Chapter 4

Radziwiłł was satisfied, but having laughed at Jeremi's comments about France, started coughing, as he was inclined to do when he was stressed. He fell to his knees, gasping for air.

Jurko slipped an arm under his shoulder and lifted him, the heel of his hand pressing on the stricken man's sternum to help him have something to cough against.

"You need a steam bath, my lord, to help you breathe," he said. With Jeremi's help he lifted and manhandled the magnate to the steam room they had installed, making sure his head was covered with the felted cap to prevent giddiness. Radziwiłł sipped water as the steam, with mint, thyme and rosemary added to the water, rose about him.

"Oooh," said Radziwiłł.

"Is that helping, my lord?" said Jurko.

"Yes... yes it is," said Radziwiłł.

"You can cast mint, thyme, and rosemary in any utensil and pour boiling water on them, and put a blanket over," said Jurko. "But a steam bath is relaxing and pleasant."

"Sire," said Radziwiłł, with deep emotion, "I did not think you would be a good king. I was wrong. You are a good king, and a good man, and God above knows, I am not a good man always. I try to be a good patriot, to Lithuania and to the Commonwealth. But you have let me get away with near treason, and permitted me to go back on it; and now you and your son have given me ease for this asthma of mine. And you promise, and deliver, protection of Lithuania too. I... I am your man wholeheartedly from now."

"Oh, Janusz, I have a confession, one of my officers met your niece when she was running away, and looted her to marry," said Jeremi.

"I know... I have seen her," said Radziwiłł. "I... forgive. She didn't like me."

"I am sure she and Jan would like to know you... as a relative," said Jeremi.

"It shall be so. She's a clever puss, and that I admire," said Radziwiłł.

"Now you're feeling a little more receptive to me, will you listen to something I've been in discussions with Krzystyna of Sweden over?" asked Jeremi.

"I'll listen," said Radziwiłł.

"We're expecting Alexei of Russia to push the boundaries," said Jeremi. "When he does, Jurij is going to take his shovel-masters and push all the way back, driving a road clear through the forest. He's been in consultation with a new protégé of his, one Andrzej Kmicic, the banneret of Orsza, which is near Smoleńsk. I consider Smoleńsk vulnerable to the Moskale."

"Yes, I believe Alexei would attempt to regain lost territory. I know Kmicic; a wild youth, but good-hearted."

"So I have heard from others. Jurij has a cache of materiel at Orsza, and has left one of Helena's cousins there in charge of getting things moving and sending message to us. I'll be asking you to set up way-posts for army divisions coming through. As well as using the water transport and the excellent roads Jurij has had built , I've been setting up wayposts with supplies, using my own surpluses. Chmielnicki has been doing the same thing for the Cossacks, and Czarniecki will move through the Ukraine towards the south of Moskwa as Jurij drives his road a day or so ahead of the body of the army marching. And your job is to watch to the north, and receive the representatives of Sweden who will help us out, on the grounds that if Alexei can't make headway with Poland, he'll walk into Finland."

Radziwiłł nodded.

"He would. I remember that disgusting letter he sent when Karol Gustaw made his move, offering to carve up Sweden with you. The Don Cossacks might be willing to consider joining with their brother Zaporozhians, for they are under effective Russian rule."

"Yes, so I was hoping. And this time we bloody well keep Moskwa, and put it in the hands of someone we can work with."

"Pliable enough to be amenable for absorption into the Rzeczpospolita but strong enough to stand against the Boyars? Not easy."

"I hoped you'd have someone in your contacts."

"I'll think seriously about that. And the Swedes? What's in it for them?"

"Nowogród1, as undisputed Swedish protectorate," said Jeremi.

Radziwiłł nodded.

"You might also consider a regency for the new crown prince, and have him reared Polonised."

"Now that's a bloody good idea."

oOoOo

Jurko had a letter to write.

"Dear Symeon,

Hoping you and all our cousins are well. How are you getting on with Andrzej Kmicic and his mad bunch of szlachetka?

