When night came, Louis went to the Queen Mother's room to thank her (for the potatoes) and apologize to her, after all, his stubbornness had broken the Queen Mother's heart during the previous quarrel.

But like the past and the future, a mother never hates her child, and Queen Mother Anne had a dispute with the king only because she did not want to see her child in danger, not for power or anything, Louis fell to her knees and leaned into her arms, and her heart melted and heated like ice and snow on fire— Louis hadn't done this for several years, after all, he had an adult soul in his body, and people at this time had little idea of childhood, everything depended on the thoughts of the mother or the child herself.

"Mr. Bishop has sent me a letter," said Anne, "glad we have found a place to settle here, Louis, you are about to come of age, and my dear, I will give you a great ceremony and a feast. ”

Louis looked up from his mother's knees, and then suddenly remembered that he was indeed about to turn fourteen, but the current situation was really nothing to worry about, according to Mr. Bishop's arrangement, he would not be able to intervene in politics until he was at least twenty years old, mature enough, and he himself was not in a hurry to seize power—he had not even been able to establish his own court, and the people around him could not be trusted, and the inhuman creatures that haunted the darkness were in and out of the palace as if no one had one— Being a king is not a reason for immortality, and now everyone's eyes are on the Queen Mother and Bishop Mazaran, which is also a good thing for him.

"I'd rather have a victory," Louis muttered, "to celebrate my coming-of-age." ”

"What's so difficult about that?" said the Queen Mother immediately and generously, "I will directly order General Schomberg to go into battle, when I encounter the enemy." ”

"I'm afraid I've already met it. The king said, "On my way to you, I met a messenger, who told me that an army, led by the Viscount of Tyrrenne, was not far from us. ”

This sentence made the queen mother's eyes widen at once, which is why the king did not tell her the news as soon as she entered the door, even so, she still took out the sniffing salt with trembling hands, and sniffed vigorously a few times, a strong smell of ammonia mixed with the smell of spices, even Marie, who was standing beside the queen mother, couldn't help but make a grimace, the king pressed the queen mother's hand, "I said don't use this much," he said in an affectionate reproachful tone: "This kind of thing is very damaging to health." ”

"But there is no it," said the Queen Mother, "I will faint." She put the sniffing salt back into the small bag on her belt: "Viscount Tyrrenne, alas, I know this man, and it is not surprising that he has committed such a sin. ”

"I haven't heard that," Louis asked, "what kind of man is he?"

"He was the second son of the Duke of Sedan, and according to tradition, his brother inherited the title and land, and he served the king in the army. ”

"Then he should be loyal to us. ”

"It was," said the Queen Mother angrily, "that in 1642 his brother, the Duke of Sedan, was thrown into prison for his opposition to Richelieu, and in order to redeem his name and honour he returned the Duchy of Sedan, and the Viscount of Tirrenne, as his brother, was of course not immune to some involvement, but after your accession to the throne, the Bishop of Mazarin, in order to ease our relations, gave him the Marshal's Scepter, and gave him a reward worth ten thousand livres. ”

Louis did not refute, this is the so-called superior mentality, but in France, at least in the case of this viscount of Tyrrenne, this gesture did not work as it should, and then he thought of a possibility: "What is his relationship with the Prince of Condé?"

The Queen Mother looked a little reluctant, but said anyway: "He served in the army with Prince Condé. ”

That's right, Louis thought, there is nothing more worthy of respect and trust than a friend who has fought side by side, Viscount Tirrenne chose to stand in the side of the Prince of Condé for fear that apart from the Dukedom of Sedan, which was taken back by the royal family, his friendship with the Prince of Condé was the heaviest weight, "If I can see this general," said Louis, "I will talk to him, maybe he will change his mind." ”

This made the Queen Mother laugh, Louis was still a child after all, he did not know much about politics, and the Queen Mother thought, "If you can," she said as if she had promised a toy, "I will let him come to you." As soon as Louis left, the Queen Mother summoned Schaumberg, and General Schaumberg wondered at first why the king's attendant, Bontang, had sent him such a message, but when he saw the Queen Mother, he understood, and he respectfully accepted the Queen Mother's order, and of course, put it aside, after all, the king's will was in front of him—as a general, he did not think it was right to blindly obey the Queen Mother's orders.

At least he wouldn't command the army to rush out and fight Viscount Tyrenne.

Interestingly, before the start of the war, Viscount Tirenne's emissaries also came to meet the Queen Mother and the King, and handed over a letter from Viscount Tirenne, in which he earnestly asked them to surrender so as not to suffer unexpected misfortune, and that Viscount Tirena was willing to guarantee their safety and treat them as a king and queen mother should be. The letter was of course burned by the Queen Mother, and the King said to the messenger with a pleasant face that if the Viscount of Tyrrenne was willing to surrender, he would give him the treatment that a viscount deserved.

This veil, perhaps not entirely hypocritical, was torn apart by the real battle at dawn the next day.

