Joseph stood in the wild grass with the stench pressing down on him, alongside the seven wild boars they had hunted down, for more than half an hour before he finally heard the first painter's voice, sweet as music from the heavens. "I'm done here, Your Highness."
"Many thanks!" Joseph nodded to him, then immediately leaped onto his horse and "fled."
The other painters could only shake their heads in regret.
Behind him, the servants began tidying up the game. Charles urged his horse after his elder brother, and after hesitating again and again, finally mustered his courage and said:
"Brother, you see, I'm already not young anymore."
Joseph gathered in his reins, turned his head, and revealed an "I understand" look.
"Have you fallen in love with some young lady? I can help you speak to Mother."
Charles's eyes widened. For a moment, he almost thought his brother already knew about "Louise," but he immediately realized that his brother had said "young lady," not "madam."
He hurriedly shook his head.
"Well, no, you've misunderstood.
"Actually, I want to go serve as Governor of Essens..."
Joseph looked at Charles in some surprise.
"Essens? Why do you want to go there?"
Essens was a small patch of land in the northeastern Netherlands, bordering Hanover.
Previously, Lefebvre had attacked from the Netherlands and occupied Emden. After the war ended, Joseph had assigned western Emden to the Netherlands and the south to Oldenburg, while France had retained the Colony of less than 180 square kilometers from Dornum to Essens.
The main reason was that the surrounding German States were worried the United Kingdom would land at Emden to retake Hanover, so they unanimously demanded that France station troops there. Essens was, in fact, the French Army's Camp.
Later, with funding from the Netherlands,