At about eight or nine o'clock in the morning, Louis XIV came out of his palace in a disfigured manner, a huge old mansion that originally belonged to the Duke of Colonna, but before Louis XIV entered Rome, the head of the Colonna family had already relinquished the mansion and hoisted the banner of the golden lily on a blue background under the lintel and terrace.

The hospitality was well worth it, and Louis XIV did not ride a horse, but rode to Florence in a carriage in which he was accompanied by the Marquis de Lois and the head of the Colonna family, who had a very common name, Giovanni, which was common among Italians, and whose countenance, like that of any Italian, had dark hair and eyes, and a melancholy temperament.

Louis XIV was surrounded by the Dauphin Louis the Younger, who was a little excited, of course, who would not want to meet Florence - the cradle of the Renaissance, a world-famous resort, even if Paris and Versailles came after them, people would still say "they are like a second Florence", thinking that he would soon go to that city like pearls and flowers, the young prince could not calm down at all.

Louis gently took the Dauphin's shoulder, and collected the look of pity, the information of the city had already been sent to his desk in great detail, and in the letter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he also tactfully told some embarrassing facts—that Florence may have once been like a pearl, like a flower, but now the luster of the pearl has long since disappeared, leaving only a dull and yellowish skin, and the flower has long since withered, barely a little color that can be used to recall the past.

It seemed that the Dauphin Louis the Younger was bound to be disappointed with the thousand brave and hopeful soldiers.

——————

Nicolas Catina and Sebastien Vauban rode side by side, and today they were all dressed in great colours, as were the soldiers and officers, their horses had been brushed several times, every mane was glowing, their muskets and scabbards had been wiped again and again, their boots were fitted with sterling silver or silver-plated spurs, and some were clad in furs from hussars or Tatars, regardless of how hot the weather was today.

They were elated at first, but the further they went, the more silent they became, and their eyes filled with disbelief.

When Catina and Vauban arrived in Colonna, they were also taken aback by the town's defeat, but they immediately thought that this was only a Roman town, