On the evening of their return to Paris, a fire broke out in the old prison on the island of Cité.

The huge flames illuminated almost half of Paris, and even the Palace of Versailles in the western suburbs could faintly see the light from the northeast.

Officers Christopher and Miste organized the rescue overnight.

However, despite the fact that the fire broke out on the Seine, it was not possible to draw water directly to extinguish the fire due to the difficult terrain. The fire burned all night.

Mr. Laenek, who was at the Hospital of the Main Palace, happened to be on duty in the emergency room that night. He had just sent off a patient who was fidgeting with a toothache and could now finally rest for a while. So, he lay down on the couch in the consultation room, closed his eyes and prepared to sleep.

But as soon as he felt a little sleepy, he was awakened by a strong hot wind.

Paris is located in the plains of the western part of the continent, and the climate is always mild and humid under the influence of the warm Atlantic current. And now, it is already autumn, and there should not be such a strong hot wind.

No, even in July and August, it is impossible to have such a hot air current.

He silently got up from the couch, picked up a lantern on the table, and walked out of the examination room, deciding to go outside to see what was going on.

When he opened the door of the hospital again, he found that the lantern in his hand was superfluous.

"O Merciful Mother, save the wretched!" This doctor, who is accustomed to seeing life and death, still maintains his compassion and respect for life at this moment.

The huge pillars of fire illuminate the two banks of the Seine, and on the east side of the Île de la Cité, you can of course feel the fierce fire most directly.

After Mr. Laenek, the Paris police arrived at the scene very quickly.

Officer Christopher estimated that he had been living in the police station for the past few days, otherwise he would not have come so quickly.

His colleague, Officer Mister, followed.

When the other police officers left for the scene, they still had some sleepiness on their faces. Some people complained from time to time, blaming this hateful sudden incident and disturbing their dreams.

Soon, however, they arrived on the banks of the Seine, feeling the scorching heat across the water. The red flames are reflected in the water at night, and when viewed from the shore, it looks like a hell on earth.

Looking at the skyrocketing flames on the island, everyone instantly woke up.

No longer complaining about the trouble caused by overtime, and no one is nostalgic for the warm nephrite bed, but devotes themselves to the disaster relief work.

Officer Mister is mainly responsible for organizing the personnel to extinguish the fire, while Officer Christopher rushes inside with a few skilled subordinates to save people.

Speaking of the prison on the island of Sitti, it has been around for hundreds of years, but it has not been a prison since it was built.

As early as the time of the Valois dynasty, it used to exist as a royal palace for the royal family. Later, Charles V moved the royal palace and set up a court here and renovated it. Since then, it has only been used as a prison.

Later, as Paris continued to develop, there were also various degrees of restoration work.

Today, it is a place of detention for important prisoners.

And those who can be imprisoned here are either prominent royalty and nobles, or dangerous people who have been convicted of special crimes.

In short, none of them are ordinary people.

In addition to the criminals of France itself, there were also some key figures in other countries, such as some Prussian officers captured during the Seven Years' War.

Due to the strategic value, the geographical location and structural design of the building itself are easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it also brings a lot of obstacles to the firefighting work.

Thanks to the efforts of the Paris police and the help of the surrounding citizens, the fire was finally extinguished at dawn.

The next morning, when Bella and the three of them passed by the island of Sitti as usual, they were startled by what they saw.

The Gothic building, which used to be a stark contrast between the east and west sides of the island, is now left with the Notre-Dame Cathedral on one side.

The large number of wounded patients has made it impossible for the main palace hospital to accommodate it, and many people are lying in the square in front of the church.

The stone bridge connecting the island of Citi is temporarily cordoned off, and Dr. Raenek is checking on everyone's injuries.

At this time, Officer Christopher was still searching for possible survivors in the rubble. Officer Mister was responsible for maintaining order and distributing relief supplies.

From the mouths of passers-by, Bella and the others quickly learned the general situation of the matter.

"Damn." Elena bit her lip and said, "This is obviously a deliberate arson."

"None of us expected that, it seems." Bella said, "They're doing it in a place like this."

Although he knew that the other party would definitely make some moves, he never expected that he would set fire so blatantly.

If you can prepare in advance, you can minimize the harm, if not avoid it.

However, from the very beginning, the focus was on the Louvre, the research room, and other places where important things and information were kept, and almost no one thought about this place where prisoners were kept.

"But Bella, what did they burn the prison for?" Elena was puzzled by this.

"I think it's probably for the sake of robbing the prison." Bella replied.

"Hell robbery?" Elena frowned, "Even if that's the case, you can't burn down the entire prison, right?"

"I don't know." "But so far, I can't think of a better explanation."

"Did they go to great lengths to use so many explosives in the southern suburbs as a guise just to save people from prison?"

"It's not certain whether it's saving people."

"Why do you say that?"

"In general, it is indeed very likely that the purpose of the prison is to rob the prison, then arson can be understood as causing chaos, so that the defense of Paris will be relaxed, and when everyone is busy fighting the fire, they will take the opportunity to escape. But, on the other hand, if it's about killing people, then the fire can obscure the cause of the target's death, making the result look like an accident."

