I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 116 The Duchess of Colonna

When Milady walked out of the room, he met Rongke and Malfa, and they exchanged glances, "Madame Milady," Rongke asked, "are you leaving the Colonna Palace, or the inner world? "

   "It's just Colonna Palace," Milady said, "after all, at this moment, it's not the right place for me to stay here."

   "Then it seems that we wish you all the best in the days ahead." Rong Ke said.

Milady smiled: "I believe so," she said. "The Mancini family is willing to give me a place to live." She thought of the young wizard, and couldn't help but chuckle, the Mancini family's Although the men and women are good-looking, but with the lovely Miss Marie, and Felipe Mancini, whom she has heard of, there is almost nothing to praise about the sophistication and communication skills. They are just lucky to be in the Mancini family. If they were put in the **** she had been in, they would go mad for a few days.

However, the generosity of the Mancini family may also be just to monitor her, lest the king's lover interfere with the relationship between the king and Mary. Milady did not correct them, and the Mancini family specially arranged a remote for her. The manor is exactly what she wants, and when the king leaves the world, she can set off the storm to her heart's content.

  ———

   Mist filled the air.

Although the original intention of this wedding was not pleasant, but being able to witness, no, it should be said that he experienced the wedding of the wizards, Louis was still very curious. Unlike the wedding of the world, the wedding of the wizards was held at night, from From the moonrise to the moonset, it is said that in the Mancini family, there are still a series of complicated procedures, but in Louis, it is much simpler. .

Looking out from the window, you can see a clear glass-like stream being introduced into the courtyard, meandering between the grass and trees, and flowers in full bloom can be seen everywhere, from laurel to camellia, from silk chrysanthemum to rose, from laurel to camellia. From roses to jasmine, the petals fell into the stream and were carried everywhere by them. In addition to the petals, the stream also had golden light flickering, which were fragments of gold foil, lit by the silver moonlight, like countless finely broken stars.

  The statue of the mermaid is singing, the statue of the musician is playing, the voice is soft and soft, and the blue birds are falling on the branches or flapping their wings on their shoulders, completely disregarding that it should be the time for them to sleep well.

The Colonna Palace seems to have been awakened. The reliefs on the walls, the knight statues in the atrium, and the dripping beasts under the eaves, they all woke up, stretched their bodies, and the noisy goblins wiped their bodies, doors and windows. The drapery has changed from dark grey to a beautiful royal blue, with lily patterns visible in unnoticed places.

Louis was dressed in a robe like any wizard, with a hood hanging behind him, a crown of roses over his curls that had gradually turned golden brown over the years, and two heavy rings on his fingers, one of which was To give to Marie, he valued this ring as much as the Mancini family. After all, it will be the representative and certificate of his world in the future. The king gently rubbed the pattern on the surface of the ring while looking at Courtyard, at this time, the first guest has come to Colonna Palace.

A wizard from the Mancini family introduced Louis in a low voice. There were not many wizard families who came here. After hundreds of years of struggle, there were only five surnames left. There is no doubt that, They are all members of the House of Lords, as well as the Speakers who take turns to sit in the village. It was supposed to be the Mancini family's turn this year, but they were busy moving to the world, so they sold this qualification to Romano, the head of the Romano family. For this reason, it was the first to arrive at the Colonna Palace.

The nobles of the wizards rarely ride in ordinary carriages. In such formal occasions, they will not be rude to ride owls and brooms. After their Pegasus carriage circled above the Colonna Palace for a week, they landed steadily in Colonna. On the edge of the jungle outside the palace - but these refer to the old and calm wizards, and when the young wizards come, the way they arrive will be more dramatic - what Louis sees is a pillar of fire, or a stream of water falling from the sky, It slammed into the predetermined flagstone floor violently, and then in the bursting flames or swirling water currents, the wizards strode out with the stars and the mist, "This way of traveling has requirements," Mann said. The wizard of the Chiney family whispered: "There must be strong magic power, practice many times, and fire and water around."

  This way is really impressive, but unfortunately Louis is a bumbling guy a lot of the time: "Those wizards who were burned to death?"

   "They were stripped of their magic, of course," said the Mancini wizard, "and then burned to death—but mostly mortals."

  I know, Louis said to himself, he pressed the flower crown and got up from the chair.

In fact, the communication between the wizards is no different from that in the palace. Some people talked to Louis. They either had similar ideas with the Mancini family, or they wanted to seek a supply and sales channel from the watch world. Louis also took the opportunity. I learned about the output of the inner world. Almost all industries in the inner world cannot get rid of magic, even agriculture is no exception. They use soul-deprived mortals as livestock and tools, and then use ordinary wizards to fill exchange offices, bookstores and Daily commodities and other low-level positions that only require repetitive and monotonous labor, and then from top to bottom, power is grasped by large families, the so-called House of Commons is just a window to select those dangerous elements.

  Louis listened carefully to the satisfaction of the wizards, especially the Mancini family. They still did not give up their plan to let Louis stay in the world, but because of the threat of the king, they did not dare to act too rashly.

  When the moon was about to set, the soft mist rose from the ground, and people saw the scene as if through a layer of veil, the older wizards smiled and returned to the room, handing over the second half of the wedding to the young people.

From the depths of the white fog, a line of witches appeared, all of them young and not wearing robes, but draped in translucent tulle in the way of ancient Roman women, their arms turned into swan wings, Gently flapping up and down as they walked, the mist opened before them like a veil that was lifted—followed by a group of male wizards, equally handsome and young, where their arms should have been stretched out. The wings of eagles, their upper bodies exposed, their strong muscles proudly exposed to their lover—they overlapped silently, a hundred feet or so from Colonna Palace, black and white double The wings opened and closed in turn, and the music in the courtyard disappeared at some point, only the sound of wings cutting through the air.

