HnH 2: Part 5: Chapter 13 - 14
Nov. 15th, 2009 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caithionHabsburg no Houken, Book 2
Part V - Twilight on the Moldau
Chapter 13 - Slavic Misfortune
Well, Eduard goes about to all of the officials in Bohemia to get help to carry out his task, but everyone is busy with the preparations for crowning Therese queen of Bohemia, so they keep fobbing him off on others. Eventually he finds a count named Goltz Kinksi, who offers to help him. He notices that the streets of Prague are unusually empty, and his guide is silent and leaves him quickly at Kinski's location.
After meeting with Kinski and the silent, withdrawn noblemen with him, and discussing the troops and how to carry out their objective, Eduard finally begins to understand. These men fear for their lives, and their families, as do many in the city. The attempt to gain Bohemian independence in 1621 is not so old in many people's memories, nor the 27 Prague noblemen who were beheaded by the Austrian emperor in retribution. Kinski asks Eduard to remember that he and the men with him are doing their best to honor the wishes of the Habsburgs, and Eduard promises to do that.
Kinski then reveals that the guide was more likely scared by Eduard himself, and Eduard looks in a mirror to discover that he looks bloodless and cold. He hasn't eaten in days. Determined to regain his strength, he stays with the Kinski family and rests for the next week while the noblemen make their preparations.
Chapter 14 - Banishment of the Jews
On the chosen morning, the soldiers are divided into separate divisions for the four different Jewish neighborhoods. The plan is to first allow the Jews to leave, bringing nothing but the clothes on their backs. After a couple of days they will enter the neighborhoods themselves, seize the remaining property, and take care of any stragglers.
Eduard wanders between the lines of Jews as they are searched and their names and addresses recorded. He hears one small boy ask his mother in Yiddish who the one-eyed man is, and the mother replies that he is an Austrian. "Oh," says the boy, "a dog of the Habsburgs."
For some reason this calms Eduard enough that he regains his appetite for the first time in weeks, and he goes to sit with Kinski and his men and eat. While in their tent he hears a woman crying in Hebrew. "Please, I need these clothes for when my baby is born. If I don't have them my baby will die." And the Prague soldier who couldn't understand her replying: "You're not allowed to bring anything with you." Back and forth, the same thing, with the woman becoming more hysterical. She asks her father and brother to explain to the soldier in German, but her father tells her heavily that it won't make any difference. She holds on, stubbornly.
Eduard finally goes out himself, and finds the woman on the ground, still screaming that she needs the clothing for her baby. He asks the soldier for an explanation, and then a disbelieving voice says: "Eli?"
He looks, and the woman is his sister Dorothea. And in the line with her are his mother and father, and brother. He is in shock. Why are they here, in Prague? Kinski comes up behind him, wondering what the problem is, but Eduard still can't say a word. This is his family, his beloved family. Even though he left the Jewish community behind, he had sworn to never forget his family. And now he realizes that because of this, he can never entirely abandon his past.
Almost scared to look, he meets the eyes of his family, and sees there only joy at their seeing him again, at his being alive.
Mosheh apologizes for his daughter's behavior and moves his family on their way, stopping only to ask Eduard's name. Eduard tells him: "Eduard Andreas von Osville."
"I shall pray for your good health. Please excuse us."
They leave, but Amschel looks back once, smiling.
(T_T Family~~ I knew he was going to run into them when Therese gave that nasty order. Family that loves him. He is so going back to them. But not going to marry Dorothea, I see. One crazy theory, gone. AND the end of part V! I really thought I was never going to finish it....)
Part V - Twilight on the Moldau
Chapter 13 - Slavic Misfortune
Well, Eduard goes about to all of the officials in Bohemia to get help to carry out his task, but everyone is busy with the preparations for crowning Therese queen of Bohemia, so they keep fobbing him off on others. Eventually he finds a count named Goltz Kinksi, who offers to help him. He notices that the streets of Prague are unusually empty, and his guide is silent and leaves him quickly at Kinski's location.
After meeting with Kinski and the silent, withdrawn noblemen with him, and discussing the troops and how to carry out their objective, Eduard finally begins to understand. These men fear for their lives, and their families, as do many in the city. The attempt to gain Bohemian independence in 1621 is not so old in many people's memories, nor the 27 Prague noblemen who were beheaded by the Austrian emperor in retribution. Kinski asks Eduard to remember that he and the men with him are doing their best to honor the wishes of the Habsburgs, and Eduard promises to do that.
Kinski then reveals that the guide was more likely scared by Eduard himself, and Eduard looks in a mirror to discover that he looks bloodless and cold. He hasn't eaten in days. Determined to regain his strength, he stays with the Kinski family and rests for the next week while the noblemen make their preparations.
Chapter 14 - Banishment of the Jews
On the chosen morning, the soldiers are divided into separate divisions for the four different Jewish neighborhoods. The plan is to first allow the Jews to leave, bringing nothing but the clothes on their backs. After a couple of days they will enter the neighborhoods themselves, seize the remaining property, and take care of any stragglers.
Eduard wanders between the lines of Jews as they are searched and their names and addresses recorded. He hears one small boy ask his mother in Yiddish who the one-eyed man is, and the mother replies that he is an Austrian. "Oh," says the boy, "a dog of the Habsburgs."
For some reason this calms Eduard enough that he regains his appetite for the first time in weeks, and he goes to sit with Kinski and his men and eat. While in their tent he hears a woman crying in Hebrew. "Please, I need these clothes for when my baby is born. If I don't have them my baby will die." And the Prague soldier who couldn't understand her replying: "You're not allowed to bring anything with you." Back and forth, the same thing, with the woman becoming more hysterical. She asks her father and brother to explain to the soldier in German, but her father tells her heavily that it won't make any difference. She holds on, stubbornly.
Eduard finally goes out himself, and finds the woman on the ground, still screaming that she needs the clothing for her baby. He asks the soldier for an explanation, and then a disbelieving voice says: "Eli?"
He looks, and the woman is his sister Dorothea. And in the line with her are his mother and father, and brother. He is in shock. Why are they here, in Prague? Kinski comes up behind him, wondering what the problem is, but Eduard still can't say a word. This is his family, his beloved family. Even though he left the Jewish community behind, he had sworn to never forget his family. And now he realizes that because of this, he can never entirely abandon his past.
Almost scared to look, he meets the eyes of his family, and sees there only joy at their seeing him again, at his being alive.
Mosheh apologizes for his daughter's behavior and moves his family on their way, stopping only to ask Eduard's name. Eduard tells him: "Eduard Andreas von Osville."
"I shall pray for your good health. Please excuse us."
They leave, but Amschel looks back once, smiling.
(T_T Family~~ I knew he was going to run into them when Therese gave that nasty order. Family that loves him. He is so going back to them. But not going to marry Dorothea, I see. One crazy theory, gone. AND the end of part V! I really thought I was never going to finish it....)
