Barras, if anyone remembers him, was once the Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition in Paris, but at the time of the first Fronde riots, because of the conflict between the Church of Rome and the King of France, he accepted bribes from the Church, betrayed the King and the Bishop of Mazarin with the idea of becoming a bishop, even an archbishop, or even a cardinal, and came to Rome. It can be said that without the preparation of Bishop Mazaran, without the young but determined Elelius, without the brave little witch Mary, without those loyal musketeers, this article could have come to an abrupt end in the first chapter.

But after this lord came to Rome, he did not get what he was promised, and how much effort did the Church of Rome expel the extraordinary from their ranks, and how could it be so easy to let a grand inquisitor become their colleague? At that time, the pope was still Urban VIII, and then four popes were replaced in succession, but he was still forgotten, and lived on the ground floor of Castel Sant'Angelo with the monks of Rome, eating dry bread and drinking water, and every day he either prayed or trained, just waiting for a call— How could Barras accept such a cruel truth, if the monks who had been domesticated by the Church for a long time were willing to endure such a drive?

He's a powerful monk, of course, but so what? The servants of the devil, the wizards, are not as rampant as they were hundreds of years ago, and the church—not necessarily them, or more directly—he, they have in their hands monks and wizards, and the difference between the two is not very great...... Barras was in his forties when he left Paris, and now he was almost seventy years old, and he had despaired, cursed, and finally numb.

It was none other than the cardinal chief who saved him, and when he was summoned by this lord, he was very surprised, because he could not think of why he wanted to see him, and of course, he had to thank him, because it was this lord who freed him from the cage where he did not see the light of day, and gave him the position of bishop, although this bishop had no diocese, but he was still extremely excited, and this was what he expected, peaceful, without any waves, rich and full life, which every clergyman could enjoy, what he and his colleagues in the Inquisition, the people of the inner world, could never touch。

Of course, the lord was not so lenient as to waste the position of a bishop, and Barras soon learned that the head of the cardinal, the closest to the papal throne, was very unpleasant with the current Pope Clement X, even to the point of turning his face directly, and as soon as he saw Ballas, he asked him how many extraordinaries he could subdue for himself, and after a moment of silence, Barras told him that the stubborn and ignorant monks could hardly be subdued— Before being driven out, Barras calmly stated the best solution - since he could not be subdued, then it was better not to be subdued.

By the way, he had already been to Nancy and met Elarius, who had been furious with jealousy by the favor he had received from the King of France.

Now that I think about it, maybe he was really crazy.

As soon as he returned, he immediately poisoned the twenty-seven monks left behind in Castel Sant'Angelo, and then returned to the island of the Japanese Islands where his people were, and quickly sold the entire island of the Japanese Islands to the cardinal chief, it is difficult to say whether the cardinal chief had such intentions in the first place, but Baras finally got paid off this time, and finally put on the bishop's shawl.

It's just that he probably didn't expect that he had only been quiet for a few years before he heard such a sentence - "Ballas, you go back to Paris." ”

——————

Fortunately, this time Ballas did not have to return to Paris as a lost dog, and the cardinal head gave him the status of an envoy of the Church, who bypassed Sardinia from the Tyrrhenian Sea, crossed half of the Mediterranean by boat, landed in Marseille, and then traveled overland to Paris.

Of course, Barras was reluctant to go to Paris, not to mention that the whole of France had become the Sun King's confiner, the Bishop of Rome had no power in Paris, and the cardinal chief was interested in making him work for Louis XIV - he guessed that the Lord must have had some secret deal with the King, but it was not an option for him, he had almost no way out, but he himself felt embarrassed to let him return to Paris at such an age and status, to return to the King of France, especially when he knew that the Sun King was very generous to Elarius.

The island of Gayora, where the Elelius lived, was now the fief of Louis XIV's illegitimate son, the Duke of Colonna, and Elarius had completely submitted to Louis XIV, who had turned his back on Louis XIV and almost let his majesty die before he could grow up in his most critical moments.

But that's probably what the cardinal chief would expect, he wouldn't send a monk or bishop who might be bribed by Louis XIV, but would Barras, even if the Sun King said he was not guilty of the past, would he naively believe and accept it?

Bishop Barras couldn't help but feel sad when he thought about it, his journey at sea was peaceful, he hoped that a storm or pirates would delay his meeting with Louis XIV, but unfortunately the Mediterranean Sea was about half an inland sea, and there were very few hurricanes that delayed sailing, and as for pirates, after Louis XIV re-established the French navy, what could they use to sharpen their swords but pirates? Whether British, Italian, or Ottoman, they either fled or danced a dance of death on the gallows between the reefs – Ballas saw some.

As a papal envoy, he was naturally warmly welcomed by the mayor and citizens of Marseille, which made him feel much better, but unlike what he remembered, the city had probably never been so clean— He suspected that people were going to sweep the streets overnight in anticipation of him, and he later learned that Marseille had set up a health department ten years ago in accordance with the King's latest law, and they were responsible for recruiting workers to carry garbage, sweep the streets, and have the power to punish those who defecate and litter, and even the most famous fish market and slaughterhouse in Marseille had been moved outside the city, and the city was connected to the water.

"It's going to cost a lot of money. Barras couldn't help but ask, and this Department of Health ...... If it really wants to run for a long time, it will also need a sum of money.

