The people of Karnak had to set out in the stars and moons, and they put all the value and the things that kept them alive on the wagons, on the backs of the horses, the donkeys and the mules, on their shoulders— There were only four carriages, and only the mayor's carriage was the one with carriages and luggage racks, and perhaps out of a sense of duty, perhaps out of guilt for not being able to resist the French, the mayor gave up the carriage to two pregnant women who were about to give birth, and to the old priest of the town, who was not only approaching seventy years old, but also gave up two open-top carriages belonging to the church's property, the kind that more akin to horse-drawn flatbeds.

The last carriage belonged to the town's merchants, and his carriage was the largest of all, as he often had to bring in goods from outside and sell the town's catch or handicrafts – Karnak was also a sacred place, and people here often picked up fallen stones to carve into crosses or icons for sale.

At this time the sky was still dark indigo, and in the moonlight the scenery was black and white, only where there were torches there was a little color, and the mayor looked over, and everyone's faces were full of sorrow and anger, and he turned his head, and beside him was the merchant Fernand, who was a small man, and his skin was as dark and rough as that of other people on the seashore, and only a belly about the size of a pregnant woman in labor could indicate that he had consumed more Brittany salty cream, shortbread, Blue lobster and apple sparkling wine, he stood beside the mayor, grimacing, rubbing his strange Brittany hat in his hands.

His two sons and three daughters were hurrying around the crowd, counting the numbers, and the wise would not dare to bargain with a king, but there were always foolish people who thought they were different, and the children of Vernan, who had all learned to count and write in Huguenot-Protestant schools, had done the best to count and tell if all had left their houses.

Soon, Fernand's son and daughter returned, and not so surprisingly, there were only fifteen hundred and thirty people present, and a few hundred others apparently intended to gauge the patience of the king of France, and the mayor pursed his lips, he was too tired to have any strength, as he and his son had shouted, if the king of France really intended to make Karnak a bloody warning, then they might have to die without even seeing the king's shadow.

A painful death, as a traitor, it is impossible to be simply hanged or beheaded.

The mayor of the town can be said to be the lowest-ranking administrator in this ruling system, but as long as he is a person who stands in a high place, he will know the tricks of power well, he will not care what method his townsman uses to expel the outcasts, and the difficult road Yi XIV will care about one or two...... Even a few hundred Bretons?

Speaking of which, His Majesty was willing to give them a whole night's time, which was forgiving enough, and the mayor of the town thought of this, and immediately took action, and he took the guards of the town with him—they were only when they were needed, and at other times they were ordinary farmers and fishermen, all of whom were young and strong young men, headed by his son, who liked to make trouble, and his eyes were red, and he looked unwilling, but he also knew the priority of things under his father's teaching.

Unless they were willing to watch those people die, they would have to pull them out.

In fact, not everyone is a stubborn fool, some are just lucky, such as the family with several children, who will be very small, and need to be carried and carried around to move around, and the poor couple who are too old to stand up, and who have no relatives, and the blind, the lame, and the unlucky who are feverish, and some of the little assets that cannot be taken with them - such as the owner of the only tavern in the town, whose property is wine, and these things cannot be carried away without ten wagons.

"And," he said, "even if you are French, you have to drink." He thought the worst thing he could have been robbed of by the French, but at least he could still watch his house and his workshop.

"If that's the case," said the mayor mercilessly, "the musketeer will tell me that all the Bretons are going to get out of here, except for a tavernkeeper and his fellows." ”

The tavernkeeper smiled wryly, and he lifted the package—it seemed that he was not unprepared, and as he left, he touched each barrel lovingly, as if it contained his children, "I hope they just drink." He said.

Apart from these people, the most troublesome are the old men, who think that they can go to God at any time, so let them die in their own houses, and no one can try to drive them away, not even the king of France.

