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no time to contact the merchants and obtain payment from them, you may be assured that all the  ads
that we used were from my husband s factories.
Indeed, it seemed for a time that the cover, too, would be blank, until a friar named Roman came down
from the cathedral and painted three lithographic blocks for the purpose. He was a merry man, grown
pudgy and red-nosed from drinking too much wine, but he was a fine artist for all of that. The cover he
made had on the front a fine portrait of Count Conrad in his armor and with our battle flags flying behind
him, and on the back a lively scene of our gunners shooting at the Mongol enemies over the heads of our
footmen. Further, all this was done in inks of three colors, the first cover that had been done so. I think
that some may have purchased the magazine only to have the fine artwork!
I persuaded the abbot to give his men dispensation from the saying of their prayers eight times a day so
that they might spend the time in work, and I made arrangements with the inn that they should be fed as
they worked at the machines that Conrad had built for them. The monks were at first much taken aback
by this, for the waitresses of the inn did their work, as always, nearly naked. Yet there were soon far more
smiles on the monks than scowls, and I bade the waitresses to continue as they had. I was something of a
heroine to these young ladies, for I had once been of their number and now was of the high nobility. I
suppose that my success fed their dreams. Yet when they asked that I dress in their fashion and help
serve, I must needs turn them down. My waist had grown too large with pregnancy, and anyway, Conrad
would certainly not have approved! Still, I was tempted.
The monks worked from before dawn straight through to the dark of night, but still, the job would be a
week in the doing, and always I feared that Duke Henryk would arrive and take the whole thing into hand
himself.
I took myself to Wawel Castle and spent the day there talking to any that I could meet about the seym
that was soon to be held in Sandomierz. All that I met, the old and the infirm, were enthusiastic for
Conrad s enlargement, yet there were very few of the nobility there. All too many were gone or dead.
The city council came to me with the plea that Count Conrad should be their duke and protector, and we
talked long as to how this could be accomplished. They then sent representatives to every incorporated
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Lord Conrad's Lady
city in eastern Poland to plead for our cause, and they did this at their own expense, as well! Not that I
was in lack of funds, but when those tightfisted burghers had their own money involved, you can be sure
that they would give it their best effort!
While I was thus employed, Sir Wladyclaw was also busy. The weather was now fair and the radios were
at last working properly, so his men were no longer needed as messengers. Keeping only one at his side,
he sent the others about the countryside in search for Mongols and, when time permitted, to tell the
gentry of the victory won by Count Conrad and of the seym to be held at Sandomierz. They found no
large groups of the enemy, and we were growing daily more certain that victory was truly ours, but more
than once scouts brought back heads barbered in the strange Mongol fashion as proof of their prowess!
I sent occasional messages to my husband, telling him that I was well and that I was helping to organize a
meeting of the seyms of eastern Poland, since because of my association with the old duke, I knew so
many of the people in this area. I never exactly told him that the feeling here was that he should be duke
of all three duchies, for fear that he would decline the offer before it was even made to him. Bishop
Ignacy was entirely too accurate in his estimation of my husband! When the time came, I wanted him to
think that the nomination was entirely spontaneous and that it was his duty to accept it.
Until the time was right, I wanted him to stay in Three Walls, doing his little engineering things!
He should come to Sandomierz, I told him in the messages I sent, for he did have lands that he had
purchased along the Vistula, and thus he was obligated to come, but to be there a little late would cause
no harm, I said. My intent was that when he got there, the matter would be already settled. Once he was
duke, he would find reasons of his own for remaining duke. I knew it as I knew him.
When the print run was almost done, a scout brought back from the army camp west of Sandomierz a list
of the Polish nobility that had survived the battle there. To publish a list of those who had died would
have taken a book three times longer than our entire magazine, though we promised that such a magazine
would be published in the future. For now, all that we could do was add eight pages with the names of the
living. So few!
At last the printing was done, and all the monks fell to the task of combining the pages and binding them
together. I was able to get many of the town s folk to help with this task, and as soon as a stack of
finished magazines was ready, one of Sir Wladyclaw s scouts was there to take them to all the towns and
hamlets of eastern Poland. Of course, we were careful that none were sent to the west for fear that Duke
Henryk would hear of it.
The riverboats helped distribute the magazines as well, for Baron Tadaos now had three at his command.
Two of them had been found up a small creek, intact but devoid of their crews. There was evidence of a
fight, but what exactly had happened there was something that we would probably never know. The
baron had found men to operate them and ammunition for their guns, but what he was happiest about had
nothing to do with men or arms. His many wives and their children had been found, and all were alive!
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Indeed, they were helping him operate his boat.
Sir Gregor sent me a message that said that our radio operators at the duke s camp at Legnica told of
sickness there and that the duke was taken ill with it. He was not likely to die, yet he would not be fit to
travel for at least a week. The message ended with a request that we should pray for the duke s recovery,
and indeed I did pray for his health, but that it be returned to him later. Much later!
Once, in our long fireside conversations at my manor before we were married, Conrad had told me of a
land in which once he had lived where all the leaders were chosen every few years by all the people. He
talked of candidates for office shamelessly putting up great pictures of themselves and hanging many
posters with slogans on them as though they were so many cattle to be sold at auction! At the time I
laughed at the thought of the old duke thus pandering himself, but as I later thought on it, I could see the
necessity of it all.
It took far less time to print the covers, which were done on a separate machine, than to print all the pages
of the magazine. Since the facilities and supplies were available, I persuaded Friar Roman to make some
posters as Conrad had once described. Some were just the front cover of the magazine, with my love s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]