The question briefly puzzled the mayor of Marseille for a moment, yes, in France, the types of taxes have always been uncertain, because in the Hundred Years' War with England, the King of France took the power to make tax laws from parliament and the courts, but basically there are mainly these kinds of taxes— Military service tax, poll tax and recitation tax, as well as road construction levy tax and salt tax, among the above taxes, the poll tax was originally paid by every class, but later because the church used a sum of money to buy out the tax payment, the nobles also followed, and the only people who had to pay the tax were still commoners.

So the first thought that poured into Barras's mind was whether the king had set up such a department to increase the types of taxes, but when he mentioned this, the mayor said that the king did not increase taxes because of this, "Our Majesty is very rich. The gentleman said, "Not only did he not increase the tax, but he also reduced the poll tax for a year." This made the farmers and workers, who had almost been out of breath before, grateful to Dade.

As for the Department of Health, "that's the King's officer," the mayor rightly said, "of course the King is responsible for paying them." ”

Barras could hardly believe that, let alone the King of France, as far as the families he had seen in Rome, the first thing to suffer in the event of a fight would be the artisans and peasants who had to depend on them for their livelihood, for they needed more soldiers, muskets and cannonballs, but what about the money?

If they lose the battle, and the chieftain is like the knight's ransom, he will be taken away from the commoners, and if he wins? Then will the nobles build themselves a palace, or hold a grand banquet and jousting tournament, prepare a dowry for their daughters, and so on, but what will they do for the people? God, they are born to serve the high-ranking ones, and they are lucky enough to have food and clothing, and they want a spoonful of soup from the lord's plate?

Barras did not understand why the king cared about the hygiene of Marseille, which was far from Paris or Versailles, and that he could drive the poor people away from him, even if he thought they were too stinking. He fell asleep with this thought, and was awakened at three or four o'clock in the morning, and he opened the window and looked out, and in the churning sea fog, he saw a group of people with brooms, and for a moment he thought he had seen a group of wizards, but they soon began to put down their brooms and began to sweep the streets.

Not only did they sweep the streets, but they also washed the roads with water, and by the way, the streets and alleys of Marseille were no longer covered with dust and mud, they were now gray-black mortar roads, flat and neat, and there were sewers on both sides, and the sewers were supposed to be upside-down latticework, Barras did not look closely, but he could see that the water was going down very quickly, and he thought that when the rain poured in Marseille again, the people here would be protected from flooding.

The movements of these men were extremely skillful and swift, and some of them rushed ahead of the sweepers, drew their cowhide bows, and struck the small fruits on the window near the window, which Barras did not understand at first, but soon he heard the voice of the husband or the children in the room urging him to get up, and it turned out that they were also doing the work of calling the early man, and the fruit fell from the window to the ground, and was immediately swept away.

Barras also noticed that many people in Marseille actually used glass windows, and he had seen many mansions in Rome have glass windows, and even several churches have changed glass windows, which are said to be French glass, and the price of glass is so low that even these ordinary people can afford it?

He didn't have the heart to go on sleeping, so he lit the candles—all of them had glass shades, so beautiful and bright, no worse than those in Rome, and he took out a piece of parchment and wrote a few lines on it, which was still a habit he had cultivated in Rome, and he had to write down something every day, even if it was just a trivial matter. But he had only written a few words to-day, and he heard a great commotion outside, and he endured it for a while, and finally sent the priest beside him to ask who was shouting outside.

Soon it was quiet outside, and the priest came back to say that it was a group of Huguenots preparing to leave Marseille.

"Leaving Marseille?" asked Barras in surprise, "are they leaving France?"

"Perhaps," said the clergyman, gloating, "but Louis XIV had decreed that the Huguenots would not be allowed to leave France easily, and they were forbidden to board the ships, and were now being escorted to Orleans." ”

The mayor of Marseille said indignantly that he really didn't understand how these Huguenots were unwilling to accept the king's kindness, and to be honest, Catholics didn't like to see Huguenots, and Huguenots didn't like to see Catholics, and now that the king had prepared a good place for them, why didn't they want to move there?

Because of the St. Bartholomew massacre, of course, Barras said in his heart.

The Saint-Bartholomew massacre also used the wedding of a princess to a king as an excuse, and Louis XIV did not even have such an excuse, and it is no wonder that the Huguenots feared that once they moved to the Orleans district, the king's army would pounce on them like a vicious wolf and devour them completely.

But what the current Sun King wanted to do, it was difficult to do it, when Barras's convoy was going to Paris, he saw the group of Huguenots on the flat avenue, it is estimated that the mayor of Marseille used a lot of carriages, they were old men, children, and women, walking on their feet, I don't know when they will have to get to Orleans, it can be seen that they are all small and rich, and can buy food and water from the nearby villages.

Barras did not think that Louis XIV had asked the pagans to move to Orleans only for the purpose of executing them, and that if that were the case, they would have been sunk directly into the sea in Marseille, but since there had not, the king must have had other intentions, and he guessed for a while, and he could not help but close his eyes slowly, he had been awakened very early yesterday, and then he had presided over a mass (at the request of the mayor), and he was already at such an age...... If it was the original avenue, because it was overgrown with weeds and potholes, he would not have fallen asleep so easily, but now the avenue was like an unfolded ribbon, and the slight and regular shaking of the carriage made him a little sleepy.

But there always seemed to be something that could not get along with Baras, and he was half-asleep when he heard a sharp noise.