According to Fiegel's later report, the guards she encountered looked as if they had military backgrounds, or rather, had received that kind of training from childhood.
Different armies often had different fighting styles. The guards' swordsmanship had a distinctly Portuguese military flavor. During the American Revolutionary War, many leaders had been members of Freemasonry. Perhaps that hinted at a secret: Freemasonry intended to spread within Portugal's army, just as Mithraism had once secretly spread among Roman soldiers.
After the Lisbon earthquake, many civilians still lived in wooden houses. The "Freemason Alliance," of course, hoped the Portuguese people would all become wealthy and live in stone or brick houses. That way, they would make money while the Portuguese could live happy lives.
"Brothers" were naturally expected to stand by one another through thick and thin, guarding a shared secret. Some had joined voluntarily, while others had been trained from childhood. War shattered many families. Some parents could not afford to raise their children; some children were abandoned, while others were sent to poorhouses. That was when people would be sent to select them.
They were not trained as assassins like the Assassins. In summary, there were two rules:
First, use your imagination.
Second, only do it once.
The mysterious organization and its arduous, lofty mission had made these young people in their twenties somewhat reckless. At any rate, Fiegel did not like them.
This was actually a good thing. If France and Portugal went to war again someday, it would not be so difficult to strike when they met on the battlefield. Such "missions" were certainly not as interesting as investigative ones, but those assigned individual missions all had special qualifications. Georgiana, for instance, had received one.
A compass rose was usually marked on maps. The altar in Burgundy Residence must