Mr. Breland left the Richelieu House as a well-dressed and decent man, but when he returned he was in disarray, with his boots gone, sleeves alone, the buttons of his coat orphaned, and the collar of his shirt and shirt covered in blood and dirt.

He would not have been allowed to see the king, but Louis stood at the window and ordered Bonton to bring him up, for he recognized the gentleman as the one who saluted him at the corner of the street.

Bontang took a few servants to scrub Monsieur Breland's face and hands, and put him in clean clothes, before bringing him to the king.

"Ah, it's you," said the king, "I see you saluting me at the corner of the street, this gentleman, you say I hired you, but I don't seem to remember it." ”

Breland was a little apprehensive at first, but when he saw Louis so kind, he calmed down considerably: "Forgive me for being rude, Your Majesty," he said, "I am mistaken, I am not hired by you, but by your kinsman, the Duke of Cornwall of England, who has several of his cronies who have remained in Ireland and asked me to bring him letters." ”

"So have you done the job, or have you not?"

"It has been done, Your Majesty," said Creland, "but Your Majesty, I have encountered something terrible not far from you, and I have to flee back and seek your refuge. ”

"This is Paris. Louis said, "It is my domain, sir, and if you are indeed a loyal subordinate of the Duke of Cornwall, I would be willing to give you some help, but may I know what is going on?"

Creran looked around, Louis nodded, and Bontang and some of the servants retreated, but six trusty musketeers and Marley did not leave.

"I met a vampire, Your Majesty. Breland said.

——

Speaking of which, Brelan was also quite unlucky, as a werewolf, he ran much faster than the best Serrafrançaine horses, so he never relied on horses on land- To-day he was going to walk out of Paris on foot, then take off his clothes in the woods, turn into a werewolf, and rush back to the port, when the road that had been relatively clear was blocked by a roaring carriage, where some of the king's opponents were hysterically shouting words bordering on blasphemy, and he did not want to clash with the irrational mob, so he turned and walked into a dark alley.

And in this street that does not see the light of day, a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat is intimately snuggling with a "famous lady", and the narrow alleyway is occupied by two-thirds of their tightly entangled bodies, Breland hesitates for a moment, sighs, and decides to take another path.

"This gentleman," said the man whose face was almost obscured by his wide-brimmed hat, "Are you passing through here?" and he said kindly, "Oh, that's our fault, I hope you will forgive us, but love always comes blindly, but we have opened our eyes now, please, please, let's give you a place, don't delay your time." ”

Breland really didn't want to delay any longer, he wanted to get back to Scotland as soon as possible, lest the Presbyterians start to swing between the Duke of Cornwall and the Lord Protector again, he looked up at the sky, and if he was fast enough, he could catch the last ship to England, so he nodded to the other man, expressed his gratitude, and walked over.

This kind of alley is only dirtier than the street, in addition to the feces, there are many rats, as well as the corpses of cats and dogs, I don't know who threw the entrails of the sea fish here, the smell is disgusting.

Breland couldn't help but hold his breath, the werewolf's keen sense of smell made his head almost crack, and he leaned sideways, walking past the man and woman, and just as they staggered by, Breland touched the woman's hanging hand—cold, stiff, lifeless.

The werewolf turned his head in astonishment, a misshapen face rapidly expanding his field of vision, sharp fangs sticking out of his cracked lips.

The thought of a vampire who dared to come out in daylight to forage for food passed through Brelan's mind, and the smell of the alley paralyzed his perception of the smell of blood, but for the vampire, he probably recognized his true identity.

They immediately scuffled together, the vampire was originally inferior to the werewolf, but Brelan did not dare to transform into a werewolf directly in the Paris neighborhood, which put him at a disadvantage.

At this time, I don't know if it was lucky or unlucky, a girl walked into the alley, she found the dead woman, and immediately screamed, and more people came, and the vampire's face distorted like a hairless bat would never make people mistake him for a human, the vampire was immediately flustered and wanted to escape, but was dragged directly into the sunlight by Brelan, and he immediately burned and turned into ashes in the wail.

But at this time, the clergy and ascetics of the Inquisition, whom Breland least wanted to see, arrived, and the inquisition had all the troops that belonged to them, and these soldiers cordoned off the neighborhood where Breland was, and even arranged for people on the roof, and then they began to examine the people in the neighborhood one by one.

