Castles in the Middle Ages were often built at strategic locations. Vincennes Forest lay right beside the Marne River, which split into two branches there.
Near Château de Vincennes stood Bridge Town. To cross the river, one had to use the bridge, making Vincennes Forest a place where troops could be concealed and defenses established.
The peasants had fled from the countryside to Paris in search of the army's protection, but if they learned that the army itself was in mutiny, it would be strange if they could feel at ease.
A castle served military defense first and only opened to merchants afterward. Once a castle had been built, it was difficult to provide lodging for newcomers, so the lord would build another wall around its outskirts, or enclose an area with wooden palisades. Such districts were called "suburbs." In England, they were called "portus," meaning a place for temporary storage or transfer. The word remained virtually unchanged through the Merovingian and Carolingian eras.
Several towns around Vincennes Forest had docks, with commodity transit tax checkpoints set up there. Every morning, those docks bustled as goods were transported to markets and military camps.
Georgiana had left the matter of the canning factory to the quartermasters. The technology was already available, as was the supply of goods. They only needed to have engineers put up the factory buildings and train the workers, and a factory would be ready.
What she needed to handle was the soldiers' discharge.
One thousand men were stationed in Vincennes Forest, the strength of a battalion. Cavalry made up a quarter of the force, artillerymen an eighth, and the rest were infantry.
Many of the beggars wandering the streets of Paris were discharged soldiers. The greatest difference between discharged soldiers and active servicemen was not the handsome