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those rednecks who hang out at the Club 250.'

'Those bastards,' hissed Melissa. 'I oughta picket the sons of bitches.'

Piazza frowned. 'What's this about?'

Mike was scowling now. 'The owner, Ken Beasley, put up a sign last week behind the bar. 'No dogs and Germans allowed.' '

Ed's mouth dropped. Mike chuckled harshly-very harshly. 'Yeah. When I first heard about it, I grabbed some work gloves and started on down there. Looking for sparring partners. But Becky stopped me.'

Rebecca sniffed. 'Stupid. So was Dan Frost's idea to close them down for violating the building codes. It took me an hour to talk him out of it.' She gave her fiancй a glare and poked him in the ribs with a finger. 'Especially since this one kept encouraging him.'

'Why'd you stop him?' demanded Ferrara. 'That rathole must have a thousand violations.'

Mike shook his head. 'No, Becky was right. It would have been a gross abuse of official power. It's not as if we haven't been cheerfully violating the fine points in the building code ourselves, with the all new construction we've been putting up. Besides, she came up with a better idea.'

Melissa cocked her head, inviting an explanation. Rebecca smiled seraphically. 'I spoke with Willie Ray-he owns that piece of land across the highway from the Club 250-and the partners who set up the Thuringen Gardens. I pointed out that with winter coming, they really needed to get themselves a permanent building. So-'

Mike grinned. 'So Willie Ray's now a new partner and they're starting construction next week. A great big enormous German-style tavern they'll be putting up, right across the street. Frank and I are planning to raise the matter at the next local meeting. We want the miners to adopt the new and improved Thuringen Gardens as our unofficial watering hole. The partners have already agreed we can hang a big sign on the side of the tavern, quoting the relevant passage from the UMWA Constitution. The one we adopted back in the nineteenth century, banning racial discrimination.'

Melissa burst into laughter. 'Oh, that'll be perfect! Let those rednecks huddle in their rathole, with the town's biggest tavern doing a booming business right across the way.'

Ferrara and Piazza were grinning themselves. 'Won't be any rough stuff, that's for sure,' said Ferrara. 'Not even the bikers are crazy enough to piss off the UMWA.'

'When do they expect to open?' asked Ed. 'I'll make it a point to bring the whole family down for opening night. Even if it's standing room only, which it will be.'

The television teacher scurried over and interrupted. 'Becky!' she hissed. 'You've got to start getting ready for the news broadcast.'

Startled, Rebecca glanced at the clock on the wall. 'It will not start for another-'

But Janet was not to be thwarted. She took Rebecca by the arm and began hauling her away. 'We're going to rehearse,' she hissed. 'You must learn to follow the script.'

'Why?' asked Rebecca. Her studious face was intent. She added something else, but she was too far away for the rest of her words to be heard.

Ed smiled ruefully. 'Poor Janet. I think she's in for a rough few months.'

'That's my girl,' murmured Mike happily.

***

When Rebecca came back on, she followed the script for not more than three minutes. Then, frowning, she laid the sheets of paper to one side and clasped her hands in front of her. Staring intently into the camera, she said:

'I will return to all this news on the production projects later. The essence is that things are going well except for the new ice-cream factory, but I think we can all agree that that is really a little frivolous.'

A hiss went up from the audience, a groan from Janet.

'Well, maybe not so frivolous,' admitted Rebecca. 'But it is still not so important as the news on the military front.'

The audience fell silent. Rebecca paused for a moment to scan her notes. Then:

'You all know that Tilly's troops have been leaving Thuringia for the past several weeks. Mackay's scouts report that the last units of the Weimar garrison have also departed, as of two days ago. Now Mackay has received more news, from a courier sent by King Gustav.'

She stared into the camera. 'A great battle is looming, somewhere near Leipzig. Tilly is marshaling all his troops to meet Gustavus Adolphus on the open field.'

She looked away, gathering her thoughts. When she turned back to the camera, her face was solemn and pensive.

'I am Jewish, as you know. Most of our citizens are Christians, and most of them are now Catholics. But I do not believe that anyone here can take sides in this coming battle based on creed. What is really at stake is not whether Protestant Sweden will defeat Catholic Austria and Bavaria, or the opposite. What is at stake is our own freedom and liberties.'