Such a scene is undoubtedly beautiful, but Louis only thought that although the wizards of the inner world gradually escaped into the inner world after the sixth century AD, they inherited much more from ancient Rome than people imagined. In Roman mythology, both the swan and the eagle are symbols of Jupiter, the father of the gods, although he is changing into these two charismatic birds either to lure or plunder.

  After them, the bride was led by the bridesmaids, her veil from the bun down to the knees, like a rose wreath.

  Louis took her outstretched hand.

  ———

Louis remained in the inner world for another two months, even though he had made an agreement with the parents of the Mancini family, and by the time he left, Marie had already had a child—the wizards had to determine whether a wife was pregnant, obviously More reliable than the doctors of the world.

There was Prince Condé who was waiting for Louis at Dunkirk. When they first met, Louis was a child, and Prince Condé did not take the young king to heart. Who knows how times have changed , and now he is a prisoner of Louis. The two of them were silent for a long time, and no one knew how to speak. Only Viscount Turenne stepped forward bravely. "Your Majesty," he said sincerely, "there may be a sinner here. , but what he did for you and for France in the past is worthy of your forgiveness, please forgive him, forgive this man who made a mistake, if his merits are not enough, then take mine."

This sentence made Prince Condé nervous. He once hated Turenne because he betrayed him and turned to the king, but now he must also be moved by this sincere friendship, what he wants to say When the king raised a hand to stop him.

"I have heard," said Louis, "thank you my dear gentlemen, while I was lingering on the bed, you displayed wisdom and courage no less than on the battlefield. I have seen our contract with the British, as I wish, you took half of Dunkirk, this vital city, and finally can fly the flag of France - we may be able to reduce many casualties and tragedies because of it in the future. I want to thank you all." Having said that, Louis took off his hat and bowed to the crowd, who hurriedly returned the salute.

"Now that the situation has been settled, thanks to the grace of God, I have also recovered, and I am about to return to Paris. Of course, I will keep all your deeds in my heart and in the paper. I also ask you to come back to Paris with me, so that I can reward you." Louis smiled and looked at Prince Kongdai, "Except you, Kongdai."

This sentence almost made Turena jump, and Condé grabbed him. He wasn't surprised by the ending. Seriously, even if the king put him directly in prison, he would have nothing to complain about. He leaned over Salute: "I obey the order, Your Majesty."

"I am not asking you to stay here, my lord," said the king, "I want you to be three or four days behind me, and when I get back to Paris, I will lead my courtiers to meet you in front of the Louvre. , I will forgive you all your sins in front of everyone, not only for what you did at Dunkirk, but also for your later..."

"After?"

"Yes, you made a mistake, I have to punish you, but His Royal Highness, I want to punish you, that is, let you return to my army, fight for me, and put your talents into the real glory. Instead of dying miserably as a traitor, I hope so, how about you?"

   "I can only say that I am very willing to accept such an arrangement."

"That's good," said the king. He looked up at the sky. The bright sky dazzled him for a while. Everything in the world was like a beautiful nightmare, but he knew it had not left, and had not passed." Now can only hope it's a girl," he murmured.

"What?" asked Bontang, who was on the side. This loyal servant was terribly thin. Although there was a vampire golem lying on the bed instead of the king, some important things still required the king's most trusted and closest person to come. Done, especially when the British negotiated with Prince Condé, Prince Condé entered the room more than once to ask the king's opinion, and it was Bontang who taught the golem to answer, and Bontang was holding only Louis hurriedly on the booklet The few words he wrote down, he had to rely on his understanding of the king to answer them fluently, and every conversation was a torment for him.

   "No, it's nothing," said Louis. "When you get back to Paris, you'll have to rest for a while."

   "I can hold on, Your Majesty," said Bontang, "if only you will allow me to get a good night's sleep."

In fact, Bontang rarely slept in the carriage. His eye sockets had been deeply sunken in the past few months, and he looked like a living skeleton. The king reached out and pulled his cloak for him. Started to rest, and when he arrived in Paris, there were countless things waiting for him to deal with.

But on the way, they heard that the Duke of Gaston of Orleans had finally died. He had no male heir from an orthodox marriage, so his title and territory must belong to Philip, Duke of Anjou. This news is really shocking. People are gratified, thinking about what he did before, the Queen Mother did not agree to a request made by Gaston's widow.

Louis let his messenger go first, go to Paris, and tell the Queen Mother to prepare for the canonization ceremony of the Duke of Anjou, no, Philip the Duke of Orleans, he will immediately hand over Orleans to Philip, whether it is public or selfish... The king's motorcade is in He entered the street in front of the Louvre only in the early hours of the morning, but as soon as he turned around, he saw that the Louvre was brightly lit, people were holding torches in the square, and some nobles even ran with his carriage.

After not seeing him for a few months, his younger brother, Philip, seems to have grown up quickly. Although he is still dressed up like that... exaggerated, and for some unknown reason, he also braided pigtails, but even if there are bows on the pigtails, it doesn't matter. Barring Louis from hugging the brother tightly, their arms crossed each other's backs vigorously, joy overflowing between their fingers.

   Then came the Queen Mother, a woman who had always been abiding by court etiquette, and even came forward and hugged Louis. Louis bent down and kissed her face.

  The king straightened his body, all the faces he saw were full of joy, but one person was missing.

   "Where's Mr. Bishop?" he asked.

   (end of this chapter)