Mafia XX - The French revolution

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Jamski
Maffia is spelt with 2 f's

But mafffia is spelt with 3 f's.

[Ljube]

Chapter 2 – End to his misery


The next morning an emergency meeting of the government took place. Presided by Prime Minister Necker and extraordinarily attended by the King himself, the sole topic of this meeting was the murder of King’s son that happened last night.
“Necker, my oldest friend. I trust you will use all your powers and not rest until you find the monster that tortured to death my poor petit Louis. It’s the last thing that’s left to a broken father. My wife and your Queen is crying inconsolably. She can’t find her peace unless you catch the killer and bring him to justice, and justice for him is to suffer ten times more than my poor Louis suffered in his last hours.”
“I swear I will find the beast that did this. I shall appoint my best general, Napoléon Bonaparte to lead the investigation and I promise you results in short time”, replied Necker.
He was truly moved by royal family’s ordeal.
“Sir, I have already started the investigation”, said General Bonaparte, “with the interrogation of court’s servants. I shall move next to the guards on duty that day. After these preliminary interviews, I shall have enough facts to determine if there had been an opportunity for an unknown assailant to exploit the relatively reduced security and enter the Palace. We’re also searching for potential witnesses at Place de Grève who might have seen or heard something because the flogging of King’s son must have taken considerable time. This maniac is a bold killer indeed. This should simplify our investigation.”
“My liege”, continued Napoléon, “I also need your permission to perform a more detailed examination of prince’s body.”
“Whom have you chosen to perform this examination?”
“The city coroner, my liege.”
“No, I can’t bare my son’s body to be examined by a complete stranger. Dear Guillotin, may I ask you to perform this sad task? Please dear friend.”
“My liege”, replied Guillotin, “I shall do as you ask.”
Marquis de Lafayette was very impatient.
“When do you expect to have results Napoléon?”
“Not later than seven days from now Sir.”
“Keep me informed about your progress. I shall break the news to the King.”
“Yes Sir.”

They moved to the second topic.
“I am going to suggest a day of national mourning in honour of our dead heir”, said Prime Minister Necker.
“I seriously doubt the Assembly will pass this. The revolutionaries consider His Majesty an ordinary citizen like any other. They won’t grant him this special request”, replied Brissot.
“Well, we shall see tomorrow”, concluded Lafayette, “but now we must all go to the Committee of Public Safety to cast our votes. Otherwise we might end up being suspicious and voted to death collectively by those who appear there.”
“I agree”, replied the King, “but my wife isn’t going to be able to attend. She is completely crushed by grief. Now let’s go.”

********

Meanwhile at the conference.

“Let me open this conference of foreign representatives here in our fair city. Let us proceed with our duties in spite of the most dreadful event of last night you are probably all aware of”, compte Louis de Provence, new heir to the throne addressed the foreign diplomats. “Our task is to forge a coalition of countries unhappy with the developments in France that would put pressure on the revolution and stop and possibly revert its flow.”
“I should start with England’s full support of this plan. We shall take part in any coalition of the willing because we strongly dislike the current French political setup. England has had such episodes in the past and I must tell you we’re glad those times are past.”
“It appears we have full support of everybody here”, continued Metternich. “Do the Americans share this view?” (“Not that it would matter anyway”, kept Metternich for himself)
Benjamin Franklin replied.
“We are a very young nation. And our nation owes much to France. And to King of France, Louis XVI and to Lafayette, my dear friend. We shall never join any coalition against France. But we shall also not support the ousting of the people who are our dearest friends.”
“Well said Ben. We are King Louis’ friends and we shall do whatever is in our power to help him”, added Thomas Jefferson.
Feld Marschall von Blücher concluded the session.
“Es sieht aus, daß wir ein Bund aller wichtigen Staaten haben. Wir können jetzt zur Abstimmung gehen. Wir sind schon spät.“

********

The Jacobins have already cast their votes and some of them blamed the King of course, some of them the famous sadistic author compte de Sade who assumed an artistic pseudonym marquis de Sade and some of them thought marquis Lafayette, one of the most loyal friends of the royal family did it. However, some members of the Committee have curiously already cast their vote for Prime Minister Pitt of England. This was a particularly strange thing to do since Mr. Pitt has had a perfect alibi for the whole evening yesterday which he had spent with the revolutionary leader George Danton discussing the matters of French politics and preparing for the conference of foreign leaders the next day.
Nevertheless, he appeared to be getting the majority of votes of the members from both factions of the Assembly. It appears the French possess an innate suspicion of the English and this feeling prevailed.
“Pitt is innocent you know that Charles”, protested King Louis to the vote duc de Bordeaux has just cast.
“Louis, we mustn’t single ourselves out, lest we fall down by the same blade which is about to strike poor innocent Pitt. Cast your vote for him!”
And the weak King followed the advice of his cousin.

