers thanks to his leading role in repelling Holk's attack on Prague two years earlier.

Whatever her doctrinal doubts and questions, however, on one matter Rebecca was a staunch monotheist. Nannies had been sent down to earth directly by the hand of God.

After Jenny left the vestibule with Kathleen, Rebecca turned and went to the door leading to the room on the second floor of the town house that she used for her political meetings. It was a very large room, in keeping with the town house itself. The three-story building wasn't quite what one could call a "mansion," but it came close.

That was a good thing, too, given that the building also served the Fourth of July Party as its informal national headquarters.

As usual when a meeting was in progress, she could hear Constantin Ableidinger's booming voice before she even opened the door.

"-think we can make such an assumption. As much as I dislike the prime minister's reactionary political views, he's just not the sort of human material out of which ruthless counter-revolutionaries are made."

By the time he finished, Rebecca had passed through the door and closed it behind her. She headed toward her seat at the head of the table. Series of tables, rather.

"No, Wilhelm is not such a man," she said. "As a human being, he's actually quite a decent fellow. But Wilhelm is no longer running the show. Axel Oxenstierna is."

She pulled out her chair and sat down. There had been a time when there had been only four tables in this very large room, arranged in a shallow "U" which allowed everyone to see out the windows. That was no longer true. There were simply too many important leaders of the Fourth of July Party who needed to be present at this meeting. So, there were now eight tables in the room, lined up two abreast and four wide. In effect, a single huge meeting table had been created, measuring about ten feet by thirty feet.

Rebecca's position at one end of the arrangement, facing down the double row of tables, gave her a good view of everyone present. It was also a subtle indication of her position in the party. Officially, she was simply one of the members of the USE parliament elected from Magdeburg province. Unofficially, especially in the absence of her husband Mike Stearns, she was one of the FoJP's most prominent and influential leaders.

She'd paused for a moment to let the implications of her last statement sink in. Then she added: "And the chancellor of Sweden is most definitely the sort of human material from which ruthless counter-revolutionaries are made. He is and always has been an advocate-I should better say, a true believer-in the principles of aristocratic privilege. It is no secret that he has never been happy with the compromises that Gustav Adolf made with my husband. Neither when they set up the Confederated Principalities of Europe nor-especially!-when they created the United States of Europe."

Again, she paused briefly. "I think it is now clear what has been happening these past few weeks. Ever since the emperor was badly injured at the battle of Lake Bledno and rendered non compos mentis, Oxenstierna has been taking advantage of Gustav Adolf's incapacity to prepare a sweeping counter-revolution. That is why he has insisted on keeping the emperor in Berlin, where he can sequester him and keep him under control. That is why he has been assembling a congress of reactionaries in Berlin. They will declare Berlin the new capital. And that is why, finally-this news has now been confirmed also-he has ordered Princess Kristina to join her father in Berlin. So that she too can be kept under control while the chancellor goes about his bloody business."

One of the members of parliament from Westphalia province spoke up. "But Oxenstierna is simply the chancellor of Sweden. He has no authority in the United States of Europe."

Ableidinger made a sarcastic snorting sound. "And do you think that little awkwardness is causing him to lose any sleep? Not likely! Not Oxenstierna."

He swiveled in his chair to look at Rebecca. "I don't doubt Oxenstierna's nature is just as you portray it to be. But how can you be so sure that he has reduced the USE's prime minister to a cipher? Giving the devil his due, Wilhelm Wettin is a capable man and not one I would think to be easily intimidated."

"No, he's not-as a man," said Ed Piazza. "But right now he's a prime minister also, and in that capacity I'm afraid he can be quite easily intimidated by Oxenstierna."

Piazza was sitting at the opposite end of the long set of tables from Rebecca, which indicated his own position in the party. Both by virtue of his abilities and his position as the president of the State of Thuringia-Franconia, Piazza wielded as much influence and authority as anyone in the FoJP other than Mike Stearns himself.

But Stearns was hundreds of miles away now, leading his army into Bohemia, and no longer directly part of the political equation.

The man who was probably the third most influential member of the party present at the meeting cocked his head quizzically and said: "I will repeat Constantin's question: How can you be so sure?"

That was Matthias Strigel, the governor of Magdeburg province. That province and the State of Thuringia-Franconia were the two great power centers of the Fourth of July Party. The SoTF was the wealthiest and most populous province of the USE. But Magdeburg province had now surpassed it as an industrial center.

It was also, of course, the province where the capital was located. The city of Magdeburg had an extraordinarily complex political structure. It was simultaneously the national capital of the USE, the capital of the province of Magdeburg, and an imperial city in its own right. Just to make things still more complicated, there was a legal distinction between the "old city" and the metropolitan area. Otto Gericke was the mayor of metropolitan Magdeburg, but within the narrow confines of the original city his authority was legally-if not always in practice-superseded by that of the city council.

"The reason I can be so sure," Ed responded, "is because I agree with Becky's analysis and I've looking at the situation from a strictly military standpoint lately. The minute you do that, everything gets very clear, very quickly."

He leaned forward to give emphasis to his next words. "The reason the chancellor of Sweden can today intimidate and bully the prime minister of a nation which is many times larger is because Oxenstierna has an army-right there with him, in Berlin-and Wettin hasn't got a damn thing except his own bodyguards. And even those are mercenaries paid for out of the chancellor's purse."