This was the norm in the church and the Inquisition, and if a vampire or werewolf appeared somewhere, the area had to go through several grate-comb cleans, and it was quite effective - when he saw the priests examining everyone's fingers under the protection of the soldiers, Brelan knew something was wrong...... Although only vampires have appeared here, the church has not been exempted from the suspicion of werewolves.

Werewolves in various countries and regions have their own characteristics, but one thing they have in common is that the middle finger and ring finger of each werewolf are the same length, and although it is difficult for anyone to notice this in normal times, the priests can immediately detect the clues as long as they ask the person being examined to put their fingers together.

Brelan's hesitation outside the crowd had long since fallen into the eyes of several wary ascetics, and as soon as he turned to leave, they chased after him.

"Now they might be wandering outside the door. Breland said.

"You stretch out your hand. Louis said that Breland had to reach out to the king in the watchful eye of the musketeers, so that the king could see his hand, and that his hand was indeed as long as he said, the middle finger was the same length as the ring finger.

"You're wrong, Mr. Breland. The king said, "The Church and the Inquisition are moving quickly, and they should now be asking for an audience with Bishop Mazaran or with me." ”

He looked at Mary, "Marie, I have a request for you now, I don't know if you can do it." ”

The king quickly made his suggestion, and Mary immediately ran back to her room and brought a bottle of potion.

"Drink it now. Louis said, "If you want to believe me." ”

"Of course I'm willing to believe you. Breland said that he had observed Louis for several days, and that the young king of France was not the kind of man of bad character that was common, and that he would not deceive him with lies, even if he did not want to shelter him.

After the werewolf finished speaking, he drank the entire bottle of potion.

————————

A few minutes later, Bishop Mazaran came to the king with two black-clad priests and two ascetics and asked him for permission to hunt down a dangerous werewolf here.

Louis agreed, but, "Don't disturb my mother, my brother, and my guests. ”

One of the clergy immediately said that they would only look at it, recite a few verses, and sprinkle a little holy water, so that not only would they not disturb the Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou, but also the guests of England, and they would be blessed.

"It would be better," said the king, "that you may be able to join us for dinner." ”

The clergyman was even somewhat flattered, and thanked the king for his gracious invitation, and though he and his colleagues were probably not able to get away from their heavy work for a while, he must sigh at the king's pious and forgiving heart, and tell him that even if he was not a king, but only an earl, a general, he had to interrupt his meal, because a man who seemed to be a werewolf had run into the courtyard, and they would not have a good face to show them, if not angry.

That being the case, the priests and ascetics were not to be too ostentatious, and they walked quickly through every room, even the Queen Mother's bedchamber - after all, they had to do it to avoid mortal danger to the royal family, but to their disappointment, the werewolves did not seem to be here.

While inspecting the chamber of the chief of the dormitory, one of the ascetics saw a giant wolf and could not help crying out, but the giant wolf did not move, and was obviously dead, and Bontang told them that it was a human wolf skin presented to His Majesty by the Prince of Condé, and that it had been placed at the foot of the throne for many days, but because he had frightened a maid some time before, the king ordered him to put it away, make a specimen, and put it in his hunting hall later.

The priests examined the giant wolf, whose fur remained as rich and heavy as before, but its eyes were dull and its muscles were stiff, and it looked as if it had been dead for some time, and the fact that the Prince of Condé had a human wolf skin was indeed registered in the Inquisition, and they told Bang Tang a few words before preparing to leave.

At this moment, one of the priests suddenly stopped: "By the grace of the Lord," he smiled and said, "we should not forget this." He offered the holy water, and sprinkled a few drops on Bontang's body, and then a few drops into the wolf's slightly open mouth, and as soon as the holy water fell into the hideous mouth, a puff of smoke immediately rose, and the priests stared at the wolf, which closed its mouth reflexively, nor twitched its muscles, nor tightened its fur—it was indeed dead, and they really walked away.

It wasn't until noon the next day that the witch's potion of feigned death had lost its effect, and Breland fell to the ground, returning to his human form, gasping for breath, his tongue was a blur of flesh and blood, but fortunately it was only a few drops of holy water, and he would soon be healed.

He hid in the Richelieu mansion for several days, until the monks of the Inquisition thought that the suspected werewolf might have escaped from Paris, and he left in the night, but the stay was not without its gains, at least the Duke of Cornwall had the support of King Louis of France, and although both the Netherlands and Spain had made some kind of agreement with the traitor Cromwell, at least he had a strong supporter.