Vienna, 31 July / 1 August 1806 (around midnight)
Unnoticed by the guards, a band of young men climbed the front of Schönbrunn Palace with mountaineering equipment. Two of them entered the window to one of the corridors.
"Wait here", Bavaria whispered to the young, plain-clothed Bavarian officer who had accompanied him. The man gave a curt nod that was barely visible in the darkness. He stayed by the window while Bavaria sneaked to one of the bed chambers.
Bavaria carefully turned the door handle and pushed. When the opening was wide enough for him, he slid inside and silently closed the door.
"Who's there?", asked a very young, but firm voice. A candle was lit behind Bavaria's back.
He turned.
It was Holy Rome, clothed in his nightgown and a nightcap that was a little too big for his small form. The lit candle was in his left fist. In his right, he held the brazen chandelier, ready to lash out with it.
"Shhh", breathed Bavaria. "It's me, Bavaria, your brother. Trust me and follow me."
Holy Rome frowned. "I remember when I had to live with your last emperor, Charles VII", he said coolly, but still way too loud for Bavaria's taste. "It wasn't a very nice period of time." After a short pause, he continued: "I remember your current duke allied himself with France in 1805 and they forced my emperor to king him. I also remember you were among the Imperial Estates who signed the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine this month. Why on earth should I trust you?"
"Because your emperor isn't your emperor alone any more", Bavaria said. "Francis II also made himself emperor of Austria in 1804, if you care to remember that as well. You can't trust Austria any more than you can trust me, and I know for a fact that Francis considers dissolving you. But if you come with me, I can perhaps make you the representative of the Confederation of the Rhine."
It was a lie. A cabal. But quite a good one, Bavaria thought by himself. While he and the other larger states of the Confederation of the Rhine had no intention whatsoever to create anything resembling the Holy Roman Empire, some of the smaller states actually did.
"Francis doesn't have the power to do that", Holy Rome said with conviction. "It's illegal. The Imperial Diet would have to consent to such a thing. And besides, Austria will protect me. He always did, even when his archdukes put himself before me in their politics."
Damn that kid, Bavaria thought. Holy Rome had a point there, but this was exactly the reason why France and Bavaria wanted to abduct him: Neither of them wanted Austria to know if Holy Rome didn't vanish after Francis II dissolved the empire, for technically, it was illegal to do so. Let's make Austria think he is gone, even if he isn't, France had said, a hard glint in his beautiful blue eyes. It will weaken his resolve, and that will weaken the strength of his soldiers in turn. Prove yourself worthy to be my ally, Bavaria.
Bavaria thought he didn't exactly prove himself worthy by knocking Holy Rome out with his fist, but he didn't see many other options. He caught the little body in its fall and snatched the candle from Holy Rome's hand before it could hit the ground.
The chandelier made a thumping sound when it connected with the floor. Bavaria winced.
"Sir?", he heard a muffled voice at the door.
Bavaria opened it and hissed at his officer: "The blanket, now! We have to hurry." He didn't know if anyone else had heard the chandelier tumble, but he certainly didn't want to find out.
When the officer returned with a woollen blanket, Bavaria ordered him to hold Holy Rome's limp body while Bavaria replaced the nightgown and nightcap with the blanket. He draped both on the floor next to the chandelier. Then, he doused the candle and put it back in the chandelier.
"Looks convincing to me", the officer commented.
"Good", Bavaria said. "Let's leave."
A mere three minutes later, Austria entered Holy Rome's bed chamber. "Zwutschkerl?", he yawned. "Do you have trouble getting back to sleep again?"
Then, Austria's eyes fell on the nightgown and the chandelier on the floor. Realisation hit him like a sledgehammer and his sleepiness vanished in an instant. He put his fist in his mouth in order to stifle the cry that threatened to escape from the back of his throat, then sagged against the door frame.
Holy Rome was gone.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Coach from Vienna to Munich, 1 August 1806
"Now will you bring me back to Vienna!", Holy Rome demanded with authority. He had woken soon after Bavaria and his band had left the city, and Bavaria had had to truss him up in order to keep him from trying to jump off the coach.
Bavaria sighed. He didn't even bother to reply any more. When the coach came too close to towns and settlements, he had to gag the boy, but he didn't like the shade of purple Holy Rome's face turned whenever he prevented him from shouting. Seems like I have to endure this till we arrive in Munich, he thought to himself.
He was wrong.
"Release me!", Holy Rome cried. "You have no right—"
Then, his eyes widened, and his face went white. He sagged to the side and lay awkwardly still.
