The Chronicle:

Before leaving, Constanza suggested asking ambassador Michel Dubois d'Arrent for a letter of recommendation.  The heroes then discovered that the Montaigne embassy was under guard and the ambassador had been arrested.

Dubois d'Arrent was found hanging in a dungeon cell, having been horribly tortured for the last few weeks.  At Constanza's request, Lucas ordered him freed from the chains and manacles.  Melisandre tried to to clean his wounds and bring him some solace.  D'Arrent told the heroes he had been arrested and interrogated as a suspect after the King's murder, and eventually signed a letter of confession.  He now awaited burning.  But he swore to the heroes he had known nothing of the attack.  Questioned by Constanza, he revealed that he had recognized the description of Rémy de Montaigne among the attackers, and he did not think the man would do anything without the Empereur's knowledge and approval.

Constanza resolved to beg Cardinal Verdugo for mercy on the ambassador's behalf, and Lucas decided to accompany her, ostensibly to prevent her from getting in trouble.  Leaving Ferdinand, or rather "Beggar John" there to prevent Dubois d'Arrent from being mistreated again, they requested, and were rapidly granted, an audience with His Eminence.  Constanza pleaded for the ambassador's life and managed to extract his pardon, on the condition that the man would not be seen or heard from.  Lucas and Constanza returned to the prison to free the former ambassador and have him transported to the Alcazar de los Lobos.  There, Melisandre tended to his horrible wounds and saved him from what would have been a painful and lingering death.

As the heroes finished their travel preparations, a detachment of Constanza's Eisen marines showed up, led by Sergeant Johann.  It transpired that Johann had decided Constanza surely needed help since she had sent word to the Maris Stella that she would be beached for a while.  When he learned of the upcoming trip to Montaigne, he refused to be left behind.  Constanza was worried about Dubois d'Arrent's safety, so she asked "Beggar John" to take her to the local chapterhouse of the Knights of the Rose and Cross.  There, she met with Master Knight Josefina Vasquez de Rioja, who agreed to lend Constanza a squad of knights to guard the former ambassador.  Master Knight Vasquez would not accept the least remuneration after she recognized "Beggar John" as Ferdinand. 

Constanza, now feeling a bit more confident that he wouldn't meet with an unfortunate accident on the way, sent Michel Dubois d'Arrent to her estancia under the protection of the Knights of the Rose and Cross.
 

The heroes departed for Montaigne, escorted by their servants, Constanza's marines, and the inevitable detachment of thirty Knight Inquisitors led by Knight Inquisitor Paolo.  They reluctantly agreed that due to the urgency of their mission, they should cut through La Selve de Fendes, the thick forest lying to the north between Ciudad Vaticine and the Great Trade River.  The forest had a reputation for being haunted, but going around it rather than through would extend travel time by a week.

The forest's dire reputation did not seem exaggerated.  Soon after the travelers entered it, they became plagued by incidents and accidents.  The Knight Inquisitors sent ahead to scout started disappearing one after the other.  Deadfalls killed a few more.  Melisandre woke up screaming in the middle of the night, and from then on assured her companions she was certain the Fleishwulf was stalking them.  Lucas had his own bad experiences, leaving him convinced Knight Inquisitor Paolo was trying to kill them.  And of course the troupe became inexplicably lost in the forest.

Despite the hardships, the heroes finally emerged on the north side of the Selva de Fendes, although with an extremely reduced escort.  Since they would not be very welcome in Montaigne, Knight Inquisitor Paolo sent his remaining men back to Vaticine City (taking the long way around the forest).  The heroes and their reduced entourage booked passage aboard a ferry to Paix.
 

Paix was the official ambassadorial city, where Montaigne parked all foreign emissaries and embassies.  The heroes contacted the Castillan ambassador, Doña Zaneta de Ontivarès, and were received courteously.  Doña Zaneta was able to obtain an invitation on their behalf, to Duchesse Lilianne Deneuve de Surligne's next ball on the following evening.  Duchesse Lilianne thought it would be amusing to be escorted to the ball by Lucas. 

