The spear pierced the mist like a dead tree in winter, and as the female bereavement passed, the camp was filled with tense muscles dancing in the light of the fire. The daytime slaughter is so thirsty that even the best wine can be extinguished.

A samurai dressed in white and gold robes appeared in front of him, and it was a sight to behold.

"Madame, please come with me."

Matilda was originally a little preoccupied, but at this time, she couldn't help but be attracted to the other party, who is he?

In the dark shadow of the banner, the huge bonfire was still spewing red light and green smoke into the night sky, and behind Madame Matilda, the tabernacle had been closed again, she couldn't help but glance back and try to find out who the samurai was.

"Honorable Tuscan lady!" Another voice seemed to remind everyone, and the clamor ceased for a moment.

The white beard of the Marshal of Milan was square, and beside him, Odo, Bishop of Ostia, was raising a golden cup in greeting Matilda.

"I wish you good health!" The female bian took the wine glass from the attendant's hand and drank it all.

There were at least two people in the tent whom she did not want to see, one was Robert of Normandy, who was rather arrogant and lonely in appearance, and in fact was nothing more than another hungry vulture, like all suitors of all these years; The other was her nephew, Godfrey de Bouillon.

Godfrey is bidding farewell to Bishop Odo, wishing to return north to rescue his territory in Lorraine, which had been awarded to him by the Council of Cambrai and now besieged by the Emperor's army.

"We are very sympathetic to what you are going through." Bishop Odor replied mildly, "But the puppet emperor has just defeated the Duke of Welf, and the east of Verdun is currently all our enemies, perhaps God means to let you fight in Italy and recover Rome for us, and the reward for this war is not more than the size of Lorraine?" ”

"Your Excellency, I am more than happy to fight for the Holy Church, but the rest of my army is in the Château de Bouillon, and all that is currently here is my father's men, and they will soon return to Boulogne with my brother."

Matilda sneered to herself, Godfrey may have told the truth for the most part, but the meaning of refusing Bishop Odo's solicitation in the words could not have been clearer, she had never had a good impression of this nephew, because she was not a generous woman in the first place, and Godfrey was behind the British king, and that man had brought her the most frustration.

Amid the orange candlelight and the light smoke of iron blue, the English knights in the braid of their warriors were watching all the princes, including Madame Matilda, who had just entered. Their leader, the Earl of Lincoln, was now talking with his brother with Bishop Odo, and the King's guards, who had no intention of getting too involved in the affairs of the Italians, had already proven themselves in the day's bloody battles, and were now receiving nothing more than the same compliments.

"What does His Majesty the King of England think of the situation in Italy?" Matilda asked.

The knights' eyes were drawn to both sides of the conversation, and it was not Baldwin, Earl of Lincoln, who was questioned by the female side uncle, but the oldest Archbishop of Canterbury.

"We have already spoken to the abbot of Mont Cassino about the meaning of the king, and at the moment we do not have the spare forces to throw ourselves into such a southern battlefield, that Rome has fallen, and that it is imperative to elect the next apostolic throne." Speaking of this, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Leofrick, and the Bishop of Ostia, Odo, looked at each other meaningfully, "As for the war, Your Majesty thinks it is sufficient to maintain the status quo as much as possible. ”

Matilda looked disappointed, she immediately understood what the other party meant, the English knights were about to return north and would not remain in Italy, and the Capua army under the command of Bishop Odo would also rejoin the civil war in the south, this short-lived alliance would soon break down, and all she could do was drive Prince Conrad west of the Po Plain.

The Archbishop of Canterbury did not tell the full truth, and when King Edgar mentioned maintaining the status quo, he was referring not only to the war situation, but also to the blocking of Robert's marriage proposal, which was not informed to the Earl of Baldwin, only the Bishop himself and Roger, Earl of Hereford, who were not going to leave Italy until it was certain that the heir to the Duchy of Normandy would not marry the Tuscan Countess.

The current situation in the north is very delicate, the Count of Flanders is not satisfied with the English dominance of the North Sea, and it is heard that Henry IV is secretly negotiating with Count Robert of Flanders, the details of which are unknown. The news came from Eustace, Count of Boulogne, an ally of England who was currently worried about the situation on both sides of his country: the alliance between Flanders and the Emperor was too great a threat to him, and to the west of Boulogne, the undercurrents of the Duchy of Normandy were even more alarming, the Duke of William was getting older, the question of succession had become the biggest danger of the Duchy, and the Norman lords had split into factions to prepare for the coming storm. For the Count of Boulogne, once civil strife broke out in Normandy, Robert of Flanders became extremely dangerous, after all, the heirs of this duchy were his nephews, and after gaining the support of the emperor, the Flemish army could advance westward at any time, and Boulogne happened to be in the way of the other side.

In the eyes of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the crisis of the Boulognes was not entirely bad, but at least deepened the Earl of Eustace's dependence on the British army in Calais, and the more chaotic the situation across the English Channel, the more important Westminster would be in the coming northern storm.

The English did not need to continue to stir up chaos in the Duchy of Normandy, which the Duke's sons had done well, but Westminster needed someone who could control him, and this person was still Robert, but if Robert married Matilda of Tuscany, he would have enough power to break away from the control of the surrounding powers, and Westminster would have to choose William Luforth or Henry.

The Bishop remembered King Edgar's expression at the mention of the two men, a deep distrust - after all, lions and wolves were difficult to tame, and in the king's mind, the Normans were a terrible wolf to be despised under Luforth and Henry.

His dim eyes turned to Matilda, there was no doubt that God had been so kind to this woman that the years had not left a mark on her, and that the woman, who was five years older than Robert and Edgar, still looked bright and beautiful, and whose warm laughter softened the marble, and who could still bring the greatest ordeal of any man on earth—pleasure, if she wanted to.