"Andre Norton & Rosemary Edghill - Carolus Rex 2 - Leopard in Exile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

But as our worlds diverge, Charles II, during his protracted dying, realizes that James' inheritance of the
throne would mean trouble for all, and finally admits to a selected body of his strongest council that the
rumor was true, that he had in fact made a secret marriage with Mistress Lucy Waters, and thus the
Duke of Monmouth was the legitimate heir of his body. Thus, upon Charles II's death, the Duke of
Monmouth is crowned Charles DI. James' followers, known to this counterhistory as Jacobites, scheme
futilely to overturn the succession, and in following centuries to return England to Catholic rule. But
though the new king, Charles HI, has difficulties with a diehard group of strong Catholic lords, immediate
events are largely similar to those in the real world. After the reign of three more Stuart kings (Charles
IV, James II, and Charles V) we reach the 1800s, and a world likeтАФand unlikeтАФour own.

There is Revolution in France. Without the American Revolution's pattern to followтАФfor without the
weak and unpopular Hanovers on the throne, political relations with the American colonies have never
degenerated into warfareтАФthe uprising is far more violent, more along the lines of our own century's
Russian Revolution. Napoleon rises to power as a military dictator, and is soon Master of Europe.
Having destroyed the anointed Royal house of France, Napoleon is master of a secular Empire that
functions without the ancient land-magic based upon covenants with the Oldest People, the prehuman
inhabitants of Europe. As in our world, Britain opposes the Corsican Beast, and it is Britain's funding that
keeps the Triple AllianceтАФEngland, Prussia, and RussiaтАФin the field against Napoleon.

The war's consequences reach to the New World. In this world, the Louisiana Purchase by the fledgling
United States in 1805 never takes place. French Louisianne stretches from the Appalachian Chain to the
Red River, a vast unruly territory still staunchly Royalist but under the uneasy control of Imperial France.
West of the Red River, the land belongs to Spain, as does Florida (the Viceroyalty of New Spain) as far
north as our own world's Atlanta, Georgia. As the New England ColoniesтАФin this world called New
AlbionтАФare still under English dominion, slavery has been outlawed in the Colonies in 1807, and the
Colonial lords are more interested in selling goods to the indigenous Indian tribes than in displacing them.
Hie economic conflict between slave-holding Louisianne and free New Albion threatens to break into
warтАФand Napoleon, desperate for money to fund his expanding aggression, sends an Imperial governor
to Louisianne to extort all he can from his New World treasuryтАж the Marquis de Sade.

But all is not sanguine within the New England Colonies, either. Aware of the rich commercial
opportunities of the new world, fueled in part by Napoleon's Continental Blockade, various factions,
including the Jacobites, petition England to be granted fiefs and kingdoms of their own, and when that
fails, plot to take them by force. The death of Foreign Secretary Charles James Fox in September of
1806 not only leaves a vacuum in British political leadership which these factions hope to exploit, but puts
an end to England's secret peace negotiations with Talleyrand. 1 Though Spain retains a measure of
independence, her king is dying, and she will fall to Napoleon in less than a year, granting the French
Emperor a vast increase in territory that will fuel his continuing ambition and lead to Lord
WellesleyтАФlater the Duke of WellingtonтАФtaking the field against France on the battlefields of neutral
Portugal in 1809.

But for the present, the long-delayed wedding of Prince Jamie of England and Princess Stephanie of
Denmark, bringing Denmark firmly into the fold of the Grande Alliance, is hoped by many to herald a
speedy end to Napoleon's aggression.

It is 1807. And our story beginsтАж

тАФAndre Norton & Rosemary Edghill