The door opened and Heinzerling strolled in, the very picture of florid, big-boned good health. “Mein Herren,” he nodded to the other two clerics.
That clued Mazzare. Heinzerling got more and more German as his thoughts wandered away from the immediate mental effort of thinking about what language he ought to be speaking, especially in English, which was his sixth or seventh language. “Go ahead, Gus,” he said.
“Monsignor Mazarini is arrived as nuncio extraordinary.” He said it baldly, paused, and then took out his pipe.
“Giulio?” Mazzare was startled. That was unexpected.
“Ja. He came here these few days past. Il Doge has not received him yet. Indeed, he refuses to do so.”
Jones turned, frowning, from the window he had been staring out of. He had been looking off to the east, where the first dark of night was hazed by angry purple bruises of cloud. “Mazarini’s supposed to be in Paris. He had a job to do there, last we heard.”
“Genau das. I have this from an old friend at the Society’s house here. His Holiness recalled the monsignor from Paris in the middle of summer, apparently.”
“Just after war broke out?” Mazzare raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, but wait a minute.” Jones held up a hand. “The recall would have been sent before then, no?”
Mazzare nodded. “That figures. You think—?”
“It’s what I’d have done, Larry.”
“This I thought also,” said Heinzerling. “The monsignor was known in the future history as a cardinal of France, no? So the Vatican seeks to prevent this?”
Jones sucked at his lip, began to pace. “Maybe. But would they? By now, you can be sure the Vatican has gotten its hands on all the histories available, just like Richelieu did. Remember that Mazarini—Mazarin, as he would be by then—sponsored the Peace of Westphalia. And sheltered the Barberini when it all hit the fan after Urban VIII’s death. Surely they’d leave him in post to take root?”
Mazzare sat up. “On the other hand, is this place getting to us so soon? Blasted intrigue and double-dealing! Perhaps the pope and his advisers just wanted their best troubleshooter here—especially since he’s more familiar with Americans than anyone else they have. Someone good enough to do the job, junior enough to shunt aside if he stalls. Whatever. We’re here to do a deal with the Venetians. If Giulio wants to talk, he’ll talk. Gus, who else is in town?”
“Moment, bitte.” Heinzerling crossed to where a pitcher of wine had been left out, took a goblet and drank. He made a face, perfectly reflected in the polished silver of the cup from where Mazzare sat. “Ach, nasty cheap wine. Essig. So, the ambassadors. The Spanish one, the count de Rocca, is a pompous ass. He’s the regular ambassador sent directly from Madrid. But Cardinal Bedmar is also here for Spain—indirectly, at least; officially, he’s ‘special ambassador from the Spanish Netherlands’—and that is causing trouble, of course. D’Avaux for France, and he is Richelieu’s creature and bag-man. The representative for the empire is another nonentity—I’ve already forgotten the name—since the empire and Venice are usually so far”—he held up thumb and forefinger—”from war that any ambassador is wasting his time here. There is not a Dutchman to be found for love nor money and the English ambassador does little and says less.”
“Dutch are out of it. The English ambassador, though. Why’s he so quiet?”
“He is too busy making money, from what I am hearing.”
“Hmm.” Mazzare scratched a chin that, twentieth-century razors having become largely a memory, was developing a fine beard. Local fashion was for a properly trimmed goatee for a reason: it kept the blade away from all the hard bits to shave. “No surprise that the Dutch aren’t about. Why is Bedmar trouble?”
Jones groaned. “Come on, Larry! Didn’t you pay attention in Causes of the Thirty Years’ War, 101? Bedmar! The Venetian Conspiracy! Osuna’s Fleet!”
“Assume I didn’t, Simon,” Mazzare said patiently. “And wasn’t the Defenestration of Prague the cause of the Thirty Years’ War?”
“Sort of. In the same sense that Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination was the cause of the First World War. It was just a trigger, that’s all—one of many possible ones. In fact, the other major candidate for the trigger event happened right here, just a few days before.”