I Am Louis XIV

The Duke of Saint-Simon imagined many things - how Louis XIV would respond to his blackmails - the king might deal with him as he treated Fouquet, no, it was unlikely, because the Duke of Saint-Simon had not yet entered the court of Louis XIV, Without receiving any position, the king could not punish him with charges of malfeasance or corruption; he also thought that the king would look for evidence of his collusion with Leopold I or any external force, so he had been very careful. All the agreements were only verbal and not in letters, and he never even spoke face-to-face with the envoys sent by those people; he also thought of the unfair injustice that the Duke of Luxembourg had suffered - that is, that Ridiculous charges of perjury and murder, although anyone with any semblance of intelligence would know that this is a conspiracy - how could a duke with territory and huge assets team up with a priest and a liar to defraud a mere few hundred livres? money? How many lives will it cost? But such ridiculous involvements were not uncommon in political struggles, and the Duke of Luxembourg was lucky that Louis XIV needed generals, and those who wanted to drag him to hell failed.

Otherwise, even if the Duke of Luxembourg is ultimately found not guilty, the period of detention in prison alone will be enough to destroy his body and reputation.

The Duke of Saint-Simon is also very careful about this. This is reflected in the fact that he hardly leaves his territory, let alone go to Paris or Versailles. His territory is managed quite firmly by him, and he has many reliable cronies. He also raised some soldiers. Even if things got worst, he felt that he would have a chance to escape to London like the Duke of Vendome.

There is also a wizard with him. There was a wizard by Louis XIV's side. This secret was no longer a secret. The Duke of Saint-Simon's worst guess was that the king would let a wizard curse him, so he spent a lot of money to hire a wizard by his side. He was quite reliable. The Duke of Saint Simon's ability to have a son in his sixties was also inseparable from the wizard's secret medicine.

However, Duke Saint-Simon felt that things would not get so bad that he had to choose the latter two endings. This was not because he was too arrogant or too stupid, but that there were always some people who could not get rid of the influence of old ideas on them.

The royal power of the European kings had not been very strong before the 12th century. Tracing back to the origin, this was the consequences of the collapse of the ancient Roman Empire - because the people who carved up this huge empire were the Germans, Celts, Barbarians like the Slavs. Although their descendants claimed to be the light of human civilization two thousand years later, at that time, they were really just a group of barbarians who could not even establish a complete, top-down governance system. There are deep tribal traces left in it. Even a king must entrust the land to various princes, and then he can live in a territory around the capital. He is called a king, but it is no different from a big prince. In many cases, the king also You must give in or remain respectful in front of lords who have soldiers and territories.

This situation continued until the kings began to cooperate with the church. The king used the power of faith to constantly promote his orthodoxy and purity, and to merge himself with God (when the king ascended the throne, he indeed claimed that the king and the Holy Spirit were merged) , in order to ask the princes to show their loyalty and dedication to them, making themselves the only voice in the army, which can be seen in the nine Crusades.

But when the church gradually became a behemoth, the kings had an enemy - the kings no longer pointed their swords at the pagans, because sending troops at the call of the church would undoubtedly increase the church's bargaining chips, so they Directing wars against each other, the war between kings has the two main triggers of territory and money, but no one can doubt that all smart kings will use such wars to suck blood from the princes. ——Because when the lords obtain territory, it also means that they must fulfill the mission of vassals, and following the king to fight is one of them that cannot be shied away from.

Then, after nearly a thousand years of fighting between snipe and clam, merchants have also become a force entangled in it. Of course, they are not as merchants, but as free cities, free ports or lower parliaments and three-level parliaments. The citizens of the middle class waited for masks to join the battle. Sometimes they were biased towards the lord, sometimes towards the king, but in the final analysis they were all for their own interests. This situation was very common in Italy and the former Netherlands.

Therefore, if a king who abides by tradition is replaced, Duke Saint-Simon's plan may really succeed, but he should have thought that Louis XIV has never been a rule-abiding person - the king may not be able to regard them as criminals and imprison them. Or be executed, but he can "invite" them to the palace for a year-long parade. No, he may even take them directly back to Paris and back to Versailles - for them, this is just a change. A place of imprisonment, but for those who don't know, they have received supreme honor and become the king's favorites. Even if they have one year, two years, three years... they have no contact with the territory, or People would take it for granted that all affairs in the territory would be handed over to the king's officials. Of course, they didn't see so many people crowding in the town of Versailles. Is it just to seek such an opportunity?

But his accomplice, the Duke of Saint-Simon, said that those who were arrested or still wavering must be gnashing their teeth secretly. They must feel that it was the Duke who betrayed them in order to gain favor from the king... And What can he do? Can he still shout at banquets and dances that he really intends to betray the king and collude with outside forces? He couldn't even complain that he was not invited, but abducted to the king's parade - who would believe it? In order to become one of these five thousand people, the price of a letter of recommendation from Madame Montespan or the Duke of Orleans has been raised to one thousand livres.

Duke Saint-Simon thought happily that he could probably get three thousand or five thousand livres. In other words, he could sit in a position where he could see the king during the meal, and maybe the king would reward him with a drink. Wine, Madame Montespan would also give him a beautiful smile, and the crown prince or the princess would condescend to say a few words to him.

There was no way he could clear himself up anyway.

The truth was not far from what the Duke of Saint-Simon had expected. After the banquet, Louis XIV rewarded him with a bag of gold louis so that he could play happily in gambling games.

In the days that followed, Duke Saint-Simon was on pins and needles under the strange looks of people. He even thought about running away, but the attendants and servants around him were more alert than the three-headed dog in front of Hades. They did not accept any bribes or threats. The skillful and calm posture made the Duke of Saint-Simon wonder whether Louis XIV had such a plan twenty years ago.

