"I still say the same old saying," said the Duke of Saint-Simon, "I don't want to do anything." ”

"Herein lies the problem," said the Duke of Vendôme, "that you have stolen the king's authority, and have not returned it. ”

"I built it with one hand and one foot," said the Duke of Saint-Simon with displeasure, "and not even the king has the right to take it away." ”

"I wish you had dared to say that to Louis XIII fifty years ago. The Duke of Vendôme paused his cane: "It was indeed a good opportunity at that time, when the king's enemies had rioted and conspired against him at the same time, and the personal feud between you and the Count of Xavier had created a power vacuum for a while," said the duke, "but without Louis XIII, and without the Duke of Saint-Simon, you have betrayed your king once, and now you will betray it a second time?"

The Duke of Vendôme said this because Louis XIII was to fight against the secret agent organization of the Cardinal of Richelieu, so he boldly promoted the then unknown Duke of Saint-Simon, but at that time he was just an ordinary squire, Monsieur Claude, obviously, he thought that his talent and hard work were the reason why this heavy net could finally be formed, he may have been grateful to Louis XIII at the beginning, but soon, his ambition outweighed this gratitude, and it was precisely this that the Count of Xavier saw this, so as to sow discord among the two kings- If Cardinal Richelieu had not died suddenly, and Louis XIII was anxious to rein in his power and wealth, they might have had a chance to redeem each other, but unfortunately, neither Louis XIII nor the Duke of Saint-Simon would have bowed to each other.

From Louis XIII's point of view, there was the Duke of Saint-Simon and the Duke of Xavier, and he did not think that his spies needed an indispensable leader, but the Count of Xavier did disappoint him. And the Duke of Saint-Simon at that time may have been waiting for Louis XIII to notice this mistake, and the Duke of Saint-Simon is now acting very tough, but let the Duke of Vendôme look at it, maybe he has always been immersed in a subtle regret, he probably did not expect that things would eventually evolve to the point where they could not be managed.

"You say my king, sir, that I have not yet pledged allegiance to Louis XIV," said the Duke of Saint-Simon, who was of humble birth and who often made a gesture of superiority, "and there is no betrayal or anything." ”

"But you are standing in his domain," said the Duke of Vendôme, "and your title comes from his father, and he inherited his father's crown, and you ought to bow down to him." ”

"You mean the duty of a vassal, and of course, I will do his bidding, and provide him with food, musicians, women, and soldiers, or horses, and armor, but apart from that, he must not dictate anything to me, nor will he want me to leave my fiefdom. The Duke of Saint-Simon said, with a contemptuous smile: "I am old, Duke of Vendôme, I have little interest in fat, dancing, or gambling, and I will not go to Paris, let alone Versailles." ”

The Duke of Vendôme glanced at him. He remembered that his grandson had written to him that the king had inadvertently said something to them, and he thought it was very reasonable—that is, never to think of others as fools, and that although some people are indeed stupid, there will always be smart people in the crowd, and people who can understand smart people—Louis XIV took great pains to build the Palace of Versailles like a heavenly kingdom on earth, and to turn Paris into a temple of finance and art, in large part to attract connections throughout France and even in Europa. Money and resources are gathering in these two sister-like central cities.

When reading the history books, some people may wonder how those nobles would give up their prestige status in their own territory and run to the Louvre, or Versailles as a small servant - this situation can be roughly referred to the almost devastating overthrow of small and medium-sized cities by megacities hundreds of years later - according to Maslow's theory, human needs are divided into five classes, physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs, and self-needs. In small and medium-sized cities, those who can meet the needs of the first and second class can be said to be a minority, and more bluntly, they belong to the upper class, like the princes and nobles who are clinging to their domains, but to meet the needs of the third class above, a territory that is almost impossible to change becomes a shackle to them.

In this era, even a count was limited to two or three apontes (a unit of French area, about 20-50 acres) of flat arable land and about three times the size of the arable land in the mountains or hills, the duchy, that is, the duke's domain, was ten times that of the count, and the Grand Duchy, the Grand Duke's territory was ten times that of the duke, of course, sometimes these territories shrank or "erroneous", that is, some people's territories were just empty documents.

Except for a few archdukes and dukes, one can imagine how difficult it must be for an earl, marquis, or baron, or viscount who can only guard the territory, and they can certainly kill and take the people of the territory, but except for a few eccentric ones, few people can get endless pleasure from it—the pursuit of pleasure, or further and the satisfaction of their own ambitions, that is, the pursuit of the third and fifth rank, which is impossible to achieve in those uninteresting places— But Versailles or Paris will satisfy them.

They can sell their possessions and indulge in endless comfort, luxury, and pleasure, as the Duke of Lorraine did, or they can bow their knees to the young king for the sake of their love, as the Duke of Mormatre did, and they can swear loyalty to the authority bestowed upon them by the king, as the Viscount of Tyrrenne or Grand Condé did...... But there is also a group of people, a group of smart people that we mentioned above, who sooner or later understood that Louis XIV took over the will that was passed down from Louis VI onwards, yes, since Louis VI, every king of France has been diligently seeking ways to amass royal power, and the kings before him have almost all adopted the method of "co-defeating foreign enemies", using foreign wars to strengthen royal power and weaken the princes, and they did not do it badly, at least in the Crusades, the Hundred Years' War, and the Thirty Years' War- After this series of wars, the French nobles were indeed demoralized, after all, as vassals, they did not have the right to refuse the king's demand for soldiers and armaments, otherwise the king would be able to recover their territory.

