Viscount Tyrene later served as governor of the three provinces of New West in France for twenty-five years, and when he was over eighty years old, he was called by the king to return to Paris, during these twenty years, not to mention the Dutch, except for France, the envoys of almost all countries had persuaded him to lead the three provinces to independence from France, he was the grandson of Orange, yes, but the Netherlands did not strictly enforce the primogeniture system, that is, after all the male heirs died, the female descendants could inherit the territory and title of Orange, if the Viscount of Tyrrenne wished, not to mention his existing three provincesEven William III of Orange, all of Utrecht, was willing to honor him as King of the Netherlands, but Viscount Tirrenne never wavered.

Later, when he returned to Paris, and saw the king who had grown more calm and wise for twenty years, but had not seen the old and faint king, he suddenly understood, twenty-five years earlier, the night before they had conquered Amsterdam...... The king was a mad and daring gambler, and he did not think in the slightest that if his offensive in Holland was frustrated, the loan to the merchants in the name of the crown would at once become a mountain on his back, and at best, all the French from the king down would suffer because of this defeat, and at worst, if the people of France could not bear the pain, they would pour out all their anger on the king, and Louis might become another Charles I, who would repay the people's hopes for him with his head and blood。

On the other hand, as long as Louis XIV was able to conquer Flanders and Holland once and for all, the wealth plundered from these two sheep with golden fleeces would not only repay the loan, but also benefit every Frenchman, like the Spaniards and the English, who could be said to have grown stronger by pumping the blood of the Low Countries. After the independence of the Netherlands, Amsterdam became the world's financial and economic center, and merchants took bonds and notes from the Dutch stock exchange, but left gold and silver in the bank vault of Amsterdam - once the king's army broke through Amsterdam, these were all spoils, and the spoils of war did not need to be returned or publicized, and they would become the most solid foundation under the throne of Louis XIV.

From that moment on, Viscount Tirene profoundly understood how the king had ambitions for the Netherlands, and as the first jewel set in the scepter, the Netherlands was not only extremely important to Louis XIV economically and militarily, but also in a political sense.

Twenty-five years ago, when France was just a "new man" slowly recovering from internal and external troubles, his king dared to wage a national war, and twenty-five years later, when France had become a vast empire capable of defending a long coastline, a vast territory, and countless colonies at the same time, did anyone imagine the independence of the Netherlands?

The Viscount of Tyrene laughed at the thought of this, and even broke one of his ribs, no, he would never betray his king!

He would return to Paris and spend the rest of his life in peace in the King's mansion or in the suite of the Palace of Versailles, and after his death he would rest in rest in the Basilica of Saint-Denis with his close friends, his colleagues, and his relatives.

——————

Louis didn't expect that his actions would bring such a deep shadow to the Viscount of Tyrrenne, there are not a few kings in history who borrowed money from merchants because of war, even if only in the history of France- Philip I, Louis VII, Louis IX (also known as Saint Louis), Philip II all borrowed from merchants because of the Crusades, Charles VIII borrowed from the Genoese in 1494 because of the invasion of Italy, and the interest on the loan reached up to 100% (annual interest rate), when the Duke of Charles of Burgundy wanted independence, King Louis of France also borrowed from bankers to consolidate allies and buy enemies - but the mortgage of the royal palace, or the mortgage of the Louvre, second only to the Louvre, Louis XIV was the first.

As Louis said to the Viscount of Tyrrenne, he was also helpless, generally speaking, merchants borrowed money from the king, and the collateral they demanded was generally the tax of the state, as well as the monopoly of waterways, military supplies or bulk goods, or the right to export, the right to manage the colony, the right to mine minerals, the right to mint currency, etc., this is how many plutocrats in Italy suddenly flourished, but Louis could not give up military supplies, nor was he willing to let merchants control the taxes of France (the previous Trebuchet movement was born because of this), the right to mine minerals, the right to mint currency, he was even more unwilling to give up, so he could mortgage too little- But Fontainebleau could, as soon as they heard that the king was willing to mortgage Fontainebleau, these merchants immediately became generous, no, Fontainebleau did not mean much to the merchants, but even if Louis was beheaded by the people like Charles I, the kings and governments after him would do whatever it took to buy it back......

But now it seems that Louis's head can stay on his neck for decades, and Fontainebleau was only briefly held in the hands of the merchant in the contract, and there was only time to worry about the battle in Amsterdam - even if the Dutch gathered the remaining land army, that is, more than 8,000 people, in Amsterdam, they would not be able to resist the muskets and artillery of the French king, and even their last hole cards- The plot to break the barrage and make Amsterdam an ocean, to thwart the French invasion, and perhaps even to crush the French army, has been leaked by a naïve and ignorant, nay, it should be said, an arrogant woman to the king's emissary, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld.

"Bang Tang. He shouted.

Bang Tang immediately appeared, "Your Majesty, what's the matter?"

"Go and invite Madame de Lavallière to my bedroom. "The king said that Bontang took the order, and Madame de la Vallière pushed open the door in a few minutes, and entered, she had been summoned to Naarden by Louis only a few days before, and as soon as she came, as the first lady of the royal family, she had the closest room to the king, but there was no joy on her face, she had followed the king for so many years, and their most intimate behavior was only lying in the same bed, she did not know who to hate, the gentle but cold king, or the despicable Marie Mancini, or herself who waited with a glimmer of hope.

