Chapter 242 The war is over, the war begins

Varo Vesalière's admonitions to Madame de la Vallière were not all out of pity, he may have sympathized with her, but more so to complete the work entrusted to him by the king, but even so, he did not dare to let down his guard along the way, no one could know the king better than him, as he said, Louis XIV might not torture or execute those who disappointed him, as Nero or Henry VIII did, but he would never use them again, and for those of them who had no regard for their status, it would be worse than death to lose the protection and trust of the king.

Thankfully, his words had some effect, and Madame Lavallière, though still terrified of the possibility of losing her child, hesitated and made a painful compromise - Vesalius was not a threat, oh, and perhaps that was the sad thing. After she had calmed down, Louis would sometimes come to accompany her and her children, to dine with her or to Louis's office, and Madame de Lavallière to do some needlework, but it was not long in this way, and after they entered Artois, it was only ten days away from Paris, and it was because the king had sympathized with her that she had children, and slowed down the march and spent the night in the town as much as possible.

On the night before entering the province of Paris, Madame de Lavallière raised her head and looked at the king's face in the candlelight, he was so handsome, and so cold, but she could not contain her love for him: "Louis. She said.

"What?, ma'am?" asked Louie, he ran out of papers, and he rarely read them at night to protect his eyes, but they had to be dealt with as soon as possible.

"When you're in the Louvre, sometimes you do things at night, or just read," Madame de Lavallière gestured with a smile that could barely be captured: "At that time, you were usually surrounded by Mademoiselle Marie Mancini, of course, when she was the Duchess of Cologna, and occasionally the Duchess of Montpensier, and once or twice with the Princess Henrietta, who, as you may not know, I have peeped into your room countless times, fantasizing that it was me who accompanied you. ”

Louis put down the papers, "I'm not sure," he mused, "when did you fall in love with me, ma'am?" I don't think I'm the kind of person who would be favored by too many women," he opened his hands, "Look, ma'am, I am in fact a very uninteresting person, and when I was a child of five or six years old, I was the king of France, and although the Bishop of Mazarin and the Queen Mother did all the heavy work for me, I know very well that it will one day be in my hands— I knew that I had to learn, from history, from the Bible, from the people around me, and that I had little play and was silent—and I felt that if I had not been a king, the Duke of Orleans, my dear brother, I would have been more worthy of your love. ”

"Can I think you're questioning my love mixed in...... Ingredients of reality?"

"I'm not blaming you, it's human. ”

"Then you despise yourself, Your Majesty," said Madame de Lavalier, "and we are too underestimated, though it is said that we are shallow-sighted and simple-minded, and like beautiful dresses and shining jewels, and singing birds, we like young and beautiful and well-spoken people, and no, they are wrong, we revere the strong more than the pompous ornaments." ”

"I wasn't a strong man back then. ”

"The strength of the strong is not on the surface, but on the inside," said Madame de Lavallière, "and even then you still need the protection of Mr. Bishop, but you still remember to shelter the weak who hide beneath you. "Madame de Lavallière does not remember when she had the idea of hubris, perhaps because of Princess Henrietta, who is now the Duchess of Orleans, but who, at the beginning, at the behest of her brother and mother, or by her own heart, wanted to be Louis's wife— She told her maids many things about the king, and when they were children, in the difficult years of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, although the French royal family was also in a rather bad situation, Louis did do his best to help the more helpless Princess Henrietta and her mother.

It was at that time that Louise developed a curiosity about the kind Majesty, and boldly came into contact with the king at the Red Child Bazaar—she knew that her appearance was mediocre, at least not in line with people's preferences for women, but ...... If only Louie had been a hypocritical or frivolous person, then she would not have liked him for the rest of her life, and even fell in love with him deeply......

"I want to say I'm sorry, ma'am," Louis felt a slight apology at Madame de Lavallière, who felt that his feelings for him might not be for the sake of the race or something, as he thought, "I am a dull man, Louise. ”

"You just prefer to bet your emotions on your mother, your brother, your country, or your minister, your general. Madame Lavalier said quietly, "It is I who is too greedy, Your Majesty, and I have asked for too much. But ......"

"But?"

"But if you will have mercy on me, Your Majesty," said Madame Lavalier, "may I ask of you for a thing?"

"Say it, Louise. Louis said, "As long as I can do it." ”

"If it is unfortunate that we have been played by fate," said Madame de Lavalier, "then let me go with my children, Your Majesty." ”

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The last conversation with Madame Lavallière gave the king a rare gloomy look, but Madame Lavallière chose a very good timing, and the next day a large number of people appeared on the roadside, and they flocked to the roadside, shouting Long live France and long live the Sun King, such a scene had not been seen in the last triumphal - Looking at the costumes of these people, they should be just ordinary peasants and artisans, not citizens of Paris, and the messy procession and composition can also be seen that they have all come here to meet the king by themselves, their faces are red, and they are shouting vigorously, and when the king draws the curtain and waves at them, if it were not for the king's chariot and musketeers, perhaps they will untie the king's horse, lift the carriage above their heads, and carry it all the way to the Louvre.