"But the priest went with us," said the mayor of the town, who did not want to say more, these people were fools who wanted to make a gamble with the King of France: "No one will make you a sacrament on death, do you want to suffer in purgatory?"

These people, as well as the immobile, the disabled and the children who were too young, the children could be stuffed into the gaps in the carriage, the others were allowed to walk in the carriage, and there were two old men who could not move and were not pleasant, and the mayor pulled a small tattered sampan behind his carriage and let them sit in it and be dragged along.

In the darkness, whispers and curses—even against the mayor—never stopped, perhaps because of distrust or rebellion, the procession moved unusually slowly, and if anyone urged them, they shouted that it was not yet time-bound. But this soon disappeared, and at the time of the mayor's pocket watch, which Fernand had brought back from Paris, pointed to two o'clock and thirty, all heard the sound of horses' hooves rumbling like summer thunder, and they saw in the moonlight columns of silhouette-like horsemen passing between heaven and earth, and their direction was Carnack, the town and the stone henge, which lasted at least half an hour.

After silence returned, the mayor squirmed his parched lips, trying to say something, but couldn't...... Then they moved a little faster, and at nearly four o'clock they had probably only walked a little more than halfway, and the mayor's heart burned, and from his carriage came a groan of pain—one woman was about to give birth, and the other, not knowing whether she was frightened or driven, cried along.

Fortunately, the women of the town never needed doctors and midwives to give birth, and the older women could act as both, but then they had to stop, some were sent to fetch water, some needed to collect firewood, the mayor of the town clenched his fists, and Fernand was asking his daughter to bring some clean cotton cloth, and his heart sank when he saw him like this.

Before he could make an inquiry, a haughty figure stepped through the morning mist into the makeshift camp: "Why did you stop?" asked the young French officer.

"Two women are about to give birth. The mayor said, "Please be lenient, and your loyal majesty, for this is not something we can do." ”

"You're right," the officer agreed, but before the mayor could rejoice, he smiled contemptuously and indifferently, "It seems that this is God's will, these two Breton children are destined to have no chance of witnessing the supreme glory, take them on, Mayor Town, if you do not arrive at our appointed place on time, then you have more than that." ”

The mayor of the town grabbed his son's arm sharply, and the young man, who was about the same as the king's musketeer, held down the dagger and almost rushed out, but his anger was immediately extinguished by the cavalry that slowly paced out of the mist, and he retreated in disgrace, and there was a cry from the carriage, and the stopped team set off again, and the French cavalry followed them all the time, like an invisible whip, and everyone could only close their mouths and run forward desperately, their throats full of sweet and fishy taste, but perhaps God forbid, they stubbornly supported to the wasteland at the end of the peninsula。

The musketeer snorted softly - His Majesty had ordered early in the morning that no minister, nor soldier, nor even a servant, as long as he was French, was not allowed to walk outside alone, and as an envoy of the king, he acted with a squad of cavalry.

"Mr. Bourbon. A cavalryman stepped forward, "We have already counted, there are many of them, and there is one more." ”

"Maternity in the carriage?"

"Two mothers, but only one child survived. ”

"Maybe it's because God thinks there are enough Bretons. Joseph Bourbon said that as the grandson and designated heir of the Duke of Vendôme, and his mother was the sister of Marie Mancini, he knew much more than anyone else - the assassination of the king involved many people, many levels, including those who had directly or indirectly received the favor of Louis XIV, and Joseph did not know what mood they had in order to take advantage of such an innocent lady to assassinate such a good king, but this did not prevent him from being angry.

——————

"I used to want to be a good king. Louie said.

If it were possible, no king would want to be a tyrant like Nero who was ridiculed and hated, but only an emperor with a noble and holy reputation like Trajan and Hadrian, although Louis said that the curse of the enemy is the best praise for the king, but when he put it into action, he still took into account the feelings of each class as much as possible- He deprived the nobles of their lands and armies, but he also gave them back official positions and money, he asked merchants to do things for him, but he never delayed or deny debts as other kings did, he showed great tolerance even with pagans, whether Protestants such as the Huguenots or the Ottoman Turks, and even those who almost became acting kings, such as Condé and Prince Conti, he did not hesitate to lift them up and use them.