Later when the foreign representatives came, they were very surprised to discover Pitt being already voted off. Still they cast their votes, some of them out of fear and some of them for hate sake.
Thomas Jefferson was the loudest of all.
“You’ll get what you had coming Pitt. I shall enjoy watching your execution you murderous swine!”
“But I am innocent!!!! Oh well, it doesn’t matter now. I shall cast my vote for myself then.”
The vote was concluded by bloodthirsty Couthon already impatient because of the time wasted in waiting for late voters.
“Sharpen the guillotine!!!!”

And with that notion the soldiers of the royal guard took Chaunk to Place de la Révolution where a guillotine stood ready. Maximilien Robespierre pulled the handle and Chaunk was guillotined before a cheering mob.

“I am convinced he was innocent, so I shall continue my investigation”, general Bonaparte whispered to marquise Lafayette.
“You do that and keep me informed.”
“The mob truly brings out the worst in men”, Prime Minister Necker made a comment about people’s reactions to the execution of his college and soon the crowd dispersed.

********

In the evening that day, duc de Bordeaux and comte de Provence met again with Fürst Metternich and Feld Marschall von Blücher to discuss the modifications to the plan of escape of the French royal family.
Compte de Provence started.
“The murder of petit Louis forces us to put our plan in motion earlier than anticipated. But we won’t have English papers and there may be repercussions because of the execution of English Prime Minister on French soil while on a diplomatic mission.”
“Yes cousin”, continued duc de Bordeaux, “England is likely to declare war on France now. But this works to our benefit. The more nations are in a coalition against the French revolution, the surer we are our cause will be victorious.”
Metternich had some good news to convey.
“Principally I agree with you, but the problem with your papers is the pressing matter now. But I am pleased to inform you Thomas Jefferson agreed to issue papers for the royal family and American papers have great value in France, even greater than English papers.”
“Wir haben ein Einverständnis über diese Sache. Dann treffen wir uns wieder zusammen, nur falls etwas unerwartet geschieht.”
“Exactly Jamski. That’s all gentlemen I think”, concluded Metternich.

********

That night in Hotel de la Révolution in which the foreign diplomats were staying.

“I need more rooms for my slaves!!!! I brought with me 10 personal servants. I need rooms for them! Last night they slept outside and I don’t want my goods to be damaged because of improper storage”, protested Thomas Jefferson to the management of the hotel.
“But monsieur, we can spare only one room and that one was vacated due to the death of that criminal Englishman Pitt. I can only offer that one.”
“Good enough for me. I think one room should prove sufficient for ten slaves. We mustn’t allow them to catch cold or something. Do you know what one slave is worth back in Virginia in open market?”
“I wouldn’t know monsieur. We don’t condone slavery here.”
“We don’t condone monarchy in USA”
“Neither do we, but nobody is asking. Good night monsieur.”
“Good night.”

********

The next morning when Saint-Just arrived to the office he noticed that Couthon never left. When he looked closer he noticed Couthon wasn’t moving. Yes, crippled alva was dead. Put out of his misery. The others came quickly to investigate the crime scene.
“It doesn’t seem to be the same style. Couthon’s definitely not flogged to death”, speculated Lafayette.
“Then we have a second murderer which isn’t that strange considering we’re in Paris”, replied General Bonaparte. He took a closer look at the body.
“His left hand thumb, index finger and middle finger are blackened. That’s very strange, as if he’d touched something. We know he was left-handed.”
Napoléon continued.
“His right hand is closed in a fist. Let’s open it.”
The rigour mortis has already happened so opening Couthon’s right hand wasn’t easy. “Oh! What is this? A piece of paper?”
In his right hand there was a small piece of paper which looked like it was ripped from a much larger sheet and contained only a capital letter S and a fragment of a small letter a.
“What’s the cause of death”, asked Napoléon.
“It seems to be lead poisoning”, replied Guillotin.
Danton made the final comment.
“Good that everybody is here in the Committee of Public Safety so all of you can cast your votes.”

