Eagle’s Glory

Under the inducement of Edmund Dantès, Agnes readily agreed to the suggestion of introducing him to her master.

However, he was also afraid that His Majesty's information was wrong, so he further attacked.

"I don't know what your master's name is?"

"Bianca, that's her name." Agnes answered the question without doubting him, "She's Italian, but well, she's always been at home and often comes to France, so Maybe you will meet her soon."

"Really? That's great!" Edmund pretended to be honored, but his heart was actually full of murderous intent.

Although Edmund felt a little guilty about Agnes in his heart, he had absolutely no sympathy and pity for Bianca who dared to assassinate His Majesty. In his opinion, those who committed such crimes would not be punished with any punishment. pass.

Of course, he's not a reckless fool. He knows that his skills can't even match Agnes, let alone against Bianka. He just wants to pretend to be a new identity and approach Bianca to investigate the details of this woman. , and find out who is behind her.

Anyway, as long as His Majesty returns to Paris, Bianca will definitely be unable to escape, and he is not in a hurry to execute her immediately-she should be dealt with by His Majesty himself, so that the hatred in His Majesty's heart can be eliminated.

It is precisely because of this idea that Edmund Dantes continued to pretend to be nothing, and continued to inquire about the news with great interest.

"Miss Agnes, forgive me... I'm really curious, how did you meet her and how did you get accepted as an apprentice?"

After he asked this question, Agnes suddenly glanced at Alice, and then Agnes smiled brightly at her sister, "Thanks to my good sister."

Um? Edmund is a little confused, what does this have to do with Alice?

He looked at Alice suspiciously, waiting for her answer.

Alice blushed slightly, not knowing how to answer, but she soon returned to normal, and then smiled embarrassedly, "It's a pleasant story."

"I'm all ears!" Edmund said quickly.

Alice was silent for another moment, as if organizing language and recalling those distant past events.

After a moment, she spoke again.

"Do you know about our family's exile in Italy at that time?" she asked first.

"He knows, I told him before!" Agnes interrupted, "I also told Mr. Count that you took me to sell handkerchiefs..."

When Agnes said this, Edmund also remembered the story she told her sister at Agron's welcome banquet when she first arrived in Greece. tears.

The story of brothers breaking the wall has long been common in this era, but the two sisters really have a deep relationship, which is extraordinary.

"I made you laugh, Mr. Count." Perhaps because of embarrassment, Alice's face turned even redder, "Speaking of which, it was only a dozen years ago, and many memories are still fresh in my mind... If you Knowing that we were exiles at the time, our parents were taken by their respective parents to flee France at a very young age, having lost the small amount of possessions they carried during the years of exile, and after their union , and created a big family with many children, so if we count it, we should be three generations of exiles, right? I am the eldest daughter, and I have lived a life of nothing since I was born. My father also saw our ancestors when they were rich and rich. It looks like it will tell me about our family's Xuanhe in the past, but to me, it is as illusory as a distant fairy tale... I really can't believe that we were once so rich, and I can't even hope that I will have I have the opportunity to experience that kind of life again. Since I was sensible, I have to help my parents to subsidize the family, and I have to take time out to take care of my younger siblings. Life has not given me much hope. I only think that I will definitely become an Italian and live a poor life. ."

The Count bowed, regretting what he had heard, but Alice waved her hand to show that she was not sad about it.

"Well, you probably don't like to hear this kind of gossip. I'm just describing my mood at the time. To be honest, it's all in the past, and I'm really glad that I got rid of such bleak days, but I I would never think it was a shame..." Alice continued with a smile, "Anyway, I was only a few years old at the time, and I had already taken on the heavy burden that my fate had entrusted to me. I worked hard and went to work during the day. Selling handkerchiefs and brocades, helping my mother and grandmother tailor clothes at night, and the days go by like this."

Edmund Dantès listened quietly, daring not to speak, or even to breathe loudly, for fear of ruining the atmosphere at this time.

He wasn't moved by misery - the misery he had experienced was painful enough, this level of "misery" was commonplace, and he was really moved when Mrs Alice spoke it out. That graceful, gentle, even objective attitude.

She is not shy about being glad that her family has turned over, but she is not ashamed of the poor days when she was self-reliant like many exiled nobles. She is even a little proud-because of these thin, immature shoulders In the past, she once took on the heavy responsibility of taking care of her younger siblings, and she did it with all her might.

His story is full of ups and downs, full of tragedy and drama; but so are the stories of others, who have their own ups and downs, not necessarily too brutal or too brilliant to look at, but equally contagious.

"Let's get down to business, it was 1814—well, the last period of the empire, when His Majesty Napoleon abdicated for the first time." After adjusting her mood, Alice continued, "We were all in Naples at the time, You know, on April 4 of this year, His Majesty Napoleon officially announced his abdication, and in late April, the news came to us.

We are all Bonapartists now, but please forgive me, when my parents were ecstatic about the destruction of the empire, they thought their hard times were coming to an end, because the abdication of the emperor meant that the royal family could return to France , that also means that we who were courtiers can return to the king. This idea is very beautiful, but it has insurmountable difficulties - we have no money, so naturally we have no troubles to return to China, and we don't even have the ability to write letters to the exiled imperial court, brazenly begging for a return to China..."

Speaking of this, Alice's expression became a little gloomy, "At that time there was a lot of war, even in Naples, you know, Prince Murat tried to turn his back on the emperor, secretly made peace with the anti-French coalition, and hoped that they would admit it. His own throne, but although the emperor abdicated, the coalition forces refused to let him go, because the kings gathered in Vienna felt that the throne of Naples should also belong to the original owner of the Bourbon family, so he still had to fight for his own throne. battle.