The old town of Hitelle was originally a strong military fortress, and after entering the age of thermal weapons, it also had six cannons on its walls, but Viscount Tirrenne had twelve, and he ordered the sappers to build high mounds and push the cannons up the hills to the point where they could fire at the cannons on the walls.

The artillery roared, the smoke steamed, Schaumberg won the city wall thick and condescending, Tirrena won the advantage in both the number of soldiers and the artillery, under the almost non-stop bombardment of twelve guns, the ancient city wall finally exposed its weakness inside- The city was founded in 940 A.D., when there was no artillery, and as time passed, the peeling walls finally collapsed completely, revealing a gap, and the soldiers of Tyrrenne cheered, but the commanders on both sides knew that this was the beginning of the real battle.

Schaumberg commanded the soldiers to erect fortifications behind the city walls - this was again the king's suggestion, perhaps out of the child's innocence, he had the craftsmen make something similar to a wooden horse, with wheels underneath to push it along, and Schaumberg said, it was a bit like an old ramshell, because it was also a triangular prism, and under the planks were bags full of dirt, a crude fortification that would have served as a shield for machine guns that were several times more powerful even after two or three hundred years, let alone the rudimentary arquebuses of today.

The King's army hid behind such fortifications and opened fire on the rebels, who returned fire, but with little success, they themselves suffered a fatal blow, which further demoralized the already low morale - after all, they knew that they were aiming their guns at their king, and Viscount Tirrena also found out about this, but at this point, he could not retreat, but could only order his soldiers to continue to move forward, tearing through the opponent's line with flesh and blood.

At this time (about two or three o'clock in the afternoon) two three-masted boats sailed down the upper reaches of the Aisne, a very common thing, but some who were familiar with the ships would have cried out, for both three-masted ships had twelve muzzles, and the windows of the muzzles had been opened, and the muzzles were facing the rebels outside the old town of Hetale.

Without waiting for others to notice, the muzzles of those black holes were filled with dense fires that can only be seen in purgatory, and they did lead people to hell, Viscount Tyrrenne's army was unable to move an inch in front of them, flesh and blood flew in the back, the soldiers were screaming and running around, hoping to get rid of this screeching net, and although the officers tried to maintain order, they soon became powerless, and just when everyone in the rebels was desperate, the shelling suddenly stopped.

The battlefield was suddenly silent, and at first there were one or two muskets, which were gone after a few minutes, and only the wounded soldiers were still crying and groaning in misery, and the place where the fire was still crackling and burning, and the smoke was rising, but as if God had reached out and told them to stop, they all stopped, and they were all changed from beasts to man.

Then Viscount Tirenne saw an officer come out of the fortifications only a hundred feet from him, and he raised his hand lest his soldiers go off because of their nervousness, a man he did not recognize, but who must have been younger than him, and who did not show a look of fear even in the face of hundreds of muskets.

He walked towards Viscount Tyrenne, and Viscount Tyrenne walked towards him, and although they did not know each other, as soon as they met, they knew that the other was his adversary.

"Fortunately!" said the younger of them, Schaumberg, as he took off his hat and waved it, bowing to Viscount Tyrenne.

"Fortunately!" said Viscount Tirrenne, and although his army had only been destroyed by this man, he had maintained the proper demeanor and mind of a duke's son, and the fire burned in his eyes, but not in his words and deeds.

"Friedrich Schaumberg. "Someone said so.

"It's not a French name. Viscount Tirene said: "You are a foreigner. ”

"Yes, a foreigner is guarding the king of the French, while a Frenchman is attacking the king's army. Schaumberg said.

"That's because the king has done something wrong. "And I have come to ask him to correct this mistake." ”

"Cannons and muskets?"

"If the king is willing to listen to other means of counsel. Viscount Tirrene said stiffly.

Such words undoubtedly made General Schomberg angry, and although he had not been in contact with Louis for so long, he had to say that the young king had done as much as he could, "Do you know who ordered me to stop the shelling?"

Viscount Tyrrenne was reluctant to answer, but he also knew that such struggles were useless, so he said, "Your Majesty." ”

"Your Majesty the King of France," said Schaumberg, saluting respectfully, "He asked me to ask you if you would like to surrender." ”

"I'm not at the end of my rope yet. Viscount Tirrena said.

"But the king did not want to see another Frenchman die," said Schaumberg, "whichever side he said, it was his people, and God had appointed him to rule over them, so he cared for their lives as if they were his own children." ”

Viscount Tyrene did not speak, and Schaumberg glanced at him and walked back.

Only Viscount Tirrenne knew that he had been defeated, defeated.

Viscount Tyrenne's army retreated and camped on the bank of the river, not caring that the two three-masted ships were only half a river away from them, Viscount Tyrrenne sat on a large rock, looking at the dark river in a daze, and an officer whom he trusted brought him a cup of hot tea, which he held in his hand and did not drink it: "What are the soldiers saying?"

The officer did not answer him.

Viscount Tirrenne had found the answer in his silence.

——————

Early the next morning, the Viscount of Tirenne came to the city gates and surrendered to the king.