They followed the king's chariot and army all the way to the town where the king was staying, and then they departed with regret and satisfaction, and the dignitaries of the city were greeted with great enthusiasm, and the soldiers who remained outside the city were received with great warmth and pleasure - everyone wanted to hear how they had defeated the Spaniards, the Flanders, and perhaps the Austrians and Turks...... In short, the next day, if it weren't for the strict discipline of the king's new army, many soldiers would have been indulged in the gentle countryside and unable to move.

Looking at these people, it is hard to imagine that twenty years ago, they almost sent Louis and his brother to the guillotine...... Louis remembered Madame Lavallière's words, in fact, it is not only women who admire the strong, any ordinary person will subconsciously gravitate towards a powerful being, whether it is God or a king, they desire to draw strength from these beings, to gain benefits, and peace of soul - this is understandable, but as a mortal, not God, Louis will have to bear the expectations that may be so heavy that it will make it difficult for him, but this is the path he has chosen for himself - He had to go on, not fall, and not give up.

For France, for himself, for those he loves, and for those who love him.

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The citizens of Paris were undoubtedly the most fanatical of this patriotic wave, and without waiting for the officials to tell them, they eagerly painted their houses and scrubbed the streets—that is, scrubbing, not exaggeratingly, and every family bought a large number of candles, prepared for the future Mass, and bought the latest clothes— Men and women, they were constantly exchanging news from all over the place, pinching their fingers to estimate the time when the king would return to Paris, and some of them even ran out of the city every day to meet the king.

Some may remember that the first triumphal arch erected by the king on the Queen's Boulevard, which was located almost at the opening of the circular square, was considered too peculiar, but it was only after the construction of the second triumphal arch that it became clear that the king's ambition was not something that could be satisfied by a Flemish or a Dutchman - at such a distance, the king's triumphal arch could be erected ten more - Of course, the citizens of Paris talked about it, and the faces of the envoys who were waiting for the King of France in Paris became more and more difficult to look at.

The alliance established by Leopold I ultimately failed because of their sluggishness, or rather, they miscalculated the degree of trust that Louis XIV had in his generals - it can be said that Louis XIV suppressed the impulse and desire to conquer that a young king should have, and completely surrendered the battlefield to the Prince of Condé, the Viscount of Tirrenne and the Duke of Luxembourg, the French army pierced the heart of the Netherlands like daggers, and at the time of the fall of Amsterdam, Leopold I's coalition and the allied army were not yet in place - Although at the time of Louis XIV's triumph, they tried to force Louis XIV to surrender the Netherlands and even Flanders by threatening the French army with a large army, as Louis XIV and the generals agreed, the main force of the 120,000 troops was in fact on the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the Netherlands, just to prevent those who took advantage of the situation.

The dukes of Switzerland and Luxembourg, Denmark and Sweden, as well as Austria and Brandenburg against the Prince of Condé, before the king's arrival in Paris, the battles continued, but Leopold I's side failed to achieve any victories that could change the existing situation. First, because the French army was almost at ease, and partly because they were fighting in enemy territory, the Marquis de Loiss's system of supply (plunder) not only prevented the Flanders or the Dutch from supporting the French enemy, but also forced them to rely on the French unless they could endure months of starvation until the harvest of the fields that year.

Although Leopold I was furious, he was helpless, so as the reports of war gradually decreased, the number of envoys who came to Paris increased—some who had been stationed in Paris before, but who had been temporarily evacuated because of the war, and who had now returned, and there were also those who had been sent as envoys to the princes, or the dukes, who had only one purpose - to divide a part of the spoils from France.

For example, Flanders, for example, the Netherlands, for example, the colonies of the Netherlands...... England as France's greatest ally, the Archbishop of Münster and Cologne was also interested in some of the cities or villages on their border with the Netherlands, the Archduke of Austria, that is, Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, also sent an envoy to claim part of the territory of Flanders, and the Archduke of Brandenburg wanted to inquire about the whereabouts of William III - his wife was William III's aunt, but he did not want justice for William III, but tried to marry the Bourbon royal family- The eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans was ten years old and had become an ally with France, but the Danish emissaries had come to beg Louis XIV for forgiveness and help, and their king, Christian V, had unfortunately died before the fall of Amsterdam, and his son Frederick IV, seeing that the situation was not good, wanted to marry his sister to Louis's eldest son, the Dauphin Louis the Younger, and promised a dowry of up to one million livres...... Or rather, to undermine Sweden's alliance with France.

The Swedish envoy also arrived, and Louis couldn't help but laugh when he saw him, because this envoy was none other than his future son-in-law, Karl XI.

The king, who was seventeen years old, was between a teenager and a young man, and his face, though still childish, was already like that of an adult, or rather, stronger and taller than that of an average adult man, so that Louis could not help associating him with a bear, as if to be commensurate with his posture, and his words and deeds had a frankness and frankness peculiar to the northerners, which were not unpleasant, though the delicacy and comfort of Paris sometimes seemed bewildering to him.

Louis's eldest daughter, the king's future wife, is also twelve years old this year, and she was ordered by Louis XIV to receive her fiancé, and the young couple, although they had only seen each other's portraits, had been in correspondence for several years—mainly Princess Elizabeth was writing, and when they met, they were not very rusty, but the difference in physique still made Queen Theresa frown.

"It doesn't matter," said Louis XIV, "that I will keep my daughter until she is twenty years old." ”

Queen Teresa rolled her eyes at Her Majesty with less respect.