"Could it be that there are people in it that need them to get rid of them at all costs?"

"We don't know anything like that." Bella said, "And it doesn't seem like it's convenient to ask."

If this is the case, then there is a very sensitive political issue involved.

In this case, Carlos and the Medici, as outsiders, should remain neutral. Unless you feel threatened, you can't intervene.

Just like the night before, when the other party almost reduced the entire Price family to ashes, they also had to take action.

It is not yet known whether the prisoner's target would cause unnecessary casualties.

However, the scene in front of her at this time made Elena personally emotionally unbearable.

Even if there are great traitors in the prison, not all of them are guilty to death, not to mention that there are so many jailers and guards, all of whom are obviously innocent victims.

This kind of thing has nothing to do with the position.

"And this calamity happened right before the eyes of the Virgin Mary." Elena said indignantly, "What an irony! Is it that one day even the Cathedral of Notre Dame will be burned down?"

Although the rhetoric is a bit excessive, Bella can still understand Elena's mood.

After all, in the face of such a sad and tragic scene, anyone will arouse compassion.

Leaving the Seine, Bella and her sisters met a group from the University of Paris on the way.

Professor Pascal is leading some of his students to the island of Sitti with a medical kit to help with the wounded. Among them was Mr. Pasteur.

Arriving at Madame Roland's salon, Bella, as usual, picked up this morning's newspaper.

The speed of media updates is quite fast, and the fire that broke out at night has been published in today's morning newspaper and put it on the front lines. It seems that it should have been printed overnight.

However, the newspaper only described the situation of the fire and did not talk about the subsequent injuries. After all, there is still a lag in the time of the summary editing of messages.

"It would be nice if one day in the future information could be shared in real time." Bella thought so and took a sip of her morning tea.

Anna picked up the nun puff that Vanessa had brought and took a gentle bite.

Elena chatted with Madame Roland about what she had just seen in Citi, and Madame Roland expressed deep regret.

"It's a little old." Madame Rowland sighed, "It's almost as old as Notre-Dame Cathedral. Although it is now used as a court and a prison, it has a certain preservation value from an architectural point of view."

It's a pity that a fire burned alive.

"Yes, if it can be preserved, maybe one day it will be open to the public as a museum." Elena said.

"It is said that during the Hundred Years' War, when the British came here, it was used as a fortress." Mrs. Roland is still relatively knowledgeable about history.

"I heard that it used to be the royal palace and that there was a Sainte-Chapelle next to it, so why did it become a prison again?" Elena asked, confused.

"Well, there are many reasons for this." Madame Roland said, "Although from the topography of the place, it is surrounded by water, and it is a natural defensive barrier, even if a large army is overwhelmed, it is difficult to easily take it. However, Sité is a small island after all, and if it is besieged, it can easily run out of ammunition and food. And the area is so small, there are limitations to wanting to expand. But these are just my personal speculations, and as for why, probably only Charles V knew back then."

Madame Roland had a great deal of opinion on many things, and at some times even Monsieur Aroué and Monsieur Montesquieu praised her.

After a while, Miss Margaret also arrived.

According to her, Monsieur Price had intended to hand over the explosives to the Paris police, but now that almost all of them were gathered near the island of Cité, it would be dangerous to put it in the police station, so the matter had to be postponed.

As for Miss Fremea, as expected, she was unable to get anyone to fill the vacancy of Mr. Price's brother-in-law.

The Marquis de Condorcet remained absent.

Monsieur Arouet and Monsieur Montesquieu deplored the catastrophe that had just occurred and denounced the sins of the perpetrators, and Monsieur Rousseau also reached a rare consensus with the two elderly men and decided to publish a denunciation of this cruel act.

Monsieur Diderot simply watched quietly and did not express an opinion. From time to time, he put down his book and looked up at the window, as if thinking about something.

Bella put down the newspaper and remembered the map theft case that Officer Christopher had mentioned earlier, and felt a little suspicious.

"Elena, do you remember the theft of papers from the University of Paris?" Bella asked.

"Well, yes," Elena nodded, "Isn't that the end of it?"

"But this time there was another theft of the map from the Palace of Versailles, right?" Bella continued.

"yes, all that is missing are important documents." Elena said, "Do you think the two things are related?"

"If you look at it from a functional point of view. The study of firearms is a technical document, and the map of the undercover passage in Paris is a military secret." Bella analyzed, "But at the end of the day, it's like something an enemy would do, right?"

"Makes sense." Elena agrees.

"However, the previous thing, judging from the results, should be considered a failure, right?"

"That's right, the documents have been recovered."

"The latter thing, has the purpose been achieved?"

"Huh? Do you mean the fire on the island of Sitti?"

"I was just wondering, if it's just a fire, can I sneak into the Palace of Versailles and steal the map?"

"Could it be to deliver fuel?"

"And when did the fuel get to Paris?"

"I think it's time for a banquet at Mr. Price's house, right?"

"However, the theft had only just taken place, so was it really possible to make a plan to bring things in so quickly? And, if the fuel had already been brought in by then, why didn't it be set on fire immediately, but waited until the next night?"

"It's ......," Elena couldn't think of a reasonable explanation.

"Looks like it's not over yet." Bella said.