Douce France

[Richelieu]

She hears the voice of God.
That is what she says and I believe her. How could I not? We both have lived for thousands of years, through war and peace, plagues, floods and fires, our destinies tied with that of our land.
We are rulers of France.
She is Jeanne and I; I am Richelieu, her councillor, her companion.

**********************************

I still remember meeting her, at the very beginning. She walked past me, not even noticing I was there, sitting on my rock and eating berries. I could hear her whispering to herself.
I thought it was to herself.
She went maybe ten paces, and then stopped. She pivoted and stared at me, with those grey eyes of her - I know them well now, but back then I was struck with their ... I cannot say what. I never could.
She tilted her head to the side, still whispering, but I could not make out what she was saying.
Then she looked up at the sky for a moment, and back down at me and then she laughed. The most beautiful sound I’d ever heard; a shower of crystal in my ear.
I've been her's ever since.
And soon there were others with us, and then there was a village, and its name was Paris.

***********************************

"We will root them out" she said.
"We will isolate them and deny them any growth. We will build beautiful cities to surround them and win them over. And if they do not come to us that way, we will burn their villages and pillage their fields and their mines."
I love it when she gets that way: so focused, so determined...
Our people needed that drive to come together. We see so many barbarian tribes around us, roaming the land without a purpose, without a leader. Some are friendly and bring us gifts, some destroy all that we hold dear; none of them will see the sun rise much longer.
As soon as our village was settled, Jeanne told me that I should run it in her name. I sent warriors to discover the lands that surround us. And they found grassland and plains and even some strange gigantic beasts with long sharp teeth at twelve days march to the north. They also found something else, that I kept to myself.
Paris is at the east end of this, our continent, surrounded by oceans on all parts but the north and northwest. It is a narrow band of land that would not permit for more than two cities to be built side by side. It will help to protect us at first. I must not let it stop our growth later on.
With Paris protected by our troops and two other regiments of warriors exploring the land, I decided to assemble the citizens an ask them to decide amongst themselves who would be sent away to create our second city. They did not take to this with joy; Paris is a beautiful city and its surroundings are pleasant. So I asked Jeanne to talk to them. They know that the gods speak to her. Or "God", as she says it. And she told them that it is God's will that we should build cities and farm the land, explore and conquer our surroundings. Our people love Jeanne and fear our gods. But they also fear the unknown and were not keen on leaving our village.
So I told Jeanne about the Germans. That our warriors had found a city of these people to the northwest, 15 days away.
"Pour Dieu et pour notre peuple!" she told the peasants.
"We have to go forth and stop them! We have to build cities where they would build cities, build roads where they would put them. We have to thrive or we shall all die. As God is my witness, we shall all die!"

So we build two cities Rheims and Orleans, cutting the Germans access to the eastern part of our continent and still we produced more settlers, leaving but one warrior regiment to protect our towns. No improvements were added to our cities ; as soon as we had settlers we sent them forth, filling all lands to the north and the east.
The Germans seemed content to grow their cities bigger, and so i sent our warriors to the northwest of them, cutting their access to any further development there. I also sent settlers to establish a city. I knew our new city would face hard times, be cut out from us by distance and time, but I had to stop any German expansion.
"We will root them out" she had said.
When Marseilles was founded, I knew it was only a matter of time.