By the time of Louis XIII, Louis XIII was still fighting outside, and by Louis XIV, the young king, although he had made no excessive demands, had two rather unfavorable consequences for the nobles: first, the king's prestige had reached an insurmountable and destructive height among the people, and second, the king had built up a standing army that could easily defeat any prince or even an alliance. Just look at how difficult it was for Charles II to assemble a standing army in London, when the French nobles at that time knew that the king had mortgaged the palace of Fontainebleau for his army, it must be said that most of them had the attitude of watching a good show.

Why was Bishop Mazarin so determined not to allow war against the Lowlands? It was precisely because this area was so vast and directly affected several countries that if France dared to go to war against Flanders or the Netherlands, it would be like stepping into a big quagmire, and it would not be able to get out of it without any benefit. He probably did not expect his king's student to be so unrestrained, like a daring gambler, who had exhausted all his vile means that could not be told to outsiders, and with a hot and crazy heart, he threw all his chips in the lowlands.

He won the bet.

It was a great victory, and it blinded some people, or aroused their greed, and even those who were not fond of pleasure would expect to take a part of the king's victory, and the point was, if they remained thousands of miles away from the king, who would speak of them to the king?

But there were always people who could see through these tricks, and there were people who always refused to leave the territory, even if Louis XIV had already reserved a room or even a suite for them at the Palace of Versailles.

"Then you intend to stay in your fiefdom for the rest of your life?" said the Duke of Vendôme.

"Yes, go back and tell the king," said the Duke of Saint-Simon, "that we should not disturb each other. ”

"And what about your child?" said the Duke of Vendôme, "though he is still very young. ”

The Duke of Saint-Simon was old, but his wife was still very young, and his son was surprisingly young—he was born in 75 years and was a toddler.

"He may complain," said the Duke of Saint-Simon, "but I suppose I may not hear it." ”

"Then I'll be straight to the point," said the Duke of Vendôme, "but I'm afraid it's not so simple, sir, why do you think the king would suddenly want to come on such a grand parade?"

"He's showing, power, or charisma. The Duke of Saint-Simon sighed and said, "My son is still very young, but other people's children are not small, they are all young people, power, love and money can shake them, once these young men run away with the king to Paris, Versailles, what is the use of the old fellows insisting? God knows if there will be another Duke of Lorraine." ”

"So there are people who want to thwart this parade, and you know it and you remain silent. The Duke of Vendôme said, "Are you ready to watch the king die?"

"No," said the Duke of Saint-Simon calmly, "you also said that it was just a filibuster. ”

"What did they say to you at the beginning? Did they say that they only wanted Louis XIII to suffer a little?" the Duke of Vendôme looked sarcastic: "How can you be so arrogant? You think you can control everything, how bright is the light of the Sun King, how dark are his enemies, they are jealous of him, they hate him, and they do everything in their power to make him fall......"

"I kind of don't get it. The Duke of Saint-Simon interrupted him suddenly: "Sir, you have suffered a lot from Louis XIII and Richelieu, but looking at your current words, you do love your nephew." You know what he's doing, he's deliberately depriving all nobles of their domains and their natural powers, he's asking them to submit to his feet, to be dogs and horses, and he's calling himself the Sun King, perhaps precisely because there is only one sun—he doesn't even care about the stars and clouds, and everyone is his servants and slaves, and so are you, and so are your descendants, and you've lost your land, and your titles are like bubbles in the air, what's the difference between you and the hillbillies who are complacent in vain?"

"......" Duke Vendôme was silent for a while, and then he smiled: "I really want to agree with you about this, yes, you are very right, our Majesty will probably not allow France to have a second voice." ”

"You're not going to object?"

"Why should I object," said the Duke of Vendôme, "sir, I am the Duke of Vendôme, and the son of Henry IV, but above all I am also French. ”

When the Duke of Saint-Simon heard this, he let out a sharp sneer: "I thought that only children would believe the ideas spread by the king's priests. ”

"Right thinking. The Duke of Vendôme said unhurriedly, "Perhaps you would like to see a France in disarray, so that no one will hold you accountable for your negligence and dereliction of duty, and you may even be able to use the power you have stolen for greater good, but I must advise you that the King has not let me come here without fear or hesitation, for he has three hidden forces in his hands, and do you think he would be ignorant of the conspiracy of those men?" He just didn't want to see his father's traces being wasted or misused, Duke Saint-Simon," he stood up, "Your Majesty wants me to say to you that he would be glad if you would give that little souvenir, but if not, he wouldn't care too much, for he could take it himself, very simply," he said as if speaking to himself, "you know, in addition to the king's musketeers and attendants, an army of fifty thousand men has been following him closely. ”

"Even a king," said the Duke of Saint-Simon, "does not have the power to deprive a nobleman of his assets, titles, or domains at will. ”

"Except for rebellion. "Do you think they can't find evidence?" said the Duke of Vendôme, "and he shook his head slightly, "I know you want to wait and see for a while, but I don't think our king will have much patience." ”

——————

The Grand Princess's entourage had no idea what kind of person the old man they had met in the café was, and they happily returned to the Palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, bringing with them what they thought were beautiful or delicious specialties to be presented to the king, and the Grand Princess, who felt that His Majesty would be willing to see them, because the splendid drawing boards, silky fabrics, and fat sausages were not necessary for survival, which meant that the people here would live a prosperous life and begin to pursue enjoyment.

While they were waiting in another room, they saw an old man with a white beard coming out of the king's reception room, and as soon as Joseph saw him, he jumped up, ran over and threw him around his neck, and cried out intimately, "Grandfather!"