I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 51 The King Continues Talking With The Potions

   "Excuse me," After reading the letter, the potionist asked a surprising question: "Excuse me, what is the name on the inscription?"

"Because Artenais is not a proper name for a daughter of a duke," said the king, "but the duke let her keep her previous name as a middle name, and François was the name of the duke's mother. , and the Rocheshua family is the main branch of the Mortmar family."

   "Have you met the Duke of Mortemar? What kind of man is he?"

   "I have not seen it, but my messenger has," said Louis to Bontang. "Please come to me, the Count of d'Artagnan."

The reason why the king asked D'Artagnan to do this was entirely because this gentleman was bold enough, had a suave energy, was fashionably and luxuriously dressed, had a handsome face and an elegant figure, A person like this will definitely get along with the Duke of Mortmar who is desperate to marry a witch, and is even willing to admit three girls who are not related to him in order to win her favor. As expected, D'Artagnan, who had at least four or five lovers who had emptied his husband's money box for him, became the duke's guest with no difficulty, and even if the duke had some scruples, he also met the new duchess. , D'Artagnan could not help but be impressed by her beauty and that pitiful temperament.

When he went to Bordeaux, D'Artagnan still doubted whether the duke was bewitched by the witch's magic. When he saw the duchess, he guessed whether the duke had done something in it. Especially after the Duke's eldest adopted daughter asked him to ghostwrite the letter, he was even more sure that the Duke of Mortemal was only afraid of doing something that was not so moral, but let him say that the Duke's behavior was not excessive. It is him, he will do the same, to let such a beauty gradually erase the bright colors in the poor life, become mediocre and rough, it is really a blasphemy to Venus.

As we have said before, M. d'Artagnan is an overly flexible gentleman, and he has won the favor of M. Ask the question, look at the gentleman standing over there, and he'll know what to say.

"I don't know where to start, Your Majesty, because this gentleman really has a lot to say."

"Then please be more casual," said Louis, changing into a more comfortable position: "Excuse my curiosity, it is the first time I have seen a duke, willing to marry a duke who has neither a title nor a dowry. A woman with only three daughters."

"That's what makes him most criticized," said d'Artagnan, bowing to the king: "I want to say that, like a duke, with a title, considerable pensions and allowances, a large territory, he The fourth marriage should have been more respectable."

   "Fourth time!?" The potionist couldn't help shouting.

"The fourth time," said D'Artagnan, "and the last time, because when I went there, I saw that they were so in love, that if the Duchess left, the Duke would be heartbroken and die. "

   "How do you know that no one can love her more than the Duke?" said the potionist.

"I don't think so," said D'Artagnan, in that naive tone, "he could have made her his lover, but he made her his wife, so that she could sit in his chair beside him, shared his plates and cups, and on the day of the wedding he gave his new wife jewels worth ten thousand livres, and a manor so that she could have a place to escape the summer heat. The locality gave each of her three daughters an annuity, as well as a later dowry, and allowed them to use their surnames, so that they could marry as daughters of the duke."

   His words made the potionist grit his teeth involuntarily.

   "You said that this is the fourth marriage of Mr. Duke," he asked reluctantly: "Then he must be very old."

"On the contrary," said D'Artagnan, "he is not much older than you and me, and his first three marriages can only be described as the devil's trick, his first wife died in childbirth, the second On the smallpox, the third wife's carriage overturned and her neck was broken. Each wife, the duke, mourned them for a year seriously, but people said that he didn't spend as much time with his wife as he did. It's frustrating to say they've been mourning for a long time, he hasn't even had a son yet, and hopefully this marriage will give him a happy heir."

   Hearing this, the potionist's face was as white as snow.

D'Artagnan had no sympathy for this, for he himself was a ruthless and dissolute man, so he said loudly: "If I say that, except for the poverty of the bride, they are a couple who have never been more worthy of each other. Now, the duchess is beautiful, and the duchess is also a handsome, affectionate and manly man. Your Majesty, before I left, the duchess gave me fifty gold louis for the travel expenses. In addition, he also asked you to Bless him, and his wife, for this he is willing to give you a gift worth a hundred thousand livres."

   "It seems that this gentleman is as generous as people say." Louis said: "Then you can go down, M. d'Artagnan, please rest well, and there are many things to do after that."