*************************************

But we had to fight, for the Germans were industrious and would not easily be overwhelmed. It took generations for us to destroy Berlin, their capital. And even when we burned Berlin, even with their spirits down, they still fought us for every hill, every field... but by then they only had three cities to our ten. We could build more Archers, more Spearmen and even more Horsemen... and we had to.
You see, our people are industrious, they build fast and what they build will stand the test of time. They are also full of courage and dedication to Jeanne. They go into battle with rage in their hearts and they fight without mercy... But - and it hurts me to say this - what they show in enthusiasm, they unfortunately lack in skill. Every now and then you will get a true warrior who will stand out from the crowd, but mostly we need three men for every two our foes put before us.
Fortunately, we had Jeanne to lead us into battle. There, she forgets about God. She is fury and death to our enemies and they weep and cry before her.
And so we paid death it's bloody dues, and she rewarded us with victory. Leipzig eventually fell before our armies, but I decided to wait for the last two cities to willingly come to us. I know it was an act of mercy. And it is my testament to the valour of the German fighters that this mercy was for my own people, not them.
We now controlled the southern end of our continent. And we started to build long overdue improvements in our cities. I was coming back from visiting our latest endeavour, the Leonardo da Vinci workshop when I found Jeanne pacing the grand Hall of the Palace.
“The Germans are no more” she said “but for all our sacrifices, someone else will get the glory of finishing them off”
She turns and stares at me.
“England” she says.
“Learn to hate that name.”

 

[Richelieu]

Journal
"Read to me from your journal" she said.
"Read to me again, that I remember all they have done to this land".
It is nearing dawn now, but the castle is still draped in darkness an the light from my candle reflects on her armour..

**************************************

Reports had been coming in for months of troop movements over the hills of our northern border, near Marseilles. But there had been no attacks, not even a contact between us and these Englishmen. I had dispatched our first veteran pike men to Marseilles and was trying to hurry production of the Forbidden city in nearby Rheims so that our workers would be happier and more productive in these lands so far from our capital. And then it started.
They came over the hills and swept over our land, first destroying our mines and then burning our crops, their pike men and
spearmen and knights covering the country like an English plague around Marseilles. And now, Marseilles is under siege.

-
The city's defenders did well and held their ground, but soon starvation set in as every "sortie" that we tried, charging out of our city walls to defend our fields, was met with the same tragic fate. We cannot win outside of our walls : the Devil travels and fights with these people. Marseilles is losing citizens now. Our defenders? They are brave and some of them even are elite now. If they could only get a day of relief from that pounding... I fear we may not be able to keep them in check much longer.
Where is Jeanne ?

-
Doctor ? More like a butcher if you ask me... That is what I think after a twenty-day journey back to the palace. Twice now I have been wounded. A pikeman's weapon piercing my left shoulder's armour plating, and a knight's sword making its way to my right cheek, as I barely managed to deviate the blow with my own sword.
That one is superficial, - Oh! how I hate that "interesting scar" speech that our doctor gave me - but I have had to go back to Paris to let my shoulder heal.
Things are not going well. The English are now sending their fleet to our coastline, raiding parties pouring out of their ships and ravaging our countryside. They are all met with fierce resistance (I cannot - I will not - leave our cities with less than to regiments to guard them) and are all defeated, but at a great cost. I hear this Elizabeth name everywhere I go... and no one dares speak ill of Jeanne in front of me, but I fear what they say when I am not there.
I need her now...
God: if you are speaking to her, tell her I need her now!

-

Our new Musketeer units are gifted defenders and we now have Knights of our own, but have they come too late ? The Englishmen are still coming down our hills by the thousands. Marseilles is but a shadow of what it once was, it's population reduced by forty thousand souls. But our Forbidden City is now completed. And our people in the northern province are speaking of a great fighter amongst our ranks. It took weeks for the news to reach me, here in Paris, but I dare hope: what if it was she ?

-

I have established new relations with Japan and ended the war between our lands. Although I had not heard of them in decades,
I chose to do it while they are not a threat: I have enough troubles on my mind as it is. I had to send wine their way, but
they then sent ambassadors from India and China to meet with us as an exchange.
I saw that great leader people were talking about. A young man with a strange name: Napoleone Buonaparte.
"You will be known as Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte" I told him. He agreed. He was so eager to do well for us. He loves this
country with a passion I have rarely seen. I know I should put him at the head of one of our armies and let him lead our troops in battle... but I have other plans for him.
"Go to Chartres" I said "and when you are there, inspire these men to build that marvel, that "Adam Smith" wonder.
I could see the deception in his eye. He pleaded for a sword and a horse, that he would fight like no Frenchman had fought before him... but I told him no.
"Do as I said" I told him " build this marvel that bears the name of one of their own and they shall weep with envy . You will have struck a crushing blow to our enemy".
Within four days he was in Chartres.
And in only a week... our marvel was built. He did not survive however, having consumed his life in this, his greatest feat.
And I wonder...what if I had let Napoleon fight? Was he as great a warrior as he said he would be ?