"Sit down, Louise. The king said. After a moment of silence, Louis suddenly asked, "What did those Bohemian witches promise you at that time?"

Madame Lavallière shuddered slightly, but fortunately she was sitting in her chair and not holding a glass in her hand, so she did not lose her temper - she thought that she was just ...... At least compared to Marie Mancini's presumptuousness, she only used her privileges as a royal lady a little, or rather, she thought that the king still had a little affection for herself...... Just a small mistake, she thought so, until the king returned from Flanders, and the Order of Bohemian Witches did not have a single survivor to follow......

She could no longer sit still, she slipped from her chair and knelt at the king's feet, hanging her neck, Madame Lavallière, who had always been criticized by the court for her too hard and neutral countenance, but she had a delicate snow-white slender neck, and some small curls were scattered at the back of her neck, giving her a rare weakness.

"Say, you know me, Louise. ”

"They ......," said Louise dryly, knowing that the king might forgive any sin that seemed unforgivable, but there was only one thing he would never forgive, and that was to lie or conceal it from him, and that he would seldom execute someone for lying to him, but that man would never appear before him again: "They promised to give me a child." ”

"Kid?"

"A healthy child, a human child. ”

"You trust them?"

"If there is another choice. Your Majesty. ”

...... There was silence again, and Madame Lavallière was now in the mood of a criminal awaiting a verdict, if not dead, the last hope of having been annihilated.

"Do you know?" said the king, "if they lie to you, or if something goes wrong, you are forcing me to kill my own children." He said mildly and cruelly, "You know that I like children, from little Lucy, to little Louis, to Elizabeth, and any child after me, whether their mother is Mary, or you, or the queen, they are the fruit of my great tree, and although I do not have to suffer for ten months as you do, the loss of any of them will make my heart bleed." ”

"And you, Louise," he said reproachfully, "I could have had a choice, and I let you choose, I couldn't give you a child, and you wouldn't even believe me? Have I lied to you, or have you never kept your promise?"

"No, you are a good and benevolent man. Madame Lavalier said that many people in the court were jealous of her, not only because she received a title and a fief from the king, and her relatives also got official positions and jobs, but also because in the ten years after the king took office, she was the only woman favored by the king.

Even her father, Clerand, often reproached Louise for her greed, they were not werewolves in France, but outsiders who had to migrate from Serbia to them, Louis XIV, as a mortal king, had a very lenient and benevolent attitude towards them, not to mention anything else, think of Charles II— But after all this time, Madame Lavallière also realized that she wanted to bear children for the king, not for the sake of her people, as she had claimed, but out of a little jealousy in her heart, against the queen, for Marie, and even for her former master, Princess Henrietta, the Duchess of Orleans.

The king did not continue, he turned his head to look out the window, the sun was shining, but his heart was as cold and hard as a stone in the winter: "Then so be it," he said, "I am willing to give you this opportunity, even if the result may break my heart," he did not look at Madame de Lavalier's suddenly raised face, "but on the other hand, you will also complete the work I have entrusted to you— Louise, let me begin by saying that this work is not difficult for you, but it will be a great and irreparable fault morally and emotionally, and even for the future existence of your race, which you may be filled with endless regret for decades to come, until you die...... And I can't even give you much time to think. ”

"Please...... Your Majesty. ”

"The Amsterdammers have made a terrible decision to keep my army out of the city, which is to destroy the barrage and let Amsterdam be flooded again when my army enters Amsterdam, and the temperature of the sea will kill the soldiers and their courage even if there is sunshine," said the king, "but they did not know that I had learned of it—and now I need you and your people to destroy the plot." ”

"Your Majesty......"

"It seems that you have also thought that yes, even with gunpowder, it is not so easy to destroy the dike, there will be hundreds of people gathered on the dike, they are just ignorant civilians, the inner world only exists in their legends, according to the laws of the inner world, werewolves, vampires or wizards can hunt them, but they cannot be presented to them so naked - you will be exposed to countless pairs of eyes, there is nothing to hide. The king said, "I cannot put my soldiers to death for you, nor can I cover so many eyes, and from that day on you will have to disappear or die, but I can only promise you that you will receive secret shelter from the French royal family until the last werewolf dies." ”

"Asylum or captivity?" asked Madame de Lavallière, trembling.

"It seems that you have understood," said the king, with a sigh, "ma'am." ”

"Why don't you let the wizard do it?" asked Madame Lavallière again with anger, her pupils shrinking into a straight line in the sunlight, "is it because you love Mary more, and her children?"

The king did not show that she had been in her mind, but on the contrary, he glanced reproachfully at Madame de Lavalier: "No, you guessed wrong, I can tell you, Louise, why it is a werewolf, and not a wizard," he said softly, "of course, because wizards are more useful than you." ”

He didn't even bother to lie to himself, and when he realized this fact, Madame Lavallière froze to the ground, unable to make even a sound.

"But if you and I have a normal human child," said Louis, "he will be legally recognized by me, his surname will be Bourbon, he will be Monsieur Duke by birth, he will own a territory, Flanders or a royal domain other than France, he will have a prominent marriage, his wife will be not a princess but also a princess, and his children will inherit the glory of the Sun King for generations, and call me the ancestor openly until the blood is severed." ”

He bowed his head, "It's going to be a big gamble for you, and for me, ma'am." ”