SATURDAY STORY - GOTTFRIED THE GREAT

 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2022 - STORY

On Saturday I write fiction.  (I’ll keep trying until I get something that works!!!)

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NEW STORY

I loved the idea of Zorro - the mild-mannered nobleman of Spanish California, who became ‘the fox’ - Zorro who helped the peasants and ill-treated people of the area.  Likewise, I liked Robin Hood - steal from the bad and give to the good!!!  Today (and however long it takes) we’ll look at “Gottfried the Great” - a hero of Saxony.

*****

Hermann Bauer was milking his cows when a messenger arrived.  He took a break to read the note.

“His Majesty, King Mallory, commands you and your sons to present yourself at the Citadel of St. Stefan in Heckendorf Saxony on Monday Oktober 3, 1823 at 10:00 a.m. for military duty.”

Hermann said “Thank you the courier”, and wadded up the note.  Then, he thought better of it and straightened the paper out again.  

He said to himself after the courier left, “I must talk with my neighbors about this”.  

*****

On Sunday, September 18, 1823, after Mass at St. Stefan’s church (next to the Citadel), Hermann, Christoph Quass, Jakob Hoffman, and Dietrich Schwartz met in the Sacristy of St. Stefans. He had talked with Christoph, and Jakob and Christoph had talked with Dietrich.  All of them had received the same note.  

Hermann said, “I don’t really want to go off to war.  I don’t want my sons to fight King Mallory’s fights with neighboring realms.  What can we do?”.

The four families had lived in Heckendorf for years, Hermann’s wife was a relative to Dietrich Schwartz; Christoph’s brother lived next to Jakob Hoffman.  They all had gone to St. Stefan’s Ecclesiae School.  As patriarchs of their families, it was their duty to keep their families strong.  

Hermann and Christoph had talked five hours late into the night on Friday, September 16th.  Christoph had an idea that he and Hermann had discussed.

Hermann addressed his friends. “Christoph and I talked about this earlier.  All of us are landowners and leaders of our families.  All of us have sons, except Jakob who has just one son.  We don’t want to send our sons out to fight against Thuringen, Brandenburg, or Bayern just because Mallory wants to look royal.  And you know we’ll have to pay extra taxes to fund Mallory’s army.  Enough, I say.  Time to take action”.

“I propose that on Monday, Oktober 3rd that our sons block the streets in Heckendorf, let some of our cattle roam free, and keep Mallory’s officials from getting to town.  Jakob, you live on the Gera road can you and your son and daughters let some cattle free?  Dietrich, can you and your sons bring your wagons with hay into town (and if the hay has some re, all the better).  Christoph can you gather some of your chickens and let them free in town.  And, I’ll also have some cattle roaming free and some chickens.”

The men agreed and went home with their families and it wasn’t too late after church.

*****

The four men and some of the sons met on Sunday, September 25 at Christoph’s house after church.  Christoph was one of the best brewers in the area and the men reviewed their plans over some of Christoph’s pilsners.

Christoph’s oldest son, Johann, was interested in Hermann’s second daughter, Rachel.  The families had a picnic, and Dietrich’s son had a crush on Herman’s third daughter, Rebecca.  The younger children were all friends from school and played hide and seek and other games while the adults visited and drank beer.  They hadn’t really spoken much of their rebellion against King Mallory.  They didn’t want to be identified as the culprits next Monday.  Mary Schwartz had made black hoods and masks for the men who would be conducting the non-violent demonstration.  

Gottfried, the fourth son of Christoph, was thinking it might be okay to be in the King’s army.  As the fourth son, he wouldn’t inherit the land so maybe being a soldier might be a good occupational choice for him.  He really didn’t want to kill anybody and he really didn’t want to be killed in one of Malloy’s battles against Thuringia. That would stupid in his estimation.  Keeping the peace was good, but fighting other Germans was bad.  

*****

Hermann had drawn a map and they worked out the details.  

Jakob and his family had about 40 head of cattle that could be let out to roam.  

Jakob volunteered.  I had a gate that I will conveniently leave open and we will get the cattle out on the road in plenty of time.  They are pretty docile and shouldn’t be much of a problem, but it should slow them down.  