-

I have travelled to Marseilles heading an army of thousands of Musketeers and Knights. Most of them have not seen battle,
and although they do not know it yet, they will probably perish in this, their first. I intend to use these poor souls to let our veterans build back their strength. I will send the musketeers into battle, taunting the English from the forests and hills near our good city, while I send our knights through their lines towards the English homeland, with orders to pillage their roads. I need to slow them down.

-
She had been there all along. How could I have doubted it. She was the one in the battle that gave us Napoleon, and every other battle since, fighting alongside our veterans. They gave her a strange name. "La Pucelle d'Orleans". The virgin of Orleans.
"I had to tell them I was from somewhere" she said, shrugging her shoulders. In all these centuries, I had not been away from
her for more than a few days at a time. It affected me more than I knew. Much more it seems.
As soon as I saw her, I had an illumination. An idea that is. I knew I could help secure victory for our troops.
"Wait for me!" I said, "I will return in twenty days and we shall fight them then."
It took me eighteen days.

********************************

She just blew out the candle. No matter; she is all the light I need...
"Come now" she said "it is time to free our land of the English poison".

 

[Richelieu]

As I watched our enemy prepare for battle, I could not help but think that a marching army is a breathtaking sight.
The English did not challenge our coming out of the city walls. Why would they, they have won every battle on the open field...
The English pike men were aligned on a hill, maybe twelve hundred yards away, their silhouettes clearly cut against the rising sun behind them, illuminating the pikes and the helmets. We could see the movements of their Knights, slowly moving across the pike men formation. As impressive as they looked, I am certain that the sight of our own army must also have struck fear in our opponents, our shining armours hit by the first lights of the day, as we marched out of the city in close ranks under the eye of our Jeanne, neither her nor her white horse moving a muscle, standing on a hill in plain view of the enemy.
I stood at her side, my sword drawn, as I always do when we are together before battle. I like to feel the earth under my feet and, I must admit, riding a horse in battle is an art that I have not yet mastered. So she rides, and I fight with the pike men and the few musketeers we have.
We stood there for an hour while both armies got in formation. The field itself was about one thousand yards from our position to theirs, and eight thousand yards wide. Barely enough for our Knights to manoeuvre. The battle would take place in a field about a stone throw from the walls of Marseilles, surrounded by low hills on all sides.
It was the last day of summer and it would be a beautiful one. The air was still, filled with the moisture of the night and a thick fog covered the field that separated our two armies, as if the gods were sending us a signal that we would lose ourselves in this battle.
But then the sun came up and warmed the air, and the fog lifted.
They did not send an emissary and neither did we. The time for that had passed.
Jeanne drew her sword and the air filled with the sounds of metal against metal as both armies started to march down to the battlefield.


