On the third day after Pius VI's speech on the "New Holy See," more than a hundred members of Cologne's House of Magnates and House of Commons gathered in the Parliament hall. At the lectern in the center of the hall, a middle-aged man with prominent cheekbones and dry, shriveled skin pumped his right fist and shouted himself hoarse. "The French are clearly here to sell us their 'market invasion plan.'
"That's right, however splendid the language they use to dress it up, that Trade Alliance is really about controlling our market! Our precious city of Cologne is still under their occupation. We cannot let them plunder our domestic market as well!"
Several Hardline Faction members immediately rose to their feet and joined in the shouting. "Protect our market!"
"Never bow to the great powers!"
"Retake Cologne..."
The church faction's members showed little reaction, while the Liberals sneered at this performance.
The Hardline Faction had the fewest members, yet they often used such exaggerated, inflammatory rhetoric to draw attention.
With the Holy See's Trade Advisor, Colin Sussy, coming to address Congress, they seized the time before his speech to play to the gallery. Parliament's Vice Speaker, Kolkirk, turned to another member and murmured, "That fool Drost will offend the French sooner or later and bring disaster down on Cologne."
The other man nodded. "Their slogans do nothing except get young officers excited. The city of Cologne? Hah, even if we wanted to send troops there to die, we couldn't cross Nassau's territory."
Düsseldorf lay between Münster and the city of Cologne on the west bank of the Rhine, and at the Stuttgart Conference several years earlier, France had advocated assigning it to the County of Nassau.
After shouting for a while and finding few willing to respond, Drost raised his