While Lucas, Melisandre and Constanza prepared for this soiree, having clothes made and learning the finer points of local etiquette from Doña Zaneta, "Beggar John" ran into someone he had once briefly met in Freiburg, Comte Louis-Claude de Sinjin.  The comte, a wealthy patron of the Rose and Cross, was amused to see that Ferdinand was now wearing the burlap of a Beggar John. 

The heroes finally made it to the Duchesse de Surligne's ball, with Lucas sitting at the head table with her, while Constanza, Melisandre, and Sebastiano sat at some distance, and Ferdinand was requisitioned by the Comte de Sinjin.  Several party games were announced by the Duchess, including one where meen had to receive as many kisses from different women as they could (and keep the red marks) in exchange for favours such as ribbons; whoever finished the evening with the most kiss marks or ribbons would win.  A second game had two pendants hidden in the plates of food being served; these could be traded through the evening and whoever finished with them had to be partnered for the final dance.  The Duchess immediately kissed Lucas and demanded a favour in return.  Constanza found one of the pendants in her plate -- and was unable to hide it before it was noticed by others... and the other pendant ended up in General François Etallon du Toille's plate, the "Butcher of San Juan".

Between frequent toasts that made it difficult to remian sober, and difficult court dances, the heroes wandered among the guests.  Several envoys and diplomats introduced themselves to Lucas, hoping to open some trade relations with Castille; among them were Pavel Pavlovitch v'Novgorov, from Ussura, who had been sent to negociate war reparations with Montaigne; and Roland O'Toole, ambassador of Innismore to Montaigne.  The latter wanted to have some discussions with Lucas, seeking the support of Castille and trying to buy weapons to support an Innish revolt and secession from Avalon.  Things became curious when Lucas realized that there were in fact two different men at the ball claiming to be Roland O'Toole.  One of them, however, was detected because his accent sounded more Highlander than Innish.  Confronted, he admitted he was in fact an assassin sent to kill Don Lucas, but negociated a truce and ran off.

A bit later, Lucas had a more congenial encounter with a pretty young artist, Alexis Dubois d'Arrent, attending the ball to earn some money by making quick sketches of the wealthy party-goers.

Meanwhile, the Comte de Sinjin was trying to demonstrate to Ferdinand the futility of wanting to become a knight of the Rose and Cross.  He showed 'Beggar John' a life-size chessboard where bona fide knights were used as playing pieces by two wealthy patrons of the Order of the Rose and Cross.  Then he amused himself by having Melisandre (who was by now a bit tipsy from all the toasting) give Ferdinand meaningless orders.

Melisandre also sobered up somewhat when she noticed that one of the two chess players, Evangéline Rois et Reines de Rogné, was wearing an hourglass pendant like the one she had inherited from her own mother.  They had a private talk later that evening.  Then she had a run-in with General François Etalon du Toille, who insulted Melisandre in Lucas's presence, so badly that Lucas had no choice but to call him out.  Lucas appointed Constanza and Ferdinand as his seconds, while the General designated two of his officers who seemed to be more familiar with the role than perhaps they wanted.  The General refused to have the duel that evening, demanding it be postponed for a week - something which would jeopardize the heroes' urgent mission.  The General finally agreed to meet the next day, but only if the duel was to the death.  Lucas reluctantly agreed, expecting treachery.  The Comte de Sinjin was asked to act as judge and accepted.

For her part, Constanza had also met with a group of scholars that included Mus Borwin, a vendel merchant who had devoted himself to solving the longitude problem and approached Constanza to ask for her patronage to fund his research; Ravenild Hibbot, an Avalon member of the Royal Fraternity of Scientific Minds, who recently invited Constanza to join the organization; and two Crescents, Sey'r Celik al'Bahri, representative of the Sultan to Montaigne interested in the matter of Cabora, and his advisor and bodyguard Ilka-Kadin Hasna.  In addition, Constanza later met with two old acquaintances, Ramon and Helena, last seen in Caballos Nuevos.  They wanted to trade for the pendant Constanza had found as part of the Montaigne party games, so she gave it up in exchange for the promise that they would later tell her what scheme they were trying to run here.

