I Am Louis XIV

Louis looked at the middle-aged man, and he immediately raised his eyes to look at the sky without saying a word.

"It's never the enemy that makes me so anxious." The King of France said slowly: "Mr. Spinoza, this is indeed my mistake, but I think after you came to Florence, you should have figured out what happened. It's going on." If it were Descartes, a mathematician, or a doctor, he might not be able to guess the king's true intention, but Spinoza is more of a philosopher than a philosopher. A psychologist, his intelligence allows him to see everything very clearly, and it is precisely because he is so thorough that he ends up like that.

"I, Your Majesty, I..." Unlike what the middle-aged man expected, Spinoza did not show any joy at this great opportunity: "In fact, I left when I was twenty-four. Amsterdam, to The Hague, then back to Amsterdam..."

"Because you heard that the French invaded the Netherlands, you have to convince those parliamentarians and officials to let them stay in Amsterdam - no matter what method is used, as long as the French army can be blocked from the hub of the Netherlands for a week, even for three In five days, things may turn around," Louis said.

Spinoza breathed a strange sigh of relief: "Yes, Your Majesty."

"What does it matter?" Louis leaned on his cane and leaned forward slightly, not caring at all about the strange smell coming from Spinoza who had not bathed for several days: "If all the Dutch who have ever opposed me are to be executed, then Now the population of Amsterdam will be reduced by at least one-third." He straightened up: "I am very strict with some people, but I am very tolerant with others. Mr. Spinoza, you happen to be the latter. I think I have read your correspondence with Mr. Descartes and am very interested in some of your theories."

"Mr. Descartes showed it to you?"

"How is it possible?" Louis said confidently: "I demolished it privately." Little Louis, Spinoza and the middle-aged man couldn't help but show an expression that is difficult to describe in words.

"You are nothing like the king I imagined," said Spinoza.

"What kind of difference?"

"I thought you would be tougher." Spinoza said: "I worry about my former friends and colleagues. Your Majesty, lions will not care about the barking of hyenas, and mountains will not be afraid of hurricanes. The more you are Being gentle means that the more complete and tight your hold on the Netherlands is, if they are willing to be loyal to you, that is a good thing, but if they still hold on to their delusions, they will suffer a huge setback."

"You may be partly right," Louis smiled reservedly. He had to admit that he was complimented just right: "But I would rather be in a comfortable room, leaning on a soft sofa, with coffee and lemons beside me. Water and cake (when talking about this, Spinoza and the middle-aged man could not help but swallow a few empty swallows), and then we will talk slowly." He looked at Mrs. Milady beside him. Mrs. Leidy waved her hand knowingly, and Spinoza suddenly felt light, as if being hugged by an invisible person. His toes were still touching the ground, but he could no longer feel any weight. , his muscles were tense for a few seconds, but then they relaxed and took a big breath.

Spinoza heard that the king of France once maintained a large group of devil servants like King Solomon. He looked at Milady with an incomprehensible expression and guessed that she might be a witch, although there were many powerful people in the Netherlands. They would keep wizards, but this kind of transaction was always carried out in the dark, but Louis XIV took a witch with him as if nothing had happened, as if he were bringing his own royal wife, and even let her perform magic in front of such people Witchcraft, "May I assume that you have not changed your original mind?" He looked at Louis XIV.

"Why should I change?" Louis said: "Your mind has not aged with your age. Your will is still strong. I can see the vitality in your eyes. You still have what I need." , Mr. Spinoza.”

"Yes, Your Majesty," Spinoza said, "You are a bold man. In this case, I can take it that you don't care about my previous crimes?"

"Teaching privately?" Louis said, "No, I'm asking you to teach in my university."

"The Elector of Brandenburg also sent me an invitation. He hoped that I could serve as a professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, but the condition was that I could never mention anything related to religion. But without religion, human philosophy is like He is an animal whose bones and flesh have been removed, leaving only a hollow skin to speak of, so I rejected him, Your Majesty, and I still want to say..."

“You can say whatever you want,” Louie said.

"No, no, no, you don't understand," Spinoza said excitedly: "Since you have read my letters with Mr. Descartes and investigated me, you should know how I came to be at the age of twenty-three or four. Was expelled from Amsterdam."

“There’s a world of difference between your understanding of God and someone else’s understanding of God,” Louis said. ,

"Then you are not worried?" asked Spinoza.

"worry about what?"

"The young men of France may be led astray as the young men of Athens."

"I want to explain here," Louis said: "You will give lectures in my university. Before that, you have to compete with other professors for class time based on your knowledge and ideas - in my university, this is my If your interpretation of God can convince others that they cannot logically and intellectually refute you, then you can preach your theory to young people as you please."

"Are all people like this?"

