In real history, our musketeer, Mr. d'Artagnan, who was famous at home and abroad because of his brilliant writer, had become acting captain of the company of the Guards, thanks to the favor of Bishop Mazarin, but here, when the king had shown his talents and Bishop Mazaran had duly made concessions, the position of acting captain was given to Sébastien Vauban. This man, though young, had already participated in many battles, and his exploits were sufficient for the Prince of Condé to summon him from Flanders to Paris, and to reward him (although Vauban could be said to have made a wedding dress for someone else) because of his loyalty to the king, and was so modest that he aroused some jealousy, but at least not as much displeasure as Monsieur d'Artagnan had been upon his assumption of the post.

D'Artagnan also knew very well that he was of ordinary origin, and that he was a Gasconian, completely different from most musketeers - as mentioned before, the Gasconians had always been regarded as rebellious provincials, so although he did not get this position, after regretting it, he was not so angry, perhaps because of this naïve and optimistic energy, although d'Artagnan was really criticized for his personal morality, the king was still very close to him and willing to use him.

And Monsieur d'Artagnan, as every time before, whether it was Cardinal Mazarin or His Majesty the King, he could be said to have accepted the task happily, without the slightest reluctance, and the King encouraged him a few words, and gave him a money bag: "This is the money for you to set up your outfit." Louis said, "There are a hundred gold louis," and the noble majesty paused with an unpredictable expression, "I think you should need someone else's finance, if possible." ”

d'Artagnan cocked his very well-trimmed mustache, and he confessed that it was common and proud to have one or two, or three or five ladies who had met with him from time to time, and to hang a money bag in his saddle after each meeting (certainly not the hapless husband), and he certainly would not be foolish enough to contradict the king, and the overly merry Gasconi bowed to the king and reminded himself that before he left, he could only say goodbye and comfort his lovers with a handwritten note, for it would be extremely difficult for a lover or a warrior to refuse their tender gifts。

A hundred louis was worth two thousand livres, and d'Artagnan was the king's musketeer, and of course he had one of the horses that the king had given to the musketeers, and it was a sturdy white horse, with a diamond-shaped black mark on his forehead, and his limbs were well-proportioned and powerful, and his eyes were like black almonds, and he had more affection than any lady he had ever seen, so d'Artagnan was suddenly a great lesser sum, and he gave the horse a new saddle, black calfskin, inlaid with silver spikes, and then chose for himself a velvet coat with silver thread lace on the cuffs and neckline, a snow-white linen shirt, and brown cuffed boots, and a wide-brimmed hat decorated with ostrich feathers. In short, he dressed himself up in the most popular style of Parisians at this time, and used up nearly seven or eight hundred livres at once.

Compared to d'Artagnan, Colbert's outfit was much simpler, he looked more like a Dutchman than a Frenchman, his black coat hung down to his knees, his belt was tied under his coat, and only a plain gray feather was inserted in his hat, he was older than d'Artagnan, this kind of dress made him look like d'Artagnan's retinue or servant, but this was exactly what the king and he needed, so that people should keep an eye on the so-called royal envoy d'Artagnan, what Colbert had to do was more dangerous than him, but the king also said that if something irreparable happened, they could flee back first。

However, neither d'Artagnan nor Colbert wanted to return to Paris in disgrace, d'Artagnan wanted to get a higher position, and Colbert felt a deep crisis because of Nicolas Fouquet's achievements. Just a few days before their departure, Fouquet quietly returned to Paris, returned to the king, and he brought back a huge sum of money equivalent to 350,000 livres, which made the king's tense nerves relax, and in the still wavering flange, it was a joy to be able to obtain such a rich return, and Fouquet was not satisfied with this, he submitted a plan to the king, intending to go outside France, but the king refused.

Colbert knew why His Majesty would refuse Fouquet, the reason was simple, leaving France, Fouquet's actions were likely to bring him a terrible death at once, after all, in just a few months he had amassed such a large fortune (not even counting the taxes and prizes given to the lords), as long as anyone would have been greedy, it is said that even if he had not left France, he would have been almost caught and hanged in the name of a liar by a count who had placed thousands of bets and found nothing.