Dietrich had been loading hay from the stables into a couple of wagons.  He joked, “My wife wants this gone soon.  She thinks it smells”.  

Christoph and his family would gather some of the chickens and let them run free.  He commented, “I imagine that some of my chickens will go into our neighbor’s pots that evening.  We’ll pick mostly the older chickens.”

Hermann had been thinking.”What if Mallory brings his men to town on Sunday?  They could camp in the square next to the church.”

Dietrich nixed that.  The garrison is in Gera and that is only about 10 miles away.  No, they’ll ride over from Gera in the morning.  There might be a couple of people here on Sunday, but probably not many.

Hermann shook his head “And, since we don’t have an inn, they will be staying in houses - maybe even our houses.  Is there a humane way to give them food poisoning?”.

Christoph immediately objected “No, these are fellow Saxony residents. We don’t want them sick.  Delayed - yes, sick - no.”

Jakob nodded, “No food poisoning!!!”

The day slipped by.  The families enjoyed the gathering, the men were ready for some hidden protests, the kids played with each other, and the ladies got to visit, which was fairly rare.

*****

On the morning of Oktober 3, 1843, Jakob Hoffman opened his gate and his family gently shooed the cows out on the road to graze.  The cows liked it as the grass along the road was rarely cut and was never grazed, so there was fresh green grass to eat.  Jakob kept his bulls in their pens, cows and steers were good enough.

Christoph Quaas brought a wagon of chickens into the four corners.  The east-west road went east to Gera and west to Zollnitz, and the north-south road went north to Hainspitz and south to Miesitz.  They had cages for the chickens and when the Quaas children opened the cages, the birds fought to be the first ones out.  Of course, he had a few roosters that found their voices and began to wake up the little community.  

Dietrich Schwartz cleaned out his hay wagons in the road on the east side of the town.  Hermann Bauer let his cows out to roam as well.  

***

There were neighbors in the community that were surprised to see cows, chickens, and haystacks in the town.  Joshua Heckinliebe did the logic first.  He said to his wife, I think there is a protest going on today.  We got a note that Malloy was coming to town to draft our men into his army.  And, I think; no, I BELIEVE that some of our neighbors don’t want to fight other Germans.  His chickens roamed freely anyway and they found some of their distant relatives running around town.  

***

On Monday, Oktober 3, 1823, at about 8:00, a group of twenty soldiers including a captain, rode out of the Gera garrison towards Heckendorf.  Jakob Hoffman and his sons were busy on the road, acting like they were rounding up the cows. Jakob apologized to the captain.  The captain, the son of a farmer, told his men to help round up the cows.  

It took about half an hour to get the cows back into Jakob’s farm.  But, every minute it took made the soldiers late for their assignment of drafting men into the army.

After clearing the cows off the road, Captain Karl Oster got his men back on their horses and in formation and moving towards Heckendorf.  As they neared the village, there were several piles of hay and manure on the road. Dietrich Schwartz was there with his sons, attempting to get the hay back on the two wagons.  

Knowing he was late, Captain Oster ordered his men to keep going, although in his heart he thought he should be helping.

Soon almost all the people in the community were outside seeing what was going on.  The town was unusually full of activity when they reached St. Stefan’s square.  Chickens were everywhere, there were more cattle on the road, and the Hermann Bauer and Christoph Quaas families were trying to round them up.  

Captain Oster caught on quickly.  One set of free-roaming cows was unusual, but two sets of cattle on the road seemed to be a conspiracy.  Plus the hay and manure, more free-ranging chickens, and almost the whole town milling around made Captain Oster think that this had been planned.

Then some boys with black hoods used homemade peashooters to annoy the soldiers.  A couple of the soldiers chased the boys which just made the situation more chaotic.

Instead of 10:00, the military unit set up their tent at 11:15 - an hour and a quarter later than planned.  But, by then, the only people around were old men, women, and children, the men had magically disappeared.  More of the conspiracy thought Captain Oster.