I marched down, not hurrying, purposely filling myself with hate and rage. The first ranks of our pike men met with theirs at the centre of the field and the shouting, grunting and crying began. I could see Jeanne leading our cavalry to the west to meet with the English and then I saw them. And I ran to them. This was already a bloody mess, everybody fighting au corps-à-corps . My first Englishman had an arrow piercing his throat when I came upon him, and I finished the job with one blow. The next instant I was lying face down in the mud, two soldiers having fallen upon me. And as I got up, I could not tell which was French and which was not as blood and mud covered them both. I would let God decide of that one. Another came for me, shouting in his barbarian language and swinging a battle-axe. As he neared striking range I lunged forward, hitting him in the mouth with my fist, as I was too close to use my sword. He fell backward, grabbing me and taking me down over him, hitting me with his other hand as he let go of his axe. So I let go of my sword and, protecting myself of an arm, I took out my stiletto and plunged it in his belly. And still he grabbed me and hit me and his hand tried to reach my eyes and I hit him again and so we went for an hour or a minute, until he let go of me and I plunged my stiletto in his heart. And I got up and struck a blow to another man and received one and I fell and I got up and I lost track of time and places, my world reduced to what was in front of me, ignoring friend and striking foe, hoping I could tell who was who, not hesitating when I could not.
Douce France, I have also taken some of ours, I am sure of it.
And the sun set on the other end of the world. We got back on our hill, they got back on theirs.
There was to be no victory on this day.

We fought again three days later, with the same results : they were still demons on the field but now we held our own.
We held our own. For the first time in a long time, our men began to think they could win. And so we fought six more times in the next thirty days.

"Our spies tell me they still have new troops coming in..." she said.
"So do we" I replied. "And our men are getting better"
"At what cost! How many thousands have we lost... how much longer can we go until that price is too high."
"I have to talk to you my beautiful lady" I told her.
She smiled.” You have very poor sight and it is no wonder you cannot even defend yourself"
Neither her nor I had even been close to hot water in over a month and the only reason I could not smell her filth was that mine must have been worse. But I could still see her beauty.
"They aim for my bad shoulder, I tell you! They must have spies that told them of my wound"
I have been struck twice in the last two fights and cannot even hold a sword anymore. And I am one of the luckiest.
"What is it that you want to talk to me about" she asked.
"The reason we are able to hold our own against the British is not that our people are getting better fighters."
Silence.
"The English are not sending all of their best troops to our land."

 

[Richelieu]

“What is this?” she said “ Why would they not?”
“I have made an alliance with the Chinese. They are attacking the English from the north as we speak.”
She fell back into her seat, her eyes still locked in mine.
“ But the Chinese are weak, they only have one city on this continent…” she said.
“That is their concern, not ours my lady. They were willing to go to war for the knowledge of Gunpowder. I felt it was not that high a price to pay… All I know is that this gives us a chance to rid ourselves of our enemy.”
“Surely you cannot think that even with the help of the Chinese we can destroy the English?”
“Perhaps not, but we can conquer at least two of their cities: Coventry and Berlin. They are both close enough to our Forbidden Palace that we should be able to hold them without much problems. As for the rest of their land, let us send our Knights to destroy their roads and their fields. That will weaken them for such a long time that they should no longer pose a threat to us.”

She seemed uneasy about my plan.
My Jeanne: she knows only the frontal assault. All those strategies and spy games are foreign to her way of thinking.
“What about the Chinese?” she said “ We brought them into this war only to see them being slaughtered? Only to create a diversion?”
“Jeanne, the best thing we can do to help the Chinese is to weaken the English. Besides, they could never have held on to Macao. It is too far from their homeland to be of any use to them and there are no resources close to it that could justify the sacrifices it would require from the Chinese to hold on to it. “
“Still…” she started.
I stood up, approached her chair and kneeled at her side.
“ Jeanne, the Chinese civilization will not exist much longer. India has already waged war twice against them and only five cities remain in the Chinese empire. India is now the greatest power on this earth and they will defeat the Chinese: it is only a matter of time. The only question that remains is whether or not we should use them to weaken our enemy and grow stronger so that we can eventually face India when the time comes. We are not doing this to hurt China. Its faith is already sealed. We are doing this to ensure that France has a future.”
I could not let her think about this. I had to get her to move, to do something. She has too strong a heart to accept all the little wounds that politics and compromises inflict on our soul, our dignity.
I got up.
“There are orders to be given.” I said in a loud voice. “ There is an enemy to be defeated and he will not stop until France is no more.”
That startled her. She had been drifting away like she always does when she says she hears “His Voice”. And I could not let her hear God now. I could not let her have second thoughts about what we were doing.
She stood up and put her hand on my shoulder.
“You have never failed me, my good friend” she said. “ Even though my heart is unsure, I shall listen to your voice this time.”



