ext_5958 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
sodzilla.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
31_days2006-04-05 12:31 am
sodzilla.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2006-04-05 12:31 am
[April 4th] [The Three Musketeers] Eyes on the Prize
I know I'm 30 minutes late with this, but it's still the 4th on HALF the earth?
Title: Eyes on the Prize
Day/Theme: when in doubt, gallop!
Series: The Three Musketeers
Character/Pairing: The Cardinal, various
Rating: G
The problem with opportunism as a life strategy, say the pessimists, is that sometimes the opportune moment fails to come. Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, generally laughs at this. Opportunities are always there for those with the eyes to see them, or failing that, the wits to make them.
However, to every philosophical rule there must be practical exceptions, and the nineteenth of June 1628 is one such. The day is a mess, and not only because rain turns the ground to mud, and blood turns the mud red. Caught off their guard by a Rochellais counterattack, the French forces around the fort of La Prée are milling uselessly, and the finest tactical eye in Europe becomes quite useless when one has no good means of getting orders to the troops.
The gap in the enemy’s lines is open just long enough for Richelieu to curse lost chances, and then to bite down on that curse when – boldly, miraculously, in defiance of all standing orders – the French colors surge forward to fill it.
Victory is easy after that, though figuring out why they won is hard. Figuring it out in terms of logic and evidence and chains-of-command, that is, because intuition is a poor way to run an army. This once, inquiry fares little better. Captain des Essarts swears blindly he did not signal the attack, though Lieutenant de Busigny of the light cavalry swears just as blindly that it was one of the Guards’ signal flags he saw. Captain de Tréville is silent and smugly Gascon, which last might simply be because the Musketeers – of course – were first in the charge. And well outside the camp, one of his agents find the remains of a small fire and a charred tatter of a flag, no longer evidence of anything - except that Richelieu is not the only man in this army who crafts his own opportunities.
Ye Footnote for those whodon't have OCD like me haven't read the books lately; d'Artagnan was in des Essarts' Guards before he became a proper Musketeer...
Title: Eyes on the Prize
Day/Theme: when in doubt, gallop!
Series: The Three Musketeers
Character/Pairing: The Cardinal, various
Rating: G
The problem with opportunism as a life strategy, say the pessimists, is that sometimes the opportune moment fails to come. Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, generally laughs at this. Opportunities are always there for those with the eyes to see them, or failing that, the wits to make them.
However, to every philosophical rule there must be practical exceptions, and the nineteenth of June 1628 is one such. The day is a mess, and not only because rain turns the ground to mud, and blood turns the mud red. Caught off their guard by a Rochellais counterattack, the French forces around the fort of La Prée are milling uselessly, and the finest tactical eye in Europe becomes quite useless when one has no good means of getting orders to the troops.
The gap in the enemy’s lines is open just long enough for Richelieu to curse lost chances, and then to bite down on that curse when – boldly, miraculously, in defiance of all standing orders – the French colors surge forward to fill it.
Victory is easy after that, though figuring out why they won is hard. Figuring it out in terms of logic and evidence and chains-of-command, that is, because intuition is a poor way to run an army. This once, inquiry fares little better. Captain des Essarts swears blindly he did not signal the attack, though Lieutenant de Busigny of the light cavalry swears just as blindly that it was one of the Guards’ signal flags he saw. Captain de Tréville is silent and smugly Gascon, which last might simply be because the Musketeers – of course – were first in the charge. And well outside the camp, one of his agents find the remains of a small fire and a charred tatter of a flag, no longer evidence of anything - except that Richelieu is not the only man in this army who crafts his own opportunities.
Ye Footnote for those who