This kind of thinking and practice has won him the loyalty of countless people, but it has also made some people mistakenly believe that they can test the king's bottom line again and again, and they don't need to pay a heavy price anyway.

When he realized this, Louis's heart first swelled up not with anger, but with exhaustion, and he felt a deep boredom that Mary had left him forever, as if taking with him the most important part of his body, what he had not been able to enjoy but had hoped for...... Those pure, warm, lovely things...... It's all gone.

He had thought about how to deal with these stubborn Bretons, gentle, step-by-step, putting himself in their shoes, and so on, and so on.

But he can also ......

Get away with murder.

Louis couldn't help but laugh at the thought of this. "Alright," he said, turning to the Duke of Orleans beside him, "let's get off the boat." ”

The people of Karnak were driven to the wasteland overnight, but the king's party did not set out until noon on the third day, and even if they were transferred to a third-class battleship, the height of the ship did not allow them to leave directly, and in the past passengers who wanted to leave such a huge ship relied on small boats, and the soft ladder was lowered from the side of the ship, and they climbed into the small boat one by one, and then the boat went to the dock, and the whole process of disembarking was over. But this would undoubtedly damage the majesty of the Sun King, so the officials of the port of Navarro, at the behest of the French, built a wooden pavilion on the wharf, the height of which was flush with the side of the ship, and the middle was linked by chains and planks, and became a wide air pontoon, and the pontoon and the pavilion were wrapped in glittering silk, and a large canopy of colorful ribbons was used, and the flag of the Sun King hung down from a high place, and the swallowtail of the flag was adorned with heavy golden tassels, which pierced the eyes of every Breton in the sun.

Louis XIV must have been ahead of everyone, behind him was the Duke of Orleans, followed by a large group of hot dignitaries, when the king walked down the stairs with his cane, looking at the deep dent left by the tip of the cane on the crimson silk carpet, Viscount Arthur and others who came to greet him could not help but wonder if the rumor was true, they did not dare to look up at the king at will— The Viscount had dared to vacillate between the English and the French because Louis XIV had always been very gentle with his opponents, and he seemed willing to give them a chance as long as they were not morally corrupt or stupid.

Charles II, who had more than a hundred heads of MPs in Westminster Abbey and swayed in the wind with their betrayed Oliver Cromwell, was obviously more dangerous, so he was more inclined to Charles II's secret mission at the time, perhaps with the right handling, the Bretons would not only regain their autonomy, but also regain their independence.

But this ridiculous idea was soon shattered by the king's army, and when Louis XIV no longer wanted to consider the people of Brittany as subjects, they had to deal with things as terrible as Louis's former enemies, or more terrible, because they had no real military power, which had long since been exhausted by Charles VIII and Louis XII, and the revolt before Louis came to power was ignored even by Bishop Mazarin, let alone the current Sun King.

"What is this?" asked Louis with interest, and in addition to Viscount Arthur and other Brittany nobles, there was also a group of prisoners in a prison cart.

"A bunch of fraudsters. Viscount Arthur said, "They claim to be messengers of Charles II, but they have no letters of appointment or other legally valid documents." ”

These were the members of Charles II's secret mission, and in addition to the devil's servants who had no news after stepping into the Lost Forest, there were also a few ordinary people in the mission, and when Louis XIV's army surrounded Rennes, Viscount Arthur immediately made a choice.

"Do you want me to judge them?" is not unprecedented, because according to tradition, the person with the highest status automatically becomes the highest judge of the circuit court, usually Viscount Arthur, and now of course the king.

"Let us follow the law," said the king kindly, "and the fraudster should first have the forged hand cut off and then hanged." ”