[Ljube]

Was this the revenge of the monarchists?
Who knows.

Name

Role

Status



1. Nuclear Master

Roi Louis XVI

Alive



2. Kassiopeia

Reine Marie-Antoinette 
Alive


3. Spiffor

 M. Robespierre

Alive


4. Alva

M. Couthon
Poisoned


5. Spaced Cowboy

M. de Saint-Just

Alive


6. Guynemer

M. Danton

Alive


7. Loinburger

M. Desmoulins

Alive


8. Vovan

M. d'Églantine

Alive


9. Snowfire

M. Hébert

Alive


10. Rasputin

M. Necker

Alive


11. Octavian X

M. Brissot de Warville

Alive


12. Jonny

Marquis de
Lafayette 
Alive


13. Tuberski

Comte de Sade

Alive


14. Rah

M. Guillotin

Alive


15. Smiley

Comte de
Mirabeau 
Alive


16. bADGer

Duc de Bordeaux

Alive


17. Kalius

Comte de
Provence 
Alive


18. Geomodder

Fürst von
Metternich 
Alive


19. Jon Miller

Duc de Normandie

Flogged to death


20. Jamski

Herr Feld
Marschall von Blücher 
Alive


21. Chaunk

Mr. W. Pitt jr.

Executed by the citizens


22. GJRamsey

Mr. B. Franklin

Alive


23. Theben

Mr. T. Jefferson

Alive


24. HongHu

Miss S. Hemings

Alive


25. Hercules

M. Generale N.
Bonaparte 
Alive


26. Skanky Burns

M. Chauvin

Alive

You have 24 hours to vote.

[vovan]

Fragment of letter "a"? Which part of it exactly? Somehow I'm think it's not really an a.

[Jamski]

Blackened fingers, as anyone knows from Name of the Rose, mean poison from turning the pages of a book, and licking the fingers, and lead poisoning suggests a pencil.

Who was writing a lot?

The King obviously! Roi Nuclaré Masteré is teh maffffia! Off with his head

(BTW, in English the genitive case always uses an article with the noun, i.e. the sword of THE Prince, he gave it to THE King's brother...)

-Jam

[Ljube]

I've always considered articles the most difficult aspect of English and have never mastered their proper use

[loinburger]

Sa could either be the Marquis de Sade, or it could be Sally Hemings, or it could be M. de Saint-Just. Of the three, I'd say that Spaced Cowboy is the most likely suspect -- he had plenty of motive to kill young Louis, and murdering Couthon would be a dual attempt to deflect suspicion from the radical Jacobins and would also give Saint-Just more control over the Committee.

Spaced Cowboy is the mafia.

[Jamski]

I've always considered articles the most difficult aspect of English and have never mastered their proper use

Its a myth. Articles and cases in English are easy.

Nominative
Accusative
Genitive

1. The King has an apple.
2. It is the King's apple.
3. It is the apple of the King.

Get it?

And speaking of getting it, can I get your GO oddres?

-jam

[Ljube]

I get it and you'll get them.

I'm working on them

[Jamski]

Ok, I'm going to go and for a few hours, although its over 80° here at 2am

-Jam

[vovan]

Originally posted by Jamski

I've always considered articles the most difficult aspect of English and have never mastered their proper use

Its a myth. Articles and cases in English are easy.

To me, the problem has always been not so much where to use an article, as whether to use the or a. Though I think I've mastered it well enough by now.

[Tassadar500]

Jamski because he voted for me.

[Jonny]

It was Tuberski de Sade. As a Girondine supporter, he would want to strike back at the Jacobins for the murder of the heir. And he skilfully tried not to attract any suspicion last round by joining the Chaunk docpile.

[GeoModder]

The 'Sa' can also come from the Committee of Public Safety. I think it is a double ploy from it's leader, Mr Robespierre Spiffor. He is well known for his abilities to lure people.

[vovan]

Hmm, I was first thinking it might be Spiffor, though one of the leaders of my own faction he might be. Yet, it seems, he could get rid of anyone, seeing what a position he occupies, without resorting to such risky ways. Hence, Ms. Sally HongHu Hemings, from the United States, gets my vote. It's no business of the Americans to snoop around France at such a turmolous time, any way.