The king even asked Fouquet not to leave Paris for the time being, and to stop the business of Bo Prize for the time being, although the treasury was empty, but as far as His Majesty said, such an act was like sucking blood from a cow instead of milking it, and once or twice, if it appeared too often, it would only lead to more chaos and depravity of the whole country.

Fouquet was disappointed, but it didn't matter, he had also been promised the position of treasurer by the king, which made Colbert deeply distressed, no, not because he also coveted this position, he knew that he could not become the king's minister for the time being, compared to Fouquet, who was already a nobleman in robes, he was still just a small chauffeur businessman, but the king's attention to him made Fouquet very jealous of him, and the king's character Kirbel also knew a thing or two, as long as it was useful to him, the king would protect him without restrictions, even if his enemy was Bishop Mazarin, the problem was, if he disappointed the king, then the result was predictable。

So the two men went on their own way, each with their own minds, to complete the work assigned by the king.

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The Duchess of Montpensier, who was still far away in Burgundy, did not know that two men were coming to completely destroy her relationship with her father, the Duke of Gaston, although they were also crumbling like spiders in the wind.

After settling in Saint-Fargo, she began to carefully manage her own little world, although she was not pleased with her father and was expelled from the court, but the dilapidated of Saint-Fargo Castle made it impossible for her to continue to immerse herself in her self-pity, this duchess, perhaps erroneously on the most important issues, but her wealth was undoubted, and no matter when, where, gold always solved many problems- By the time d'Artagnan came to Saint-Fargo, there had been many changes in this remote and barren place, and almost all of them were good, the roads were smooth, the wheat fields were verdant, the villages were smoky, and there were many inns along the way, although simple but complete, and the inns provided food and lodging, and d'Artagnan asked the people in the inn, and they all said that there were always some noble lords and ladies passing here, and they were all guests of the castle of Saint-Fargo, so they would open inns on the side of the road for them to rest.

This information made d'Artagnan a little wary, the father of the Grand Princess, the Duke of Gaston, and his lover the Prince of Condé, who were the greatest enemies of the King and the Bishop.

He rode along the road with Kirbel, and along the road they soon came to the castle of St. Fagor, half-surrounded by a forest, which had been restored like a white peak, towering in uneven shades of blue, and in front of it was a flat, semi-elliptical square, cut into different but symmetrical shapes by six paths, about two-thirds of which were rough stone bricks, and the rest of which were fluffy creepers.

There were many carriages and horses lined up neatly on one side of the square, and in front of the fortified gates, every guest took out a letter of invitation and was led inside, and there were also uninvited guests who forgot to bring the letter, or who had simply heard of a great event and thought they were entitled to be invited, as long as a trusted courtier or close lady of the duchess testified to it. d'Artagnan rode straight over, and his attire owed the king a hundred louis, and he was as illustrious as a prince, and at once a servant dressed in decent clothes came to ask him if he had been invited, and of course the servant received an answer that was completely unexpected, and he galloped in and told the duchess's maid the news.

The Duchess was now dressed in a splendid crimson velvet dress, and sat in a small parlor with her two of her closest friends, the brilliant Madame de Chambigne, Madame de Lafayette, smiling as she listened to a young gentleman playing the violin, and when the song was over, all three ladies clapped their hands with joy.

"Where did you find such an angel?" asked Madame Lafayette, "his hands are magical, and I have never heard such beautiful music." ”

At the mention of this, a gloomy look crossed the duchess's face, for this musician had been given to her by Bishop Mazaran as a boy in waiting, of course, in 1646, when she was still the darling of the court.

Madame Lafayette did not know, but Madame de Chambigne did, and she was about to say something to change the subject, when she was interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

They watched as the duchess's favorite maid walked up to her and whispered something, and the duchess's hand suddenly grasped the fan tightly, and immediately stood up: "Where are they?"

"The foyer, Your Majesty, is in the foyer. ”

The Duchess did not even have time to explain a word or two to the two ladies before she hurried out, and Madame Lafayette had only time to chase her out the door when she saw the hem of the Grand Lord's skirt disappear at the end of the corridor.