In the afternoon, Charles rode in a carriage to visit the Duke's palace in Treville.

Compared with the shabby and dilapidated Marquis Palace, the vast Duke's Mansion of Treville is indeed worthy of the seven-character mantra of high-end atmosphere and grade.

There are manicured gardens, splendid mansions, and servants puffing on powdered and wearing ties—like the old days that have passed—come and go with a pretentious spirit.

After making his intentions known, Charles waited in the porter for a briefing.

Although the two brothers lived only a few miles apart, Charles still visited here only a handful of times in his life.

After waiting for a while, a servant with a proud face came from the mansion. "The Duke is no longer a guest today."

Actually give me a look? Charles was stunned.

"Then you go and tell the messenger again, if the duke refuses to entertain today, tomorrow my cousin's marriage will have to be ruined." Charles stared at the servant maliciously.

The servant was taken aback, panicked instead of arrogance just now, and without saying anything more, he went back to report again.

After a while, the servant returned, this time with a much more modest look on his face. "The Duke is now free to receive guests, and is now waiting for you in the study. Please come with me, Mr. Treville. ”

"Wouldn't it be nice to start like this?" Charles tugged at the servant's tie and laughed.

The servant ignored Charles' malicious joke and turned to lead the way.

Walking through the path in the small garden, Charles entered the mansion.

Following the path paved with Persian tapestry carpets, Charles followed the servant to the duke's study. Along the way, Charles didn't forget to pay homage to the portraits of Tréville's ancestors on the walls.

The servant knocked lightly on the door, then opened it and motioned for Charles to enter.

As soon as Charles entered, the door was shut.

The study was beautifully furnished but not luxurious, with several bookshelves stacked on the side of the walls and the duke's desk arranged in the direction of the door.

Charles's cousin, the Duke Philippe de Treville, was sitting behind his desk, staring with a gloomy gaze at the visitor standing in front of him.

Philip and his brother Victor resemble and dislike each other—their faces are very similar in outline, and their hair is also completely white. But the temperament shown by the two old men is very different.

The younger brother Victor has sharp eyes, fiery words, and the pride of a soldier in his anticipation, which looks like a raging fire; And the elder brother Philip has gloomy eyes, reserved demeanor, and the demeanor of a politician, and is as cold as ice.

Yes, the Duke of Treville was highly relied upon by King Louis XVIII during the Bourbon Restoration, was appointed to several important positions, and even served as a foreign minister. And after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1830, the Duke of Treville chose to retire from politics and live a semi-secluded life out of disdain for Louis-Philippe.

The elder brother is a die-hard royalist, and the younger brother is a Bonapartist party, so it is normal for the two brothers to break off relations and not get along with each other.

Of course, the semi-seclusive life is by no means to say that the Duke has lost his influence, and the Duke has befriended many of the people he liked during his time in power, and these people have gone further in the political turmoil, many of whom are in important positions - such as the current Prime Minister Sirte. He often expressed his opinions on national and foreign affairs, but there were quite a few big figures who listened to them.

To put it simply, the Duke of Treville is still an influential national figure.

After Charles entered the room, the study fell silent for a while, with the Duke staring at his nephew and Charles smiling.

After a long while, the Duke spoke, and asked in that tone that was so calm that he could not hear emotion.

"How much do you know?"

Straight to the point, no detours, good.

"I probably know a lot, but there are still some problems that I haven't figured out." Charles replied, "For example, how the 1.7 million Leolan family is going to divide it with you." ”

"Looks like I know a lot." The Duke was not surprised. "If you want to hear it, I can tell you. The hundred thousand shall be mine, and the hundred thousand shall be divided among those who are in charge, and the rest shall be held by the Count of Leoland himself. ”

"How can you be so generous?" Charles was a little surprised.

"Now to marry a duchess and a young lady, the dowry must be 500,000, let alone 500,000, let's just say 500,000. As a result, now I can marry Charlotte to a famous nobleman without spending a penny, and I can still earn 100,000, and there will be 600,000 inside and outside. In today's France, there are not many businesses that can make 600,000 yuan in one stroke. The Duke's tone remained unwavering, as if he were narrating someone else's business. Although I am old, I can still calculate this account clearly. If they wanted more, the Leolan family could have gone to someone else. ”

Charles raised his eyebrows in admiration. "That's a good ......."

"How much do you want? For the sake of your surname Treville, I can give you at most 50,000 francs, a business that will make 50,000 francs in a single transaction, and there are not many in France today. ”

"What if I want to call that poor young lady back?" Charles asked rhetorically.

The Duke's expression finally relaxed, and he looked at Charles again. "So you want to pack up 1.7 million and take that young lady away? There's really no way to buy you. ”

Charles coughed.

Where did this old guy go?!

However, it is not up to others to think about this......

"I'm just for justice, Mr. Duke." Charles looked at each other sternly.

"Oh yes, justice worth one and a half million." The Duke nodded.

"It's better than you strangling a young and beautiful girl in a convent for the rest of your life for this money!" Charles replied.

"It was her parents who made this choice, and after the death of her aunt, did not even wait until the next day. The young lady did not yet know that she was the rightful heir to a large fortune. ”

"At least you chose to help others do evil!"

"If I don't do it, someone will do it." The duke's face was still sinking like water.

"At least you don't have to get a Trevier's hand dirty, do you?" Charles raised his voice.

