Chapter 164: The Hofburg (2)

  Not to mention how the Prince of Conte was guilty of the hygiene of the Austrian inns, and the hospitality he received when he arrived in Vienna was also expected by him, to put it simply, that the Austrians were neither willing to treat a Frenchman with sincerity, nor did they have the conditions to make the Prince feel at home, and their court still maintained the habit of dumping dried flowers and plants on the ground to hide traces of feces and urine, and although the drapery was embroidered with the coat of arms of gold and silver thread, that is, the black double-headed eagle against a golden background, a closer look reveals that the tassels are densely covered with dust, and there are no bathrooms in the rooms of the palace, only crude ones"Prayer room", as soon as he saw this, Prince Conte immediately felt a chill on his buttocks.

  It was customary and traditional for the French envoys to be delayed for several days before they could see the Archduke of Austria and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but this time the Prince of Conte had a special mission, which Leopold I knew well, and he was not willing to accede to Louis XIV's "request" Because this also means that he is acquiescing in the division of Spain by France, but he is also well aware that the papal theologians have determined that in the marriage contract with Princess Teresa of Spain, King Philip IV of Spain has indeed failed to fulfill the agreement, and the queen's dowry worth 500,000 livres has never been delivered to Louis.

  But it would be nonsense to say that Leopold I had no plans to annex Spain, after all, he was the one who insisted that his wife Marguerite never give up the right of inheritance before fulfilling the marriage contract, and now he and King Louis of France have the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, which is now the two sisters of Carlos II, one of them never gave up the right of inheritance, and the other is because the contract was first broken by Philip IV, and he and Louis are two wolves, just to see who is more fierce and cunning。

  In addition, Leopold I and Louis were of the same generation, and they were only two years apart, and there was still a kinship, so it was impossible for the young people not to compare themselves with each other, so although Leopold I allowed Prince Conte to live in Hofburg, not because he valued the envoy very much, but because he intended to show his strength to the prince and envoy of France, like an eagle proudly spreading its wings in front of the enemy, not only that, when Prince Conte came to see Leopold I at the appointed time, he was told that the king suddenly became interested in hunting and went hunting with a group of ministers。

  If it had been the Prince of Condé standing here, he would have turned and gone, but the Prince of Conte only smiled and said that he was willing to wait for the king, so the king's chief chamberlain arranged for him to serve him, and he was allowed to walk around the square in front of the audience hall, which the Viennese proudly called the Emperor's Square— The Hofburg, like the Louvre, has also undergone many renovations and expansions, surrounded by a curved complex of buildings in front of a vast cross garden, behind the continuous dense forest, if Prince Conte has not seen Versailles under construction before coming, he may also think that this palace complex is indeed magnificent, but unfortunately he has seen Versailles, the Hofburg will inevitably be overshadowed.

  However, it is said that Leopold I also had plans to build a new palace on the left side of the old palace, and then connect the two into one, and divide it into an inner palace, the inner palace is used for lodging and living, and the outer palace is used to receive envoys, meet with the governor to deal with state affairs, and so on.

  But just one look at the location of the new palace, Prince Conte laughed in his heart, even if the new palace is completed, it will not be as magnificent and vast as Versailles.

  Now Prince Conte has some understanding of His Majesty's intentions, and the reconstruction and expansion of the old palace can indeed save a lot of costs and troubles, but the old atmosphere of the old palace will inevitably spread to the new palace, which is really not as comfortable and happy as a complete, new and bright new palace- And Prince Conte wanted to advise Leopold I to renovate the original rooms of the Hofburg rather than to expand the new palace, he had thought that the room he had been assigned was completely out of the Austrians' trickery with the French, who knew that when he walked through the corridor, he found that the other rooms were not much better, the staircase and the corridor had no niches, no domes, no place to place statues, the wall lamps were dim, the rooms were narrow, and the corners of the carpet were completely different from the color of the center point— The corners are showy, the center is dim, and it is clear that it has not been changed for a long time.

  Except for the cross garden in front of the square (that is, a cross-shaped path reserved among the vegetation), the dense forest behind the palace was not carefully tended, the flowers were messy, the branches were twisted, and the vines were crawling everywhere, and he saw startling thorns— Poor Prince Conte was completely unaware that he was only spoiled by his clean-minded and somewhat obsessive-compulsive king, and in fact the concept of pleasure was not so clear or valued in this era, or in many places they did not have this consciousness and certainly would not do it.

  Not to mention Austria, even the people of France, the popularization of knives and forks was only after the daughter of the Medici family married into the French royal family.

  Louis, for the sake of an empty treasury, consciously spread the idea of pleasure in time from Paris to everywhere, and the impetus from everywhere once again contributed to the progress of Paris, and all the changes came so fast and violently that even if the Austrians were willing to accept the French fashion, they could not have possessed all that the Parisians had so quickly.

  Prince Conte's demands did not reach the eyes and ears of the Austrians, and really, they preferred to think that the ignorance of the French envoys was only intimidated by the height and grandeur of the Hofburg, and their heads were unconsciously raised and a proud smile on their lips, and at that moment they heard the trombone blow outside the door, and the piccolo chirping, "Ah, your majesty has returned." So they said, so Prince Conte went with them to meet them outside the door, and it was Leopold I and his ministers, all dressed in Spanish attire, mainly black—black tunics, trousers and leather boots, white leggings, and lace only at the edges and neckline of their coats. The wide-brimmed hat he wears is also gray and black, with an eagle's feather stuck in only one corner.