   "Then I will wait for your will," said D'Artagnan, bowing again gracefully, and walking away.

   "You heard it, sir," Louis said to the potionist.

   "I heard it," said the potionist in a trembling voice, "I heard it clearly, every word was like a knife stabbing in my heart."

   "Then do you still want to go?"

   "Where else can I go, Your Majesty, things are very clear. If I appear in front of them, I will be the culprit in destroying their peaceful life."

   "Looks like you've figured it out."

   "It's better to be awake," said the potionist, his chest heaving violently with every word he uttered: "I should have known."

   "Then I'll give you two options now, sir, you can leave here, bring your ID, and I'll give you another sum of money because you were Mary's teacher."

   "Please talk about the second one."

   "The second is to stay in Versailles and do what I want you to do."

   "What kind of thing?"

"Help me take care of the peasants who followed us to Versailles, keep an eye on them, don't let the disease take their lives, and continue to do your research, not only on herbs and magic, but also where you go from people the ones you get."

   "Don't you feel scared?"

   "As long as you didn't make those corpses."

   "And then, Your Majesty, what can I get but a place to stay?"

   "Aha," said Louie, "you're getting greedy too."

   "I'm going to wear mourning clothes because my wife is dead, but I hope I can still see my daughter."

   "Don't you hate her?"

   "Because she told the truth?" said the potionist, "I just hate that I didn't realize it earlier."

"I should be glad," said Louis, "or you would not have come here, Monsieur Varro Vesalius, Andreas Vesalius, who in 1543 published "The Structure of the Human Body" Is it about you?"

   "Yes, Your Majesty," said the potionist, "he is my ancestor."

   "Is he a wizard too?"

   "No, Your Majesty," said the potionist, "it was only thirty-five years ago that the first wizard appeared in our family, and he was my father."

   "Then you weren't in the inner world from the beginning."

"Yes."

   "So you..."

   “We have no foundation, we are shaky, we are not trusted.”

   "Well, I understand your suffering a little, my sir," said Louis, "please do it well, and one day you may be able to meet your daughter again at my court."

The    Potions said nothing more, bowed to the king, and went out.

   "This is another world," said the king to himself, "but I don't think it is any different from mine."

  ———

   But for the king, things in the other world have come to an end, and the things he has to deal with next are troublesome.

Versailles was originally a noble domain, but there was no clean water source, no level land, only endless bushes and swamps. No one liked it here, and the lords here only regarded it as a hunting place, but He often invited some distinguished guests to come here, including the then King Henry IV of France and his Dauphin, Louis XIII's father, Louis XIII. Compared with the owner of this territory, Louis XIII liked this piece of wilderness that was extraordinarily quiet because of its barrenness, so he bought it from its owner and built a small palace for him. For hunting with some close relatives and friends, it must be said that he was questioned about his sexuality because only men were allowed to enter Versailles, but some people said that Louis XIII also invited his lover to Versailles, but was rejected, but For Louis, it was just a place where he could accommodate refugees.

However, in order to ensure that these refugees would not become the object of hatred by the local residents of Versailles (this kind of thing is very common), and it may not be necessary to avoid unmanaged and lead to a group of robbers and beggars outside Paris, Louis had to decide not to enter Paris for the time being. Remaining at Versailles, instructing some of the young officials he had temporarily promoted in the resettlement of refugees - to his annoyance, among the young, there were not many such as Pierre de Montesquieu, There are quite a few of D'Artagnan, and they are not too bad, but if you ask them to do heavy and lowly work, they will definitely make a mess for you, and the king must himself set strict rules, requiring them to follow Detailed orders to do things can ensure that his ideas will not go out of shape in one night.

When the king did this, only the queen mother was anxious, and only Gaston, the duke of Orleans, was the acting king. He arranged a lot of traps for the king, but each of them required the king to enter Paris to achieve, so he sent The messenger came and asked when the king would enter Paris. Of course, in the message conveyed by the messenger, the duke was quite humbly asking the king to take away his title and power as soon as possible, because he had already been overwhelmed. .

Louis scoffed at this, the uncle said as if he hadn't tried his best to recruit soldiers before, now he not only has the title of acting king, his army is not less than the king, he will enter Paris, but in Before that, he must have had a fight with his good uncle.

   (end of this chapter)