I have a sense of urgency and I know it's not a good time of year, but can you get him and his men building a road from Orsza to Smoleńsk? It's about eighty staje, and the Romans expected to build a proper road with stone at the rate of between four and a half to six stopy per person per day.2 I estimate that you can get fifteen stopy per man building a log road, but it has to be done properly to take artillery, and you should treat the whole part of the way as soft to poor going. You will want stringers across the road every three stopy, and I am inclined to suggest going for speed and limiting it to the width of one-way traffic. We can add to it later. That way you can do it faster, so don't bother to go wider than eight feet, which should accommodate even our biggest field guns. We can always build a second highway next to the first. That way with three hundred men, you should get it built at the rate of almost two staje a day, easily three if you limit the width.

I'm going to write it down for you again.

Stringers at the edge, and at eight stopy wide, put two equally spaced between them. If you have the manpower at the base, let the stringers be covered in pine tar to preserve them. Put the road logs transverse to them on top and spike them to every stringer, failing to do so will cause problems later. Remember, trees get narrower at the top, so lay your logs back and forth, narrow end to thick end, and then when you have enough laid down, you must place side pieces over the outermost stringers and spike them too. A picket driven well into the soil at the end of each side piece, and inside the outer stringer, on an angle, to attach to the outer picket to hold it down. All the brush you have cut to go on top of the logs, and at least a foot deep of earth on top of that, or it will be a bumpy ride for the carts, and the surface will wear too quickly. It is, I assure you, time well spent.

If you build the road in this fashion, the road bed will be similar to any bridges you have to build over forest streams. Bridge them even if there is a gravel ford. We all know what can happen if the waters rise.

Helena sends all her love to you, and to Jurij and Andrij. Mikołaj is doing well with Rozłogi. Wasylij is still strange but the locals revere him as a prophet, and he comes to no harm. Mikołaj wrote last week. It is good that you and he write with fluency now so we may communicate. I appreciate having a relative where we need someone to trust. Kmicic may well become trustworthy, but I need you to test him with how well he solves problems. A permanent road from Orsza to Smoleńsk should see him having to think. If it looks like taking too long, then finish it with logs. Much depends on how many men he can get to help him. If Wołodyjowski will lend you some hussars to help out as well, Kmicic might make it to Smoleńsk before Christmas. That may be optimistic, but one can hope.

Jurij Korybut.

oOoOo

"Jeremi, I was considering getting married," said Jan Zamoyski.

"Congratulations, brother," said Jeremi. Jan 'Sobiepan' Zamoyski had his nickname for his pomposity, and Jeremi reminded himself that it was unkind to employ irony or mock his brother-in-law. Zamoyski was a year or so younger than Jurij, and at seven-and-twenty years old, it was high time he got wed.

"I was considering Maria Kazimiera d'Arquien," said Zamoyski.

"Never heard of her," said Jeremi. "That's a French title."

"Jeremi! She's your ward – Marysieńka."

"Marysieńka? Are you insane? She's still a baby," said Jeremi. "She's thirteen."

"That's old enough," said Zamoyski. "She's old enough to breed, surely?"

"No," said Jeremi. "I won't permit it."

"I can apply to her parents in France."

"Sobiepan, you're a dick. If you try, I'll see her in a nunnery first."

"What have you got against me? I supported you."

"I have nothing against you. I have a bias towards keeping a little girl in my care happy, and letting her choose her own future husband, when she's at least seventeen. Your sisters were married off too young, and for political reasons, and though Gryzelda and I have found love, we were not happy for many years, and Joasia has been very badly treated. You don't even know Marysieńka. If you get to know her, and she decides that she likes you, and you get rid of the harem everyone knows you keep, and take mercury preparations for the pox, that's a different matter. But I'm not going to grant you blanket permission."

"What about Princess Jadwiga? She's older."

"Yes, and she's already made her choice," said Jeremi. "She just has to catch him."

oOoOo

Princess Jadwiga's choice needed, in Jadwiga's estimation, careful stalking, in order to wear him down and get him thoroughly used to having her gown over his foot. Her brother, Władysław Konstanty, was off to Sweden in the ambiguous position of both voice of King Jeremi, and interim heir of Queen Krystyna. Jadwiga smiled, and approached the lugubrious-appearing Longinus Podbipięta.

