Get the Cardinal to Safety ....

Captain Scharfe of the Kings Jagers had thought he would be off back to the Hoflandt to re-join his battalion; but just as he was about to leave he was given a new task. Cardinal Meinser (a member of the Wittenberg Royal Society) had got lost in the Sackwald forest whilst out studying butterflies and insects.  Scharfe went into the forest with a detachment of jagers and with help from his old friend the Woodsman he located the Cardinal after a couple of days. Now all that was left to do was to get the Cardinal and his small entourage to the safety of Runtsdorf where there was a dragoon outpost .....

--oXo--

The Woodsman, Scharfe and his men along with the Cardinal, his assistant and jester leave the gloomy woods of the Sackwald and onto the road towards Runtsdorf....

 Lurking in the woods are brigands (led by the Hook) waiting to pounce on the unwary on the road to Runtsdorf...

 Scharfe and his party pass through a small hamlet, which is deserted; they are now on their guard...

The brigand Black Jack (still working with the Hook) leads his men out of the forest and one of his men opens fire on Scharfe's party ....

Scharfe and jagers respond forming up and firing off quickly taking down one of the brigands

The Woodsman leads the Cardinal along a side path which he knows with support from a couple of jagers; while Scharfe and the rest keep up a brisk fire, but jagers are getting hit.....

While the Cardinal is led to safety, Scharfe and his men continue the fight including the Jester who thinks he can help by taunting the opposition and jingling his bells .....

In Runtsdorf the sound of musket fire in the woods is about to be investigated, some of the dragoons have mounted up .....

The Cardinal's party emerge out of the woodland and in sight of the road....

The brigands close in, Scharfe and a couple of his men manage to hold them off (the jester has been shot...)

The dragoons arrive and are directed at the brigands moving up the road ....

Scharfe turns to see the dragoons charge down the road ...

 The dragoons lay into the brigands scattering them into the forest and cutting many of them down ...

The Cardinal and his assistant in the company of the Woodsman and a jager reach safety at the outskirts of Runtsdorf ....

--oXo--

Another successful mission for Scharfe; although wounded in the fight with the brigands he will be ready to travel in a couple of days. The Cardinal laments the loss of his jester, good jesters are hard to find. The brigand leaders Hook and Black Jack escaped form the fray with some of their men and have to decided to move to another area .....