Captain Oster proceeded to have the bugler sound a call, and he besought the men of the town to come out.  It wasn’t quite the show he and King Mallory had expected.  In rounding up the cattle, his spit-shined boots were now covered in manure, and his resplendent uniform was dirty from the activities of the morning.

Two men came up to Captain Oster.  One man was very old and walked with a cane.  He went up to Captain Oster first.

He started, “Good Morning General”.

Captain Oster stopped him and said, “I’m just a captain, but please go on”.

The old man continued, “Good Morning, Captain.  I’m Gustav Bauer, probably the oldest man in Heckendorf.  We welcome you to our fine village.  How can we help you?  Is there a set of bandits that you are chasing here?  Can we provide you with food and water?”

Captain Oster responded, “Thank you, Herr Bauer.  We are here in Heckendorf to recruit soldiers for King Mallory’s army.  Can you help us round up the men of the community?”

Gustav Bauer took a minute to look at the Captain, then answered.

“Captain, we are a good, God-fearing community.  We are farmers, not soldiers.  We don’t want our young men going off to fight and die in wars that don’t concern us.  We suspect that King Mallory might have his soldiers fighting against other Germans, and we don’t agree with that.  War is not the friend of farmers and good citizens like those in Heckendorf.  I don’t think you’ll get any soldiers here today.”

That angered Captain Oster.  “Yes, you will give us your sons to be soldiers.  King Mallory needs men to defend this land from those opposed to us.  Where are the men that were summoned to be here?”

Gustav said, “Captain, an hour ago there were several young men here, but when you didn’t come, they went home to their farms and work.  It is the harvesting season now, and the crops need to be harvested so our cows can have food for the long winter.  Some are doing other projects like digging channels to divert some of the Zeitzbach river into fields.  Others are cutting wood to heat our homes.  There is too much work to gather and wait for you to come to take our sons away to foreign places where they will die.”

Captain Oster was irate.  “You will get all the young men suitable for the army to come out, NOW”.

Gustav Bauer looked at the Captain incredulously.  Slowly he replied, “I don’t think an old man like men can get that done.”.

Gustav turned to walk away.   “No”, shouted Captain Oster, “Get your young men out here, NOW”.  

Gustav stopped and looked back, “I can’t help you with that”.

“Seize him”, shouted the captain to his soldiers.

Two of the soldiers went to grab the old man, but others refused to go.  Gustav Bauer reminded them of their grandfathers.

As the two grabbed him, he fell down and his cane went flying.  “Ouch,” cried Gustav Bauer.

The two soldiers tried to help him up, but he seemed to be in pain and his right leg seemed to be hurt.

Captain Oster was at a loss.  Here he was to draft soldiers, and it was all going wrong.  He had attacked an old man and potentially hurt him. The town seemed to oppose sending their young men off to war.

“Get him a chair”, Captain Oster called out to the townspeople who were watching.  An older lady went into her house and brought a chair to the Captain. Gustav was breathing hard as they set him in the chair.

*****

At this point, the younger man who had come with Gustav walked up to the Captain.  

“My name is Gottfried Quaas, and I will volunteer for the army.”

Gottfried was a tall, ruddy, blonde young man, maybe 17 or 18.  He looked like a typical farmer boy with a farmer’s tan and muscular arms.  

That suddenly changed Captain Oster’s mind.  He would salvage something from this lousy trip.  He would have a recruit - and not just a draftee, but a young man who wanted to serve in the army!!!

“Wunderbar”, replied Captain Oster to Gottfried.  “Can you report to the garrison in Gera on November 5th?”

“Yes Sir,” replied Gottfried.  That will give me time to help my father with his harvest.  

So the fiasco at Heckendorf turned into a small triumph.  Captain Oster had a good recruit.

“Men”, Captain Oster shouted, “We will have lunch and return to Gera.”

And, surprisingly enough, soon there were tables and platters of food from the houses of Heckendorf.  Gottfried had a chance to visit with his friends, the soldiers got to know the new recruit, the townspeople won a small battle and the group of soldiers was able to retreat honorably.  

*****

So, what will happen to “Gottfried the Great” next week?

Karen White, Saturday, September 17, 2022, ©