"Oh, Pan Longin, I wish you will tell me what it is like in Sweden, so I can imagine what it is like for my brother," she said.

"It's pretty cheerless in winter, though the castle is wind-tight and warm, and we might be snug by roaring fires; but I missed Poland," he replied. "It is good to be home. I have met up with most of my old friends, Zagłoba, Jurij, and Jan, though not yet with Michał. Wołodyjowski, that is not your... not the king's son."

"He might as well be my brother; Papa Jeremi gave us a home when our mother and her paramour did not want cast-off bastards of yesterday's king," said Jadwiga, the bitterness creeping into her voice.

"Oh, little girl, do not let the unpleasantness of others fester for you, but instead rejoice and give thanks to God that the king and queen have been ready to reach out to you with love."

Jadwiga's face softened, and she smiled a little.

"You are right, of course. I have so many blessings in my life. And we are fortunate that Papa Jeremi is such a family man, and happy to embrace us all."

"I always wanted to join him to fight for him; it was a different sort of duty in Sweden, but still in a way making sure that a peace was defended. I am a simple man, however, and I am good in a fight, so I am eager to set off to the east with any dispatches that need to be carried, and to lay my sword under the leadership of the Little Knight, or Jurij when he comes there, as seems fit."

"You will need a page," said Jadwiga, critically.

"I have never had, or needed a page..."

"You need a page who is as skilled in herb lore as Rzędzian, for having learned it from him, and who will assist you with your armour."

"I cannot think..."

"I will organise it," said Jadwiga.

The slender youth who presented himself... herself... to Podbipięta had that worthy crossing himself in horror.

"Princess, I cannot take you as a page, it would be immodest, and..."

"Zuzanna managed well enough as page to Jan, and Helena to Jurij before that," said Jadwiga. "And Janina serves as Onufry Zagłoba's page when on manoeuvres. Wherein lies the problem?"

"I shall be embarrassed and fearful of... of being immodest."

"But everyone knows you are the very paradigm of knighthood," said Jadwiga, opening her eyes wide. "You will be exemplary in all that you say or do, and I shall be privileged to serve under you."

He spluttered.

"I am no paradigm of virtue, why, I perceived a second meaning in your all-too innocent words, and... and I fear that my emotions were affected by it," he said.

Jadwiga dropped her head to hide a smirk. It had worked, then. He needed to be worked on so as not to be too noble at the wrong time.

"Oh, forgive me, please, for disturbing your equanimity in saying anything which could be misinterpreted," she said. "I know that I must strive hard to achieve approaching your high standards, but I will do my best, however hard it may be."

"I... in that case, I will look upon the training of you as a penance for my own improper thoughts and offer up any suffering to God," he said. "As you appear to be packed and ready, I assume you have the blessing of the king?" it was grasping at straws that she might not have sought permission But she beamed at him.

"He is writing despatches and is ready to bid us 'Godspeed' when we leave," she said.

Jeremi had raised an eyebrow and asked her if she was sure; and reminded her that there were plenty of people who would give her succour if her feelings had been mistaken, or if anything changed.

Having received his king's kiss to the brow, and a bag full of letters, Longin Podbipięta ushered his page out, to take ship upriver from Warszawa, and thence along the various canals which made travelling so easy these days.

He hoped the innocent princess would not regret attaching herself to him.

The innocent princess was wondering whether a shared tent in winter conditions might be enough to warm up the passion she sensed roiled and bubbled below the knight's serene surface.

1 VelikhyNovgorod – the region as well as the town, which had been independent and was annexed by Russia at the end of the 16th century, and occupied variously by Sweden and Russia since. A potentially wealthy trade hub.

2 A staja is about half a mile. A stopa is about a foot. It is logged that roads built by the Romans 16 feet [4.8m] wide were built at up to a rate of 2 yards per man per day.