Reign of Fear: Story of French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (Cantiniére Tales) (48 page)

Then I stopped and thought about the cant
iniére.

There are many soldier
heroes in the deep pages of history, but there are not many stories of heroines of this age, or in fact, of any age. Cantiniére are just that, the all-enduring female military personnel of the Napoleonic age and these hard women served in the tough army just like the men did. They suffered terribly, lost loved husbands and dear sons and daughters to disease, cold, heat and ball and sometimes, they died themselves. They knew how to fight fiercely, how to loot the dead and living, how to survive in incredibly horrid places and how to make their family, the company a happy one, no matter the climate. They overcame incredible hardships with the men, often taking care of wild children in the heat of the desert, the snowy mountains of Italy and the vast steppes of Russia.

Therefore, this is a tribute to them.

On the accuracy of the story, one could make a very fine non-fiction book on the French Revolution. There are, of course, many unknowns in the stories passed on to us, for it was the period of chaos, but most things are very well recorded and the revolution did bring with it the age of technological advancement and new ways of doing and thinking, often very efficient ways, to add. This is, however the story of a woman who was caught up in the turmoil of the age.

For her,
it was not so much about ideology that drove the revolution. True, she was mixed up in the Clubs, especially the Cordeliers Club that was the driving force of the radicals of the French Revolution, and for her, there is but Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins, if one would ask her about the great revolutionary leaders. There were, of course, many, many others, all mixed up in a huge power struggle, all tearing at king’s fallen mantle, but for Jeanette, the matter is much more simple.

Many things happen outside of Jeanette’s understanding, and for her, the revolution is
mostly about hunger and trying to survive the unfortunate events that put her against the dread Committee of Public Safety and Gilbert, her devious, dangerous and mad cousin with secrets to hide and personal shame to cover.

As Jeanette is desperate to survive, I do not dwell on the ideology that much. Nor do
I comment much on what Jacobinism was about, and I doubt many truly understood its core concepts back in the Revolution. It was in it’s core a very fundamentalist radical movement, while opposing moderate and conservative forces were many, and often the lines between the various parties were very, very hazy. Even the royalists had a good chance of reinstating the king, but this did not come to pass until 1814, thanks to the hard fighting French army that beat both the external and internal foes.

Even if the military is an important part of the story, I do not dwell too much on the military organizations and campaigns of the age, or the constant
confusing changes the units went through. I did try to build the greater events into this story, but one could easily write several books of the Italian Campaign alone. Alas, it is hard to leave out stories that are so incredible.

It is a story of a girl in the age of revolution and one of stubborn refusal to be beaten and coved by power-hungry, determined men. It’s a story of love and a story of fear and also a story of change, for one must
join demons in order to beat them.

The story continues in Swords and Love, and is set in Egyptian campaign of Napoleon.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this novel.