The affairs of the kings were too far away from us at that time, and the real problem we faced was very simple - no one was willing to spend money to buy things during the time of war, and we had no money to go back to our hometown, and even maintaining a living became a problem. The problem, despite the extreme savings of our parents, we are still inevitably starved... Agnes was only three years old at the time, so she must not remember a lot of things, she experienced too little about poverty, but for me All that is unforgettable, because I will always remember what it feels like to be eaten by long-term hunger. "

"Madam, I know it too, even better than you." Edmund Dantès felt sympathetic, and then sighed, "I used to eat moldy gruel and salty salty porridge for more than ten years in a row. Fish, I'm even glad I didn't lose my sense of taste because of it."

Hearing the Count's words, Alice and Agnes looked at each other again, wondering what happened to the Count of Monte Cristo, and how sacred he was.

However, of course, they would not take the initiative to ask such personal privacy issues, and soon Alice continued to talk.

"There is no grace in poverty, and there is no princess in hunger. I have not thought about what I will have when I return to France. Those dreams are farther than the stars. I only think about what I can eat today and what I can eat tomorrow. What to eat, and what my siblings can eat... I'm starving but I can't stop, I'm madly selling handkerchiefs and even begging passersby with no dignity, but it's a pity that in times of war Sympathy is always a luxury, and how can everyone be so kind when they can’t take care of themselves? So I often get nothing.”

"Of course... I can understand." Edmund Dantes had experienced the pain of human hearts, so he immediately understood and agreed.

He was so absorbed in it that he almost forgot what he wanted to ask in the first place.

"What's next?"

"Sorry, I have given you so much background... But after saying this, it will help you understand what I did at the time and why I did it." Alice smiled slightly, her blue eyes rippling. With a gentle light, "Hunger tormented us and slowly consumed my sanity, and at this time, Prince Murat was also breaking up with Vienna, and began to reorganize his army to face the army sent by Austria - we all know He was finally defeated at the Battle of Tolentino in May 1815, then fled, and a year later he ran back to Naples for restoration, and was shot by the Austrians again, but that's his story, and mine The story doesn't really matter. There is only one intersection between our two stories - after the defeat, Prince Murat and his wife, Princess Caterina, the emperor's sister, fled the palace in Naples in a hurry, and the social order of the whole city at this time It has already collapsed, and the palace was soon looted by the surrounding residents. Everyone wanted to get some 'gift' from the things left by the couple. You should be able to imagine the scene at that time? People are pouring into the palace, and I have to say, the most exciting scene I have ever seen in my life is that time...I have never seen what a revolution looked like, but there must be a part of it. ?"

"In terms of age, you should have been less than ten years old." Edmund suddenly thought of something.

"But you can't make a revolution at the age of ten? You are discriminating against the revolutionary enthusiasm of children." Alice replied with a smile.

"Hahahaha..." Edmund laughed out loud at this funny answer. "So, you also participated in the 'revolution'?"

Of course, he knew that Alice's participation in the so-called looting was not for any revolution at all, but the motives were still noble and legitimate - at least that's how he saw it.

"Yes, I participated, but I basically couldn't squeeze into the crowd. Besides, I was thin and small at the time, how could I possibly grab something from the fingers of others?" Alice replied with a smile.

"Then what did you do?" Edmund asked suspiciously.

"I followed Queen Caterina's convoy." Alice's eyes flashed a hint of slyness, "The British fleet was outside the port of Naples at that time, but of course they would not embarrass a queen, they allowed the queen Leaving with a part of her property, this 'part of property' is already unbelievably rich, but at this time the queen no longer has the ability to restrain the people around her, and the poor royal family will always be divided by others. Food, France has experienced it, and Naples is no exception. Some servants remained loyal and carried property for her on the ship leaving Naples. Some properties were looted by these servants before the pier was loaded onto the ship. This scale of looting It's going to be much smaller... and that's the moment I was waiting for, and while they were looting, I sneaked in and I didn't miss it, I got a pocket watch and a little necklace."

Then she glanced at Edmund Dantès. "Sir, you can call this theft, yes, it is theft. But who can blame me? These things are not good for Prince Murat and Catherine. It doesn't make sense to Na, they have a huge wealth that ordinary people can't imagine, which is what they took from others, and they don't care about the things in my hands, and they don't even think about these things... …and at the same time, these things mean a lot to me, they will keep me and my younger siblings from starving, save our lives, and we will have the entanglement of returning to our homeland… isn’t it Are they better use?

If the revolution that took me away was justified, then what I did was justified; if I didn't, then they should have called me a princess, and why did they send me into exile? "

"Don't worry, I'm not an old pedant who sticks to the rules of the law, Madame, you've done a great job, you're really good," Edmund Dantes said convincingly, but he was still a little puzzled, "but, those Does the servant just watch you come and get a piece of the pie?"

"Of course not..." Alice shook her head with a smile, "I was beaten well, but even if I was beaten to the ground and beaten and kicked, I still held those small things firmly in my arms. In the palm of my hand, I was not afraid of death at that time, but was afraid of pain, maybe death was a relief for me - but, my luck was good, I survived, because the person who saved me finally appeared."

"Bianca..." Even though Madame Alice hadn't said her name, Edmund Dantes understood for a moment.

His scalp went numb all of a sudden.

Not only was he happy for Alice at the time, but he was also horrified by his mission - what would he do to Alice and Agnes' savior?