Eric Flint: 1634: The Ram Rebellion

Herr Thornton. He was out of the city. Where was he? Did Ottheinrich leave a list, of the villages they were to visit? Was he safe? The itinerary was here; quickly, he sent out a runner to follow the route.

What tie could there be between Meyfarth and the Thorntons, other than the ram?

* * *

“You are sure that you saw this?” Martha Kronacher asked anxiously. “Sure?”

The ewe’s little flock of apprentices, Martha’s younger brothers and their friends, had been talking to people all over Bamberg for two days.

Her brother Melchior had been pushing them hard. He did not like the look that had come over Martha’s face when she heard that Pastor Meyfarth was gone. She was sincerely concerned about Frau Thornton, to be sure, but with Pastor Meyfarth, she appeared to take it personally, so to speak.

“Yes, I am sure,” the fishmonger said, in response to a question asked by Stew Hawker. “In the market, speaking to Frau Thornton. At the booth where she has the books and pamphlets. It was Herr Pastor Meyfarth’s landlady. I am sure that I recognized her. I don’t know her name, but she’s a widow who keeps a small boarding house, for working men. Has for several years. Respectable, very respectable. The rooms are cheap.”

“Has anyone checked there?” Ableidinger asked.

“The other boarders are coming and going,” the Jaeger in the room answered. He was the biggest of the ones whom Ableidinger had brought with him into Bamberg. The scariest one, too, Martha thought. “Complaining that this morning there was no breakfast. The woman is gone.”

“Is she a Lutheran that he was boarding with her?” Wade Jackson took up where Stew had left off.

Martha frowned suddenly. She did not recall having seen die alte Neideckerin at any of the pastor’s sermons.

Her mother came into the room.

“Neighbors say that the family was Protestant, Constantin,” the Jaeger continued. “Before, you know. Before 1628. She welcomed the Herr Pastor when he let people know that he was coming.”

“Family?”

“None,” the fishmonger answered. “None that anyone knows of. Not any more. There was a husband, but he died. A daughter. I don’t know what became of her.”

Else Kronacher spoke up. “I do.” She turned to Ableidinger. “Constantin, I recommended the boarding house because Rudolph Vulpius and old Kaethe thought that Pastor Meyfarth would be safe there. As safe as anywhere. Die alte Neideckerin is a relative of Frau Anna Hansen, who was burned as a witch in 1629. Or, possibly, her husband was the relative. In any case, they came under suspicion. They sent Judith, the daughter, away, to safety.”

“Where?”

“She was not a native of Bamberg, you know. The old woman. She married into the city. Vulpius took Judith to the lands of the Freiherr Fuchs von Bimbach, over by Bayreuth.”

“Hell and damnation!” Wade Jackson exploded out of his chair. “We’ve got to call Vince. Notify Steve and Scott. Right away.”

He looked for the big Jaeger. The man had already left the room.

* * *

“You’re certain?” Noelle asked.

The cook nodded. “Yes. I recognized die alte Neideckerin and Pastor Meyfarth. The other woman with them, I don’t know. But the blacksmith’s son says she’s one of the up-timer heretics. The wife of the one who was flogged in Bamberg, before the ram put a stop to it.”

Her hands folded on her lap, Noelle stared at the wall in her tiny living quarters. As if, somehow, the blankness of the wall could dispel the blankness in her mind.

“What in the name of… What is von Bimbach doing? That’s insane!”

“He’s a madman,” the cook said, shrugging. “He always has been, even when he was a boy. When he loses his temper, he’s capable of anything. Even at the age of six, he was that way. I remember him.”

She might, at that, Noelle thought. The cook had to be close to sixty years old, and she’d worked in the von Bimbach Schloss most of her adult life.

“Still…”

She shook off the disbelief. Lunatic act or not, Fuchs von Bimbach’s kidnapping of the three people from Bamberg might finally provide the handle to topple him. The fulcrum, rather, for the lever she already had more or less in her hands. By now, well over half of the castle’s staff was either working for the ram or sympathetic.

Even the soldiers didn’t seem attached to their lord. And they were obviously very nervous about the situation. Everyone, by now, knew what had happened at Mitwitz. The only ones of that Freiherr ’s mercenaries who had survived has been the ones who ran away, and did it quickly.

She rose to her feet, abruptly, filled with determination.

“Right. Three things. First, find out exactly where they’re being kept. Second, send word for Eddie Junker. Tell him to come to the Schloss immediately. And tell him to bring my Browning with him.”

That required a moment to clarify the term. Brow-ning. Never mind what it is. Eddie knows.

Third-”

She eyed the cook, wondering if there’d be an argument. “I want you to pretend that he’s a new servant in the kitchens. He needs to be here all the time, from now on.”

There was no argument. The cook simply nodded. “No one will ask.”

She left. After a minute or so, Noelle followed her into the corridor. Then, headed for Judith Neideckerin’s chambers.

When she arrived, she found von Bimbach’s mistress staring bleakly out of the window.

“He has had my mother imprisoned also,” she said, after glancing over her shoulder to see who had entered. Still staring out the window, she added: “Tell the ram to send me an icepick. I’ll drive it into the bastard’s ear tonight.”

Noelle shook her head. “No. We have to let this unfold for a bit.”

Angrily, Neideckerin spun around. “What if he hurts my mother?”

Noelle took a deep breath. “He won’t do that right away. We have time to organize. And your plan with an icepick won’t work, anyhow. He probably won’t come to see you-he’s not that stupid-and if he does, he’ll search you for weapons first.”

Still angry, Neideckerin’s eyes swept her chambers. “There’s somewhere I could hide it. Must be.”

“He’ll have soldiers search your quarters. If he comes at all. Which he most likely won’t.”

After a few seconds, Judith’s shoulders slumped. “Please, Noelle. She’s my mother.”

Wishing she felt as much confidence as she was projecting in her tone of voice, Noelle said: “I’ll take care of it.”

Wuerzburg, August 1634

“So most of it is under control,” said Scott Blackwell. “Since Mitwitz burned, more than half of the imperial knights and petty lords have caved in and formally withdrawn their support for the petition. A number of them have come into Bamberg or Wuerzburg for the sake of the military protection we give them, even though that sort of amounts to house arrest. Well, call it ‘city arrest.’ Most of the rest are sulking on their own lands. Under siege by the ram’s men. Usually by far more of the ram’s men than their own lands could possibly account for, but I’ve avoided examining that too closely. Only six more burn-outs, and those of lords who promised something and then reneged.”

He came to the end of his notes. “The real problems that I still have, from a military standpoint, are the ones who have retreated into other lands they hold that are outside our jurisdiction. Those lands that are surrounded by Ansbach, Nuernberg, or Bayreuth. I can’t chase them down there, myself, and I can’t let the ram’s people get rambunctious either. Too much danger of offending some of Gustavus Adolphus’ important allies.”