  Leopold was dressed like a triumphant general, with a golden shoulder strap (and the only place where it was colored) and a short sword and a short-handled musket hanging from his belt, and two young men who knew at a glance that they were servants of the king rode a horse and led a horse, both horses were full of prey, from colorful pheasants to well-furred hares, and a fat stadt, and when he saw Prince Conti, Leopold I jumped off his horse with only one jump, and landed steadily, "Welcome!" He had met Prince Conte, and after the second Fronde riot, both Conte and Conte were working in the Spanish army, and Conte came to see him, but at that time Conte and now Conte were two people at all.

  To say that Leopold I, who Conte saw at that time—when he was only a crown prince, a child, and even weaker and more humble than Leopold I today, Leopold I today seemed particularly excited, strong, and even a little arrogant, and he raised his hand to Prince Conte, and said with pretense of intimacy: "Alas, please stand here, my dear friend," he said, and walked inside with Conte: " I may hate all the French, but you may be an exception, and your brother, for you used to stand by my cousin's side and fight with him against the French. ”

  This sentence really made Prince Conte cry and laugh, and he couldn't help but be vigilant, it seems that this Majesty is not an easy person to get along with, he took the opportunity to bow his heart to open the distance with Leopold I, and looked at this Majesty quietly from the corner of his eye, to say that this Majesty is two years younger than his good king, but judging from the face, Leopold I has completely faded the youthful atmosphere of a young man, and is a complete adult- In contrast, Louis was sometimes a little boyish – his countenance (especially his chin) and somewhat rickety body also showed hints of Habsburg hereditary disease.

  After Colbert founded the Académie Française, in order to be able to talk to the king, Prince Conte also attended several salons in the academic world, but he could understand very little, but he remembered one thing very well, that is, the harm of consanguineous marriage to the offspring, after all, the examples of stillbirth, malformations and genetic diseases are really shocking.

  And as a king, there is no need to say how important the heir is, and now his king and Leopold I are so anxious that they don't even bother to put a mask on their faces, isn't it because the envoys saw the new king of Spain, Carlos II, who was almost the same age as Louis XIV when he ascended the throne, but looked no different from a baby cursed by the devil, unable to walk, unable to sit still, and unable to speak— With such a fragile young beast and only a shallow mother and an ambitious illegitimate brother by his side, the end of the Spanish Habsburgs is just around the corner.

  Oh, by the way, Prince Conte said in his heart that the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire has no heirs either.

  ————

  Prince Conte had no illusion that Leopold I, as soon as he heard of his intentions, read the letter of their king, and happily agreed, that Louis XIV's proposal was to divide Spain with Austria, but if it were possible, Prince Conte would have assured that his good king would intend to swallow all of Spain and its possessions. But it was clear that his judgment of Leopold I was correct, but not enough, and at a meeting attended by only a few people, Leopold I did not hesitate to reject the proposal of the brother-in-law, and rebuked the king of France quite harshly, because, according to his words, according to the will of God, they should have protected the weak relatives of Carlos II, and not come to plunder him, and the subject of the king of France clearly went beyond the moral boundaries of a king and the moral code of a knight. 、

  Prince Conte departed in a huff, and his requests for an audience were repeatedly denied, and after a week he wondered if he or his king had made some great mistake, such as that Leopold I was indeed a living saint......

  Of course, His Royal Highness, who was no longer good at observing words and feelings, even if only once, noticed that Leopold I was not as unscrupulous as he said, but he was a Frenchman, and the Austrians were generally hostile to the French, so there were few eyes and spies that he could use here, and he could not be sure whether Leopold I had made an alliance with Spain, or whether he was interested in joining forces with other countries, or whether he was once again with the Church of Rome. He didn't know any of this, and naturally he didn't dare to act rashly, lest he push things in an irreparable direction.

  And it was at this time that his servant said that a lady wanted to see him.

  "The lady?" asked Prince Conti.

  "That lady," replied his servant, which could easily have led his master to whip him a few times, but the servant's deliberately accentuated pronunciation made Prince Conte immediately think of a man, yes, Madame, which is pronounced Milady in French.

  "Welcome!" Prince Conti ushered her into a secret room, and then put her hand to his lips: "What kind of wind blew you here?" I have also heard of this lady, Prince Conti, who has a lowly status and has been in prison, so she cannot be recognized as a "royal lady" But she was indeed the king's favorite lady, and she had the right to see the king at any time, similar to Madame Lavallière and her brother Philippe, but Prince Conte had also heard that this lady was the head of Bishop Mazarin's secret agents, and after Bishop Mazarin's death, she was inherited by the king along with the entire network of spies.

  Milady just smiled and let His Royal Highness kiss her hand, her today was something that the little girl of the past could never have imagined—she also knew very well who gave it to her, she may have found it all out of Monsieur Bishop, but no one could compare with the power given to her by that honorable Majesty—"Your Majesty knows that you have some minor problems," she said with a smile on her hand taking Prince Conti's hand, "so let me come." ”

  Instead of feeling happy, Prince Conte felt an eerie chill. A week may seem like a long time, but given the long way and the two countries being hostile to each other, such a swift reaction can only be said that the king is afraid to keep his eyes on him.