At the Palace, Captain Schmidt, handed the despatch to Mlle Lisette Givenchy (who tucked it away in her cloak). The Captain said - "Get it to the main commandery as quickly as you can"
Meanwhile, M'lady de Vintner had found out by some means that the despatch was being couriered to the commandery. She instructed her best man Rutger Roquefort and one of his cronies to arrange for the message to be intercepted (Roquefort would get his associate the Hook and his men to do his dirty work)---oXo---
and headed towards the bridge into the quarter where the commandery was located.....
Suddenly blocking their way was tall and wide man...
Swords drawn and Givenchy moved up cautiously to persuade him to stand aside ....A couple of swishes of the blade and he staggered backwards off the bridge with two rather nasty wounds ...
after they'd crossed the bridge Givenchy and Bahn were attacked by three more men....
Two were downed and one fell back down the street....
Givenchy and Bahn chased him and after a brief encounter he too was down clutching a nasty wound..
By the time they reached the edge of the small market square, it looked like they were OK; waiting for them as arranged was their friend Johannes von Tiddenheim....
"Had a bit of trouble eh ?" said von Tiddenheim
"Just a little" said Givenchy.
Bahn said "Not far to go, it should be easy to get to the commandery now....."
As they turned to move on, they were confronted the Hook and his men (some in front of them and two behind them..)"Time to Dance" exclaimed von Tiddenheim and soon they were embroiled in some furious swordplay ...
They easily repulsed the first attack (but von Tiddenheim was wounded)...
They tried to work their way round the egde of the market square towards the commandery..
Soon they were crossing swords again ....
They'd managed to hold them off and had edged backwards slowly towards their goal ...
After pushing the opposition away, they moved back again slowly....
in came the Hook and his men again .....
Both sides stepped back to catch their breath ....
As Givenchy ran to the commandery nearby...the Hook made an attempt to get through after her
The Hook failed; the Hook and his crew slowly fell back, all of them wounded in some way; von Tiddenheim and Bahn watched them leave..
Givenchy reached the commandery ... and hands over the dispatch ...
... Mission Successful ...