"Dirty hands are nothing compared to 600,000 francs." The duke looked at his nephew disapplausively, "Just wash it later." ”

"Can you wash your conscience after it has been polluted?!"

"Of course it can be washed with money, and if you have time, I can tell you a hundred such stories." The Duke's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"If we don't have money, at least we can maintain our dignity, Mr. Duke of Treville." Charles looked directly at the Duke.

The duke's face suddenly appeared with a mixture of ridicule and disgust, as if he had seen a crappy clown in the circus.

"Dignity? Mr. Treville, do you know what dignity is? ”

"I think I know." Charles returned the favor with a look in his eyes.

"No, I don't think you know." The duke looked at his nephew coldly. "Let me tell you what dignity is."

"After the mass shooting of the priests, your great-grandfather realized that something was wrong, and hastened to plot to let us escape from France - he himself was very closely watched by the revolutionaries, and he still had no hope of life, and before fleeing he asked me to swear to protect my brother, and the two of them left France alive." "I was 18 years old, and your grandfather was 15 years old," the Duke recounted in a flat tone as if he were talking about what had happened to others. We rode in a carriage first, and the servants galloped all the way. When we arrived in Reims, the mob found out that we were fugitive nobles, so they shot us and tried to kill us, and the horses and servants were dead, and your grandfather and I barely hid, and then continued to run east......"

[On September 2, 1792, the revolutionaries executed all 160 Catholic priests who refused to obey the orders of the new government and swore allegiance to the new regime in a monastery, marking one of the beginning of the terrible era of the Revolution. 】

The Duke paused, as if recalling something.

"We didn't dare to stay in a dwelling, we didn't dare to look for a carriage, and we didn't have any money with us, so we went all the way east, all in the wilderness. We slept in the field all the way, but luckily it wasn't very cold......" After a few moments, the Duke resumed his words, his tone still flat, "Hungry, very hungry, I still remember the feeling of being hungry and my stomach tightened." Your grandfather had a high fever on the road, and was almost groggy all the way, unable to walk, and almost ran east on my back—and in retrospect, I should have forgotten my oath to my father! We lived on wild fruits and vegetables, and sometimes we were lucky enough to steal some fruits and vegetables from the fields, and I always let your grandfather eat them first. I don't know how long I ran, how far I ran, until one day, I felt like I couldn't run anymore, my stomach was empty enough to stuff straw, and your grandfather's head was so hot that it caught fire, and I thought, we're going to die here......"

Charles only felt a tightness in his throat.

"That's when God took care of us." The Duke smiled suddenly, a smile that sent chills down Charles' spine. "Do you know what I saw?"

"What......" Charles struggled to keep his composure, but there was still a tremor in his voice.

"I saw a couple of voles. At that moment, in my eyes, these voles looked better than any beautiful woman, their faces were like angels, their fur was as beautiful as brocade, and their squeaks were better than the clarion in the Opéra de France......"

A wave of vomiting rushed over Charles.

"What's the matter, sir? Feeling nauseous? That's all your courage? The Duke glanced at his nephew sarcastically, "Without these angelic voles, what dignity would you be able to talk about in front of me today?" Without me stealing fruits and vegetables from the farmland, what dignity would you be able to talk about in front of me today? Sir, do you want to hear what happened next? ”

Charles was silent.

"Since then, I've seen everything, dignity is nothing, and living and living well is more important than anything else." The Duke sneered, "The eldest princess has a good saying, the revolution trampled us into the sludge, and we gave the sludge back to France as a gift. ”

[The eldest princess refers to Louis XVI's eldest daughter, Marie-Theresa, who was the only child of Louis XVI to survive the Revolution and later married her cousin, the Duke of Angoulême.] During the Bourbon Restoration, they hated the revolutionaries and vowed revenge to the end, even trying to blow up the Panthéon. 】

Charles was silent for a long time.

"Are you still trying to stop me?" The Duke asked indifferently.

Charles remained silent until Zuihou, still holding his head high and looking directly at the Duke.

"Your Excellency, I admit that without your help, my grandfather might have died a long time ago, and I would not have come to this world, and I also admit that you have suffered a lot because of the revolution, but ...... I don't think that's an excuse for you to do whatever you want, at least not a reason for you to be able to get me to give up. The Tréville family's peculiar blue eyes shone with a haughty light, "I have promised the others to bring Miss Léoland back. Until the client renounces his mandate, no one can try to stop me from fulfilling my promise. ”

During the bloody twenty years, most of the nobles of that generation lost the concepts of "honor" and "morality" (although this concept was not originally adhered to by many people), and instead remembered the creed of the sword and blood. Such "reactionary aristocrats" were the most die-hard counter-revolutionaries, and they had no other idea of the enemy than to return blood for blood.

This mentality may have made some sense if it was only for enemies and enemies, but it soon spread to cover everyone. Selfishness is thus clothed in the cloak of "forced", and all kinds of vices have been excused and excused.

"Suffering is never a reason to do what you want, nor is it a tool to justify evil. If you think that you have suffered before and now you can bully anyone who has nothing to do with it, I will never agree with it. ”

Charles replied in the negative.

Actually, he didn't really want to draw a sword to help him, nor did he feel that he was a partner in justice, if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't afford to deal with Fran now, maybe he would have changed his mind.

"So, you're not going to accept my terms of settlement?" The Duke asked coldly.