"Yes."

“Then that is fair enough,” said Spinoza: “I am forty-five years old, and I am tired of wandering about grinding glass lenses, and if you are still willing to hire me after hearing about me, Then I’ll go to France.”

"You don't look at all like forty-five," said Lady Milady.

"The loneliness and hard life caused by betrayal and separation, and the pain that no one understands will make a person age very quickly." Spinoza said.

"Then you just wait here for the reply. I believe it will come soon." Louis nodded. When he was about to leave, he was stopped by Spinoza: "If you are willing to do it even for a sinner like me, Forgiveness, acceptance, mercy, Your Majesty, would you like to have more than one available?”

"Available people? Who?" Louis asked. He believed in Spinoza's recommendation - these too-smart scholars could not see vulgar mortals in their eyes, including kings and grand dukes. The people they caught must have merits. Descartes had recommended Spinoza to him, and now he wanted to see who Spinoza would recommend to him.

Spinoza tilted his head, "That's him," he said, "Your Majesty, he is Alexander Torricelli."

"This last name sounds familiar to me, but I can't remember who he is." Louis said frankly.

"Evangelista Torricelli, you should know this name." Spinoza said: "He is the adopted son of Evangelista Torricelli. Your Majesty, his father once He was the last disciple of Mr. Galileo. However, when he studied with Mr. Galileo, Mr. Galileo was already blind and had only three months to live. Together with Vivanni, Mr. Galileo's former student, he helped Mr. Galileo complete his final Manuscript preparation work.”

Spinoza said this so urgently that he almost bit his tongue. He was afraid that Louis XIV would be satisfied after getting him and would not care about a little person like Alexander. But without Alexander's shout before, Louis XIV Four would not have discovered that the person in the cage was exactly the person he was looking for - he was really worrying too much, because as soon as he mentioned Galileo, Louis XIV's nerves immediately became tense.

If Louis XIV has any regrets, it is that he was born a little late. Many scientists and philosophers died before he could grasp power. Galileo was only four years old when he died, like the previous Torricelli also died six years later, and his spies failed, much to the king's regret - but an adopted son?

"Are you Torricelli's adopted son?"

"Yes," the middle-aged man said nervously, but maybe he wasn't that old - their family couldn't even get close to the standing cage to feed and drink them, and of course they couldn't clean their faces or trim their beards and hair. , coupled with the exposure to wind and sun, it is understandable that he looks older than before: "I am, yes, yes - yes, the adopted son of Evangelista Torricelli...I, I... …”

"You were not so nervous when you were speaking to Spinoza just now." Louis said helplessly: "Speak slowly, I am listening. I have nothing urgent and I don't feel tired."

The man with the same name as the ancient Macedonian king paused, woke up, took a deep breath, and then continued slowly: "I am indeed the adopted son of Evangelista Torricelli. He devoted himself to studying He was educated and never married. Unexpectedly, he got seriously ill at the age of thirty-nine and needed to be anointed with holy oil at any time. I was his student at the time, and he asked me if I would like to be his son - I agreed. ”

"Then his inheritance has been inherited by you." Because he heard that Torricelli also passed away early, and that another student Viviane might have gone to England, Louis XIV, who was uninterested, did not order the spies to continue the investigation. Go down.

"All, Your Majesty." Alexander said wisely: "If you need it, you can ask someone to copy it, but please don't take it away, at least not within the next few years." He said cautiously: "I am following the teacher's instructions. Take notes for research and experiments, Your Majesty, if you allow..."

"Let's go to Paris and do it together." Louis XIV said simply. People with talents are always as rare as gold in the gravel, but the foundation of science also needs people who are willing to be down-to-earth to consolidate it. Anyway, once he arrives at the Academy of Sciences, this Alexander Whether it is intentional to deceive or not, other scholars have found out by trying it out, and the Bastille can still squeeze out one or two places.

Little Louis tugged at his father's lapel. "What's the matter?" Louis asked sideways.

"What crime did this gentleman commit?" asked little Louis. Louis remembered that he really didn't ask - mainly because he didn't care whether the other person was a real criminal. As a king, the bottom line must always be set very low, and he didn't care. I felt that a scholar who still insisted on completing his work in the face of him would do something so despicable and heinous: "You are not a Jew."

"I am not from Judah, but my wife is." Alexander said with a bitter taste in his mouth: "My wife just gave birth to a son for me, but she didn't have enough milk and needed to hire a wet nurse."

"What's the problem?" Many thoughts passed through Louis' mind. Did the wet nurse steal important information, or took away their son? In desperation, Alexander killed her?