There came another long pause. 'I am supposed to present the news without commentary. That seems a bit foolish to me, since I do not know anyone who does not have an opinion on almost everything, including myself. But I will of course abide by the wishes of the television people. Nevertheless-'

Another groan from Janet. The audience-throughout Grantville-was utterly silent.

'My prayers tonight will be for the king of Sweden. In this coming battle, Gustav II Adolf fights for our future. Ours, and that of our children, and of theirs, and of theirs, and of theirs, and of theirs.'

'Amen,' whispered Mike.

Part Three

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Chapter 34

In the centuries to come, they would call Gustavus Adolphus the Father of Modern War. Then they would take to quarreling over it.

For he wasn't, really. That title, if it can be given to anyone, more properly belongs to Maurice of Nassau. Gustavus Adolphus learned the modern system from the Dutch, he did not invent it. True, he refined Maurice's emphasis on the line rather than the square, and extended it to his arquebusiers. True, also, he gave particular emphasis to artillery. Here, too, myths would abound. People would talk of the famous 'leather guns,' never realizing they failed the test of battle and were soon discarded. The guns had a tendency to overheat and burst. Gustav brought none with him to Germany.

His greatest accomplishment, others would argue, was Gustav's creation of the first national army in the modern world. His Swedish army was an army of citizen conscripts, rather than mercenaries. But, again, the claim was threadbare. The Swedish system was actually pioneered by his uncle, Erik XIV. And, in truth, Gustav soon came to rely on mercenary soldiers-vдrvade, the Swedes called them, 'enlisted' men-almost as much as his opponents. Sweden was a sparsely populated country, whose citizenry could not possibly provide the number of soldiers Gustav required.

So it went…

He introduced the light musket, which eliminated the clumsy musket fork. But many other European armies used light muskets, and as late as 1645 musket forks were still being issued to Swedish soldiers.

He abolished the bandolier and introduced cartridge pouches for his musketeers. Another exaggeration. The Stockholm Arsenal would continue issuing bandoliers at least until 1670.

He invented uniforms. Not true. Uniforms were already coming into existence throughout Europe. If anything, the ragged Swedish troops were more haphazardly garbed than any.

He shortened the pike to eleven feet, making it more maneuverable in battle. False-even silly. What use is a short pike to an infantryman? That legend was begun by a parson, who mistook an officer's partisan for a pike.

Legend after legend. Gustavus Adolphus seemed to attract them like a magnet. For each legend refuted, two more would come to take its place.

He reintroduced shock tactics into cavalry warfare. He replaced the ineffective caracole, where cavalrymen would wheel around and fire pistols from a distance, with the thundering saber charge. There is an element of truth to this claim, but only an element. Many German armies were abandoning the caracole already, and Gustav learned the value of shock tactics from the ferocious Polish lancers that his army faced in the 1620s. In truth, the Swedish cavalry took many years to become an effective force. Sweden had never been a cavalry nation. Swedish kings-Gustav no less than his predecessors-leaned heavily on their half-civilized Finnish auxiliary cavalry. Even the Swedish horses were small and stout. As late as Breitenfeld, Tilly could still sneer that Gustav's cavalry was no better mounted than his own baggage-boys.

As late as Breitenfeld…

***

After Breitenfeld, of course, Tilly could no longer make the boast. All of central Germany was now open to Gustav, along with its magnificent horses. Soon enough, his Swedish cavalry was as well-mounted as any in the world.

Breitenfeld.

All the legends revolve around that place. They pivot on that day. Wheeling like birds above the flat plains north of Leipzig on September 17, 1631, they try to find sharp truth in murky reality. Never seeing it, but knowing it is there.

The legends would be advanced, and refuted, and advanced again, and refuted again-and it mattered not in the least. Breitenfeld remained. Always Breitenfeld.

After Breitenfeld, how could the legends not be true?

***

Breitenfeld was a rarity in those days. Pitched battles on the open field between huge armies were a thing of the past. For well over a century, warfare had been dominated by the trace italienne, the new system of fortifications developed in Italy and perfected by the Dutch in their struggles against Spain. War was a thing of long campaigns and sieges, not battles. The strength of nations was measured by the depth of their coffers, not the names of victories emblazoned on their standards. Attrition, not maneuver-and even there, attrition was measured in coins rather than lives. Lives were cheap, bullion was hard to find.