The evening ended with the final bearers of the two pendants -- Ramone and Duchesse Lilianne de Surligne -- sharing the last dance.  And as the heroes and their entourage walked out to their carriage, none other than El Vago showed up and attacked Knight Inquisitor Paolo, calling him a traitor!  Lucas noticed that the Vagabond was wearing an unusual mask, however, which seemed to be made of metal.  Confused, he hesitated, unble to decide which one to help; and El Vago wounded the Knight Inquisitor and fled. 
 

When Sebastiano, who had been out of the room at the time, learned of the insult to Melisandre and the resulting duel planned, he practically begged Lucas for the chance to act as champion.  He felt so strongly about it that he said it would cancel all debts between Lucas and him, so Lucas relented. 

The next morning, they all made their way to the location appointed for the duel.  But where they had expected someone like Rémy de Montaigne to be acting as champion for the General, they saw instead a young officer of the Montaigne army, in dress uniform and looking very pale.  The General himself had not deigned to appear.  The most casual observation revealed that the General's 'champion' was no match for a swordsman like Sebastiano or Lucas.  When asked, he gave his name as 'Michel du Paix', an obvious pseudonym since there is no family of the name.  Constanza, smelling a rat, pressed him to explain the situation, and only managed to figure out that he was being blackmailed and going through with this to protect his family.  One look at Sebastiano's Twisted Blade left him queasy and eager to just get the ordeal over with.  For his part, Sebastiano was unhappy to have to kill an innocent man.  Constanza pleaded with her friends to throw or postpone the duel, but failed to convince them. 

It was a quick affair.  In a few moments, 'du Paix' was on ground, bleeding to death, and Sebastiano grimly cleaned his sword.  The General's seconds, equally grim, announced that the General would be happy to offer public apologies to Melisandre for the offence -- at the court of the Sun King in Charouse, a week hence.  The seconds then left, while the heroes belatedly realised that this had been a trick to force them to appear at Court before the Empereur. 

Constanza, checking on the body of the poor 'du Paix', thought she detected a faint heartbeat and breath.  She whispered urgently to her companions.  Melisandre could not confirm the life signs that Constanza thought she had detected, but Constanza had Ferdinand load the 'body' into their carriage.  The Comte de Sinjin, who was observing the proceedings with some amusement, offered to see to its burial but Constanza thanked him and refused to relinquish the duty.  In order, she said, to distract the Comte, Melisandre offered to go to breakfast with him.  The Comte graciously accepted but requisitioned 'Beggar John' as carriage driver, lending his own driver François to Constanza, Lucas and Sebastiano in exchange.

Constanza ordered the man to take them to a doctor, claiming that Sebastiano had taken a scratch during the duel.  There, with ample monatery incentive, she convinced the doctor to attend to what he clearly thought was a dead man.  Happily, Michel 'du Paix', or rather d'Arrent, was in fact still alive and the doctor was able to stop his bleeding and stabilize him.

Lucas went to the Castillan embassy, where Duchesse Lilianne de Surligne had graciously sent the promised papers that would authorize the party to travel to Charouse.  Everyone eventually returned to pack, so they could leave with first light the next day, except for Knight Inquisitor Paolo who would have to recover from the wound received from El Vago.

Visiting Michel d'Arent one last time before departure, Constanza learned that he had been chief of artillery under General François Etalon du Toille during the invasion of Castille.  According to him, the general had returned from the siege of Barcino a changed man.  Before the siege, he had been a reliable, if unremarkable commander; since then he had become wildly erratic.  He had been gradually getting rid of his entire cadre of former officers since his return to Montaigne.  The General, along with another old friend, Jacques Lévesque d'Aur, was rumoured to be part of the Empereur's secret police.

Constanza urged d'Arrent to take his family to safety and remain officially dead.  She left him some money to travel, and paid the doctor for his promised silence on d'Arrent's survival.

Then the heroes and their entourage left for Charouse.  Just as they were leaving, a poorly-dressed man approached them and begged, in hesitant Castillan, to be allowed to work for them in exchange for the chance to travel faster.  He was a demobilized soldier returning home to Charouse.  Questioned, he proudly showed them his dress uniform, which he intended to wear to meet his fiancée Valérie.  They noticed a lot of medals pinned to the uniform.  Melisandre took a liking to the man, called Jérôme, and hired him on the spot.