The bell tower's staircase spiraled around a central pillar, the steps winding endlessly upward. Occasionally, they passed a window that offered a view of the city.
"If... if the weather is good, you can even see Brussels," the archbishop said to Bonaparte as he climbed, his voice drifting down from above.
Though the others were not as old as he was, they had all lived pampered lives. By halfway up, they were nearly out of breath, especially the seventh Duke of Arenberg. With his enormous belly, he did not look at all like a "prince" capable of riding into battle.
The Holy Roman Empire had originally possessed fifty-one free cities. Now there were only six: Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Frankfurt on the Main, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.
This was the arbitration result of the newly promulgated "Vassal Act." It had been announced at the Grand Council Palace in Mechelen, where the Duke of Arenberg had read it aloud before the assembly. The princes formerly subject to the Holy Roman Empire no longer believed that the Habsburg dynasty was capable of coordinating the empire's distribution of territories, so they had asked France and Russia to arbitrate. Before Talleyrand departed for Berlin, Georgiana had visited his residence. He had been very busy then, supposedly receiving these princes. Those potbellied German princes had gently stroked his poodles and played "hide-and-seek" and "find the slipper" with Talleyrand's niece, all to coax better cities and dioceses out of him. After secularizing church lands, their next targets were organizations without political standing, including hospitals, universities, monasteries, and "free cities." Unless someone drew a line, not even these six free cities would remain in the end, given the princes' habitual greed.
They sided with whoever held the overall advantage, and whenever someone grew weak, they would tear off a