It is unknown whether Louis XIV had such a plan twenty years ago, but it is absolutely true that the Duke of Saint-Simon and others could not find a way to escape until the king set off from Saint-Germain-en-Laye. They were frustrated. They got on the carriage, and beside the carriage were the king's guards. "Where are we going?" Duke Saint-Simon asked slowly, glancing at the well-dressed, strong and well-equipped cavalry.

"Calais and Dunkirk." The Duke of Vendôme and the Duke of Saint-Simon were riding in the same carriage. The once sworn enemies, later colleagues, and now non-conspirators, stared at each other for a while and then withdrew. Looking at the sight, Duke Saint-Simon glanced sideways at the attendants beside him, as well as young Mr. Joseph beside Duke Vendôme. It seemed that the possibility of taking the opportunity to blackmail Duke Vendôme and ask the king to release him was gone. Of course, the king How could you suddenly be stupid and give him this chance?

"I heard that in addition to what we saw, there are 50,000 troops following the king." Duke Saint-Simon paused for a while and said with a little reluctance: "Is the king so afraid of his subjects? Five Ten thousand people can start a war."

"Although I don't know what your plans are," Duke Vendôme slowly adjusted his shoulder straps - the bright red shoulder straps could hurt Duke Saint-Simon's eyes: "But I can tell you, you have to think If there are 50,000 soldiers running around with the king, that would be a big mistake." He said with a smile: "They said that His Majesty is guarded by 50,000 loyal soldiers, but they only refer to the garrison where the king is. "

Duke St. Simon's face suddenly darkened: "I don't believe it."

"You are always like this, Claude, but things in the world are never static. For twenty years, my good sir, the king has been expanding his standing army. Maybe your spies will tell you that the king is now There are one hundred thousand troops, but that is only the army in Paris, Versailles, Orleans and other places. It is the most powerful and superficial force that everyone knows." The Duke of Vendôme said: "You may not have noticed that the king What the dispatched officials did - during the twenty years of Louis XIV's rule, even when he was at war with the Netherlands, he did not increase the poll tax. He was not good to these poor people for no reason. He asked Their loyalty and obedience is like that of the refugees in Versailles - every young man must receive education and training, yes, even in your territory."

Duke Saint-Simon moved his lips. Of course he knew, but... like all nobles, he believed that the poor were ignorant, so what if they received education and training? They are short-sighted and ungrateful, and they are destined to always be just a group of cattle and horses driven only by whips and food. No matter what the king does, as long as they encourage, incite and bewitch them a little, these miserable things will still follow their batons. .

Although... Duke St. Simon must admit that his subjects are not as obedient as before, but those young people who just learned a little counting and vocabulary from the priests and did some weird training can do it. Called the king's soldiers... Then it is not impossible that Louis XIV boasted that he had 50,000 soldiers accompanying him. He may have shown a contemptuous smile because he saw the Duke of Vendôme raising his eyebrows.

The Duke of Vendôme did not speak again. The carriage walked on the flat road for about three quarters of an hour. When it was about to exit Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Duke of Saint-Simon suddenly opened the curtain because he heard someone singing outside. .

"God bless our king..." Upon hearing the initial tone and lyrics, the Duke of Saint-Simon immediately guessed that this was "God bless the king" composed by Lully, the king's music director, because this song was used to flatter people. The lyrics of the song are simple and the tone is plain, so it spread from Paris to all over France at once. Even the Duke of Saint-Simon, who neither liked Louis XIII nor Louis XIV, had to be "familiar" with this song, because almost everyone Everyone can hum a few words.

He looked out through the gap in the curtain and saw a group of people, some riding horses, some riding mules, and more walking on foot. They followed the king's motorcade and walked in the fields on both sides of the road. Everyone All in great spirits, men, women, and children, all dressed in their best clothes, asked, "Who are these? Are they men from Saint-Germain-en-Laye?"

"You can say yes, you can say no." Joseph said: "They are farmers and craftsmen nearby."

Duke Saint-Simon did not speak. He looked at the crowd carefully. Some people were slowly left behind because they could not walk, but more people came from all directions, and the number of people became larger and larger, and then as the number increased, In addition, a special sight also caught the attention of Duke Saint-Simon, that is, almost all of these people had blue and red ribbons on their bodies. Ladies tied them around their necks, and men tied them on their shoulders or pinned them to their chests.

Blue belongs to the royal family and red belongs to Louis XIV.

Their singing became louder and louder: "God bless our king, may he live forever... God bless the king, may he be invincible, God bless the king, may he be glorious forever..." Their number quickly exceeded the king's. Although Louis XIV could not be seen by the guards, Duke Saint-Simon immediately turned around to see the face of Duke Vendôme. Unfortunately, they did not panic at all.

It was still three hours away from the next city. Until they saw the city gate again, there were people following the king all the way. The king's guards did not chase them away, nor did they feel nervous. Instead, they looked at them with smiles. ——They gathered and dispersed like a swarm of bees, and appeared and disappeared like a stream in the forest. The Duke of Saint-Simon initially scorned the Duke of Vendôme's so-called fifty thousand soldiers, but as time passed, His expression became more solemn.

The welcome given to the king by the people of Saint-Germain-en-Laye may be interpreted as harsh demands from the mayor, or a poor form of flattery, but what about these people? There have been tens of thousands of people coming and going, singing songs in praise of the king, and following them all the way. If no one comes to express their gratitude to the king, does it mean that they are really sincere? As long as their support for the king is one-tenth true, then even if the king does not have a single attendant around him, as long as he shouts, fifty thousand, no, one hundred thousand, or even two hundred thousand, thirty thousand people will gather around him. An army of ten thousand people is not impossible...

"How is this possible..." Duke Saint-Simon muttered.