"Do you know who killed Ferdinand of Parma?" Gilles Gobert asked. "I heard you can predict the future."
"Why do you want to know that?" Georgiana asked absentmindedly.
She was reading documents on Switzerland. For three centuries, Switzerland had been divided into thirteen cantons, each with distinct characteristics and vastly different constitutions. The central cantons, also known as the forest cantons, still preserved the ancient Germanic custom of holding their own popular assemblies to decide matters. Every governor attended those assemblies fully armed.
The prosperous plains were under the hereditary control of wealthy urban families. Aside from these sovereign cantons, there were also certain allied regions with highly ambiguous status, including Geneva, Basel, Biel, St. Gallen, the ancient Imperial city of Mulhouse in Alsace, the Three Leagues, the Principality of Neuchâtel, and Valais along the upper Rhône. Finally, there were dependent territories such as Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, and so on, all ruled to varying degrees by the governors of the cantons.
This was the old Swiss Confederacy. It was something like a chaotic alliance of mountain clans, plainsfolk, and urban citizens. Napoleon's Malmaison Agreement had not weakened Switzerland; Switzerland was naturally suited to a federal system. He had merely followed public opinion and allowed every canton the right to draft its own constitution.
"We were making a wager," Goebel said. "I think a woman did it."
Georgiana laughed. "Because poison is a woman's weapon?"
"I think it was the Queen of Etruria," Goebel said. "Do you think the First Consul will hand Parma over to Louis I to govern?"
Georgiana froze for a moment.
"You think I'm mad too?" Goebel asked with a smile.
"How did she manage it?" Georgiana countered. "I remember that the Archduke was surrounded by Frenchmen."
"I thought this was what women were good at,"