Bavaria thumped at the roof of the coach with his walking cane. "Stop!", he shouted.
The coach came to a halt, and Bavaria rushed to Holy Rome's side. He held his hand to the little boy's nose and sighed with relief when he found Holy Rome still breathing. Perhaps he's exhausted from all that shouting, Bavaria thought and pulled the blanket closer around Holy Rome's body.
It wasn't exhaustion, though. Holy Rome didn't wake any more during the whole of the journey. He didn't wake when they arrived in Munich and he didn't wake when he was examined by Besnard, the Bavarian king's personal physician.
"I'm sorry", Besnard told Bavaria, "I'm at my wit's end. This is not like any other disease I've seen. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that he's … not a mere human being?"
"Perhaps", Bavaria said. Then, he let himself fall onto the chaise longue in Holy Rome's chamber. "Oh my God", he groaned, "if Austria ever finds out I abducted his precious little darling, he'll kill me."
He learned only a few days later that Holy Rome had probably fallen unconscious in the exact same moment Francis II had signed his letter of abdication as Holy Roman emperor in which he declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Time leap: Vienna, 8 June 1815
That's it, Bavaria thought when he saw his king sign the German Federal Act. Now Holy Rome is history. The act declared explicitly that the German Confederation was not legal successor to the Holy Roman Empire. Bavaria didn't know whether he should be sad or relieved if the little boy died who had been unconscious for the past couple of years.
A few minutes later, an officer entered the room and rushed to Bavaria. He wasn't among the young men who had accompanied his country to Schönbrunn in 1806; none of those had returned from Russia in 1812.
"Sir", the officer whispered, "please come with me. The boy you told us to bring to Vienna…"
Bavaria quickly left the room. The officer followed him.
"What about the boy?", Bavaria asked as soon as the young man had closed the door.
"He's woken up", the officer replied to Bavaria's surprise.
Bavaria raced to the rooms in Hofburg Palace where the Bavarian delegation lodged during the Congress of Vienna. The young man next to him had trouble keeping up with him.
It was only when Bavaria slowed down in Holy Rome's room that he realised he hadn't the faintest idea what to tell the boy who looked at him wide-eyed.
"Erm … hello?", he suggested.
"Hello", the boy replied. "Who are you?"
Ugh. Whatever he had expected, it hadn't been this. He turned to another officer at the head of the boy's bed. "Does he remember…?"
"No", the man replied, "he seems to have lost his memory."
Bavaria didn't know what to make of that. "I'm the personification of the Kingdom of Bavaria", he told the boy at last, "and you're … the German Confederation, I suppose. Welcome to Vienna."
I'll bring the boy to Austria and let him deal with this, Bavaria thought. Austria had become the presidential power of the German Confederation, so its personification would probably remain in Vienna, Bavaria supposed. I'll just claim I found the boy somewhere near the palace. At least, he won't tell Austria I abducted him if he doesn't regain his memory…
—
Notes:
There are several theories out there as to whether Holy Rome and Germany are the same person. I'm convinced that they are and that Ludwig also is the German Confederation. In my opinion, he represents the federation of the "German" countries.
Charles VII Albrecht (1697-1745, prince-elector of Bavaria since 1726) was Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) from 1742 until his death in 1745.
Maximilian I Joseph (1756-1825, duke of Zweibrücken 1795-1799, prince-elector of Bavaria 1799-1805, king of Bavaria since 1806) was allied to Napoleonic France from 1805 on. In 1813, Bavaria became allied with Austria again in the Treaty of Ried (8 October) and joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon.
Bavaria and 15 other German states who had allied themselves with Napoleonic France initially formed the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) in signed the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbundakte) on 12 July in Paris and formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire on 1 August.
Francis II (1768-1835) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1792 to 6 August 1806, when his abdication was proclaimed to which he had consented on 1 August. He declared himself Emperor of Austria (as Francis I) in 1804 after Napoleon had made himself Emperor of the French that same year.
"Zwutschkerl" is an Austrian term of endearment for young children.
Franz Joseph von Besnard (1749-1814) was the personal physician of Maximilian Joseph since 1778.
Bavaria had to send around 30,000 soldiers to aid Napoleon's Grande Armée during the French invasion of Russia in 1812. 90% of them died; only about 3,000 returned to Bavaria. This disaster was one of the main reasons why Bavaria shifted allegiances in 1813. (I might write a fanfiction about this as well.)
The German Confederation (Deutscher Bund, 1815-1866) was founded at the Congress of Vienna. Its constitution was the German Federal Act (Deutsche Bundesakte), which was adopted on 8 June 1815, one day before the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna was signed.