with a decorative banner, which prevented anyone from seeing into the vehicle from behind. And while he wasn't certain, Ulrik was pretty sure there was a steel plate hidden within the banner. Even a blind shot wouldn't penetrate.
That still left the side windows, but that was a very difficult shot to make. All the more difficult because Ulrik and Kristina were sandwiched in the middle of the back seat, with a man on either side. To their left, sitting next to Kristina, was the governor of Magdeburg province, Matthias Strigel. To their right, next to Ulrik, sat a man named Albert Bugenhagen. The prince had known he was the mayor of Hamburg, although he'd never met him before.
Ulrik was quite sure the men had been selected for two reasons. First, they held formal positions of government, they weren't simply prominent figures in the Fourth of July Party or the Committees of Correspondence. Someone was being careful-thankfully-to maintain a necessary distance between the two royals and their real hosts. As much as possible, Kristina and Ulrik had to maintain a reasonably non-partisan public stance.
The second reason was even simpler. Both men were also very big, although not as enormous as the bodyguard up front. That made the seat very cramped. On the other hand, good luck to anyone trying to hit Kristina in the middle of all that beefy flesh.
So, Ulrik was in a good mood even before they came into Magdeburg. It was always a pleasure to deal with skill and competence.
He would always remember three things afterward about their procession through the city.
The first were the banners. They seemed to be everywhere. On every tower, on every roof-top, hanging from every window and balcony, and waved by seemingly every hand along the streets and in the square in front of the royal palace.
The flags came in all sizes, from a gigantic one draped down the side of an entire building to a multitude of small ones that could be held in one hand. But with very few exceptions, they only came in four types.
The first and most common was the official flag of the USE, with its crossed black bars on a red field. Along the two bars were golden stars representing the provinces of the nation, and at the center was the Swedish royal insignia from the lesser national coat of arms, three coronets under a royal crown. The colors throughout were the traditional German red, black and gold.
The second flag was the simple red-black-gold tricolor that had been informally adopted by the Committees of Correspondence. Sometimes the bars were horizontal, sometimes vertical. There was no official pattern since it was not an official flag to begin with. But it had becomes the recognized national symbol for those who advocated an outright republic.
The third flag was one Ulrik had never seen before-indeed, had never heard of before. It was the tricolor, but with the Swedish royal insignia at the center.
There were a lot of those. Not as many as the official flag but quite a few more than the common tricolor.
Finally, there was a banner. As with the tricolor, there was no set pattern, since these were quite obviously handmade. But the most common design had a red field, a black border all the way around-sometimes these were just two stripes-and a simple inscription in the center, written in gold: Long Live Kristina! Sometimes, Long Live Our Kristina!
Those were the princess' favorites, of course.
The second thing he would always remember was his first sight of the Marine guard when they drew up before the royal palace. The sight was startling enough to drive him to blasphemy.
'Good Lord! What have they got on their heads?'
'They're called 'shakos,' Your Highness,' said Albert Bugenhagen. 'Apparently it was a military design in the Americans' universe. Rebecca Abrabanel had images of them in a book and had a hatmaker shop produce a few dozen of the things.'
The mayor of Hamburg smiled. 'She says the admiral will probably have a fit when he sees them.'
The things were certainly impressive, although Ulrik couldn't help but wonder how practical they'd be on a battlefield. For that matter, nothing the Marine guards were wearing looked all that practical. They were the most elaborate and heavily-decorated uniforms Ulrik had ever seen, outside of hussar uniforms-and those were not the uniforms hussars actually wore into battle.
They even had the ostrich plumes, sticking up from the shakos. No leopard skins, though.
As they got out of the automobile, Ulrik gave the guards a closer inspection. He was pleased-relieved, in fact-to see that the weapons the Marines were carrying looked a lot more functional than their uniforms. Good SRG muskets, with an up-time shotgun in the hands of the corporal in charge of this particular squad. The Marines held the weapons as if they knew how to use them, too.
Thankfully, there was not a halberd in sight. After the fracas in Stockholm, Ulrik would be perfectly happy never to see another halberd for the rest of his life.
The thought of Stockholm drew his hand to his waist, almost involuntarily. He was carrying the same revolver he'd used there today. There was no particularly use or need for the thing, but Ulrik found its presence comforting nonetheless.
There was a very large party waiting to greet them at the palace. Every notable in the city was there, it seemed. Toward the back, almost hidden behind several other people, he spotted Rebecca Abrabanel. Her own costume was designed every bit as carefully as the costumes she'd designed for the Marine honor guard-except hers was designed to make her as inconspicuous as possible.
'I am not fooled, woman,' Ulrik murmured to himself. Pleased yet again to encounter skill and competence.
The same skill and competence, he didn't doubt.
And that point a band started to play, which was the third thing Ulrik would always remember. It was a catchy tune, not one he was familiar with. (Later he would find out it was the 'Vasa March,' newly composed by one of the city's musicians.) But what struck him the most was the energy and enthusiasm of the band members. If he'd been one of those musicians, he thought he'd have been too cold to beat a simple drum, much less play brass instruments.
How did you keep your lips from freezing to the mouthpiece?
Ulrik did not like to give speeches, and was not very good at it. Thankfully, because of the bitter cold, no one wanted to listen to a long speech anyway. A few short shouted sentences did well enough.
It didn't much matter, because the huge crowd in the square had come here to see Kristina, not him. And the princess did like to give speeches.
She was quite good at it, too, adjusting the term 'good' to nine-year-old standards. But those standards suited the mood of the crowd perfectly. Enthusiastic, cheerful, not hard to follow-and not too long either.
Soon enough, they were done. The only complication was produced by Kristina's final words: I'm having a party, and everybody's invited!
From their startled expressions, Ulrik deduced that the notables hadn't planned further festivities of any kind. Much less a party to which the entire city had been invited.
He was amused to see the way so many of them looked toward Abrabanel, and began drifting in her direction. The young Sephardic woman was already issuing quiet orders to a coterie of other young women whom she seemed to have gathered around her. Calm, relaxed, confident. What was the difficulty of organizing an impromptu festival, after all, when one has already organized an impromptu overturn of the established order?
Ulrik wondered who the young women were. Most were probably commoners, but several of them were obviously noblewomen. They reminded him of the ladies-in-waiting that could be found in any royal court. At least, those courts run by very capable queens.
By mid-afternoon, the palace was close to a shambles. Not quite, because the mob that had poured into it was in good spirits and not particularly given to drunken revelry. Not this day, at least, when the party was in honor of a child. Still, there was simply no way that number of people could pass through a palace without producing a lot of damage.
Most of the damage could be cleaned up by the morrow, though. Even the worst of it-an entire section of balcony collapsing; fortunately, with enough warning for the people below to escape death and mutilation-could be