"No," Alexander said dumbly: "According to the laws of the Principality of Tuscany, Christian children cannot be breastfed by Jewish wet nurses. If the mother is Jewish, then the father must submit a written report to the government. Allow Jewish wet nurses to breastfeed their children." He showed a look that didn't know whether he was crying or laughing: "I'm not very rich, Your Majesty, I didn't bribe the officials of the Public Ceremony Office, so they didn't approve my application, and I didn't I couldn't hire Christian wet nurses because they were worried about the damage to their reputation, but even if they wanted to, I don't have enough money - their commission is three times that of Jewish wet nurses, and my son drank for days. Honey water, he was dying, and as a last resort my wife's sister-in-law secretly fed him a few mouthfuls - and was immediately caught. That compassionate and pitiful woman, Your Majesty, she is in the cage behind me."

Louis XIV, Louis the Younger, and other French people finally understood why there were so many female prisoners here. If you look carefully, their chests are bulging and their faces are full of pain.

"I will go see your wife right away," said Madame Miledy immediately. Although she had no children, she had raised the Duke of Colonna until he came of age, and she could almost be said to be the Duke of Colonna's wet nurse.

"Many thanks."

"Okay," Louis XIV said, "Besides this gentleman, is there anyone else you would like to recommend to me?" His eyes passed over the cages: "You don't have to worry too much about the others. I'll leave it to Lady Milady."

Spinoza hesitated and said nothing. Louis glanced at him and was not anxious. He would have to say it anyway - unless he thought it was a good thing to leave a friend in Florence like this. Louis XIV was in No matter how cruel the Dutch are in their hearts, everyone can see his love for scholars, artists, and capable people. Otherwise, how could people say that the second Renaissance happened in Paris and Versailles?

But this question may not need an answer, because at this moment, the guards in the square suddenly had a conflict with a man. The man did not seem to be a strong warrior. He was knocked to the ground all of a sudden. The guard was about to give him a blow. When he struck more, Louis XIV's entourage stopped him.

He was brought before the king with a bruised nose and swollen face, dirty clothes, and a cloth bag tightly clutched in his hand. The sweet smell of candied fruits came out of the bag. It seemed that he was going to sneak into the square and give some food to the prisoners here. The – sweet and sour preserves will keep them going longer.

He looked at Louis XIV with a look of horror, and then subconsciously looked at Spinoza who was still standing in the cage.

Spinoza coughed: "Your Majesty," he said, "this is my friend Christian Huygens."

Christian Huygens had three titles, physicist, astronomer and mathematician. Louis XIV showed a subtle smile: "I also asked Viscount Turenne to find you, Mr. Huygens." Gens was born in The Hague and never left The Hague before he became friends with Spinoza. He should also have died in The Hague - but like Spinoza, he bravely ran away after hearing the French invasion of Amsterdam. The problem was that before he and Spinoza arrived in Amsterdam, Amsterdam had already become the possession of Louis XIV - the fierce war or bloody massacre they imagined did not appear. After staying foolishly for a few days, they heard that a French general was looking for Spinoza, and they ran away without thinking.

They did not dare to flee back to The Hague. In addition to worrying about implicating relatives and friends, The Hague already belonged to the French. They thought for a while - Huygens still had some money around him, and they did not dare to go to England, even though England was also Protestant. Christians, but their Anglican sect is not that kind of tolerant sect. Spinoza is not only a Jew, but also a Jew wanted by the Roman Church, and the followers of the Protestant sect, hearing his nonsense, He will also be sent to the stake and burned to death. They also did not dare to go to the Holy Roman Empire, Spain or Portugal, let alone France - that would be a trap. Later Huygens suggested that they could go to Florence, Italy.

Although people in Florence know that Florence is no longer the glory and freedom it once was, what others don't know is that Huygens and Spinoza thought they had arrived at a promised land and could start breathing sweet air. Knowing that they had worked hard to get here, they discovered that the strict rules and customs of the Principality of Tuscany had turned the people here into slaves in action and thought. They were wearing heavy shackles and could hardly breathe. .

Spinoza and Huygens wanted to leave, but they... ran out of money... and they did not dare to reveal their real names, so Huygens went to work in a clock workshop - given that he had improved After passing the time machine, Spinoza continued to grind the lenses of telescopes and microscopes. The problem was that Spinoza still had not gotten rid of his habit of being a teacher. He had several students in The Hague and gradually some in Florence. Young people asked him for advice. Although they did not know that they were facing Spinoza, the sparkle of wisdom is like a diamond. It only needs a little sparkle to attract people's eyes.

You also know what happened later. Spinoza was arrested, but Huygens was not affected for the time being, so he tried his best - he couldn't raise enough ransom, but he couldn't watch his friend go. die.

The reason why Alexander Torricelli knew that this man was Spinoza was because he was one of the people who went to visit Spinoza.