Epilogue

“You should come and see this: It really is spectacular!”
I was standing at the window, looking down on the street forty-seven stories below. The security forces had estimated the crowd at more than a million people, according to CNN, and they were expecting another million to join them for the fireworks that would take place before the departure of the Space ship.
And I thought “All that for this. Is it really the end?”
I turned around and realized that she wasn’t listening to me. God, once again, was doing the talking. She hears Him more and more now it seems.

The chief of protocol approached me.
“It is time to begin.” He said.
He looked at Jeanne, still caught up in her dreams.
“ Don’t bother” I said. “ She leaves these things to me.”

All the leaders of the great nations that have been defeated are gathered here as well as the ones that are still standing. But everyone knows that the game is over. Some of them, like Mao and Bismarck, have simply gone mad after their defeat and will not be joining us. For my part, I really enjoy seeing all of them face to face for the first time.
Gandhi is shorter than I imagined he would be. Tokugawa, well you can’t really have a decent conversation with Tokugawa so I stay away from him.
Much to my surprise, it is with Elizabeth that I end up talking.
“ You know, you nearly had us at the siege of Marseilles.” I tell her.
“Yes. I thought so at the time. I probably should have tried to cut your lines of communication sooner, but I really enjoyed the fight. Besides, there was that iron deposit in the hills nearby that I desperately needed at the time.”
She pauses and stares at Jeanne.
“It may not have seemed that way at the time, but I really enjoyed our negotiations. I knew you were the one deciding what was happening even if she was doing the talking. I guess I can tell this to you now. I never liked your Joan: that thing about talking to God just makes me sick.”
“She only says she hears Him.” I reply.
“Yes, well, I’m not the only one who feels that way.” She picks up another glass of champagne from a passing tray.
“Back then, when you nearly destroyed half of our cities and invaded Coventry and Berlin, that whole God thing definitely played a role in the events that followed.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“That’s what decided India to enter in an alliance with us against you. You see, Gandhi is a very religious man himself. It enraged him that your Joan would think that only she had that special connection to God. He believed he had that kind of connection himself. That’s why he attacked you with such rage I believe.”
I can see she is really enjoying this.
“ You folded much quicker than I would have thought though. I was hoping to be able to pick up at least half of your cities.”
“We had sent almost all of our men to your land, my dear. Our cities were defenceless when they invaded with their cavalry. Our Musketeers were no match for them.”
We are both staring out the window at the giant spaceship on the horizon. This evening, ten thousand Indians will board it and fly to the stars.
As if hearing a signal, we both turn to look at my Jeanne. We have been here in this asylum for over two hundred years now. And she hasn’t spoken a word to me since that day when Paris fell. She just sits and listens.
“You see” Elizabeth says, “ I too believe that she can hear the voice of God…”
She locks her eyes in mine and points to Gandhi.
“Only thing is: God is talking to someone else.”

 

[Richelieu]

Well here it is. Hope you enjoyed and i appreciate all comments.

 

[BrianJ]

Great story!

WHat happened with the war between France England and India though?

 

[LaZZyCaKe]

Excellente histoire, great story !

You did well writing this ending ! Really surprise me !

Félicitation, probablement une des meilleures histoires que j'ai lu ici.
Congratulation, probably one of the best story I've read here.

Sorry for the others!

 

[Zed-F]

Looks to me like France lost, Brian

 

[BrianJ]

Oh yeah

I should read more carefully

 

[Clubber]

Excellent !!!

 

[Richelieu]

Thanks for your comments! They're really appreciated!

And yes... France lost.

This was one of my first games on CIV3 and i got so mad at England that when i finally had the chance, i went all out on them. Leaving most of my cities with only 1 defender.
As i said i'd never do.

I'm taking that game way too personal!