Surprise at Dawn and The Fate of Ewald Kopp
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| The lately acquired literary sources have helped immensely. |
The fate of the crew of the Rubenstein Kreuzenfeldt, not less the kingdoms of Teutonia and Strandia have hung in the balance for no less than ten years............. something had to be done.....
It is 5.30am on the 25th April last.......
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| The map translated to the tabletop. North is to right. |
The crew wait in the bowels of Skovkapellet until first light then they creep upstairs and through the secret door into the church from where they take up positions to greet their rescuers. The secret agent contingent under Arminius Quint slip away through the woods, not wishing to get caught up in a swords and gunpowder type operation - sly winks, impersonation and lashings of gin are more to their taste.
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| Crewmen emerge into the chapel from the secret door behind the altar. |
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| Arminius Quint bids adieu to Captain Hardie as the crew set up their gun to guard the steps. |
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| The ship's crew and and a 6 pdr full of nails ensures nobody will dare climb the steps to the chapel! |
The first rescuers to arrive on the table are the Equestrian Squadrons of the Teutanian Young Gentlemen's League for Politeness. (henceforward 'The Equestrians'). They trotted as quietly as possible toward the Skovkapel from the east, having spent the previous day scaring small girls on ponies and drinking the tea tent dry at the beach gymkhana they had entered as cover for their trip to Strandia.
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| Thelwellian adventures of the TYGLP(Equestian) |
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| 'Good Morning, Captain Hardie I presume' : 'Ave yer got any grog in yer saddlebags laddie?' |
The next Teutanians to arrive were the TYGLP Senior Battalion who had spent the previous day sight-seeing in Guldborg. Despite the dogged inspection of every tavern in the town they marched overnight to quietly march in their stocking feet past the camp of the Fish who were still snoring and a few servants preparing the morning porage did not even deign to look up from their task.
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| Salt or sugar was always a dilemma for Tobias Shunt as he boiled the porage. If he got it wrong there would be hell to pay from the sentinels of The Fish. And what did he care if several hundred idiots without shoes wandered past in the dawn? |
The Seniors battalion was well past the camp before the Fish were roused and stumbled out to grab their muskets, porage and shoes, not necessarily in that order.
One sentinel had the good sense, or accidental misfortune, to fire an alarm shot, or wild discharge from a musket irresponsibly left loaded as the Sergeant Major would later have it ... This alerted the Strandians further afield and they began to assemble.
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| Warning or mishap? In any case it woke everyone up.. |
The Juniors battalion now arrived by the East Road and still the Strandians over by the Master of the Keys House and the Woodcutter's cottage had not stirred. Evidently a keg or two of Mutti's Rum had been sneaked over to them during the previous evening's revels.
At the Skovkapel all pleasantries and hasty slurks of grog aside, the sailors mounted up behind the horsemen and they started off for the Southern Way and,eventually, Teutania.
The Strandian cavalry and infantry had by this time roused themselves and marched over to the Skovkapel too late to do anything.
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| The deserted chapel, TYGLP hastening away and the Strandian guards hurrying slowly towards (avoiding?) participating in a pitched battle |
The Thalassian prime mover, Baron Thelonius Thwacke was foremost with the Senior battalion of the TYGLP and he decided with the Junior Lieutenant Colonel, Franz Pottenthaler, that they should beat a retreat and avoid further confrontation, the job had been done.
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| Pottentahaler agrees with Thwacke(left) that the job is done. |
The Fish, however, needed to salvage some morsel of credibility. Didriksen hastily got them into a firing line and as the Teutanian colmns disappeared from view, sent an overoptimistic volley after them.
The gods and the dice were willing to grant him a smidgin of luck and a hit was scored on the rearmost company of the Junior battalion. The Teutanian foot strode out even faster to disappear in the woodland mists denying any further combat.
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| A single measly hit was all Didriksen and the Fish could put against a completely successful Teutanian mission to rescure the falsely imprisoned crew of the Rubenstein Kreuzenfeldt. |
Tragically, the hurrying troops left behind a bundle of cloth and limbs in the dew-soaked grass. The sixteen year old new recruit with a club foot, only son of a widowed washerwoman. Ewald Kopp had been struck in the back of the head and sank silently to the ground as his comrades strode blindly on.
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| Oh leide! Poor Frau Kopp.. |
When the Fish discovered their sole victim he appeared so pathetic that Didriksen ordered him immediately buried at the foot of the Skovkapel rock. The disappointed Fish extended to their unlucky opponent the honour of a simple wooden cross which their colonel did not deny. Oh, on how many days in the future Strandians would rue this decision....
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| Last resting place of Sentinel Ewald Kopp. Late of the Junior Battalion of the TYGLP. |
The rescue of the sailors from the Reubenstein Kreuzfeldt was a total success. Hardie and his men would be greeted as heroes in the streets of Allenstein and the TYGLP avoided proscription and even gained recruits. The Thalassians had won this round.
In Strandia, it was put out that the piratical Teutanians had been whipped, fined and delivered back to their masters riding backwards on donkeys. General Mollberg ordered a heavy hand to be henceforth exerted against all Teutanian presence in Kurusaare.
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| Grabson Spotte and Lieutenant Colonel Dideriksen watch the Teutanians disappearing towards the horizon from the terrace of the Skovkapel and deliberate over the version of events that General Mollberg should come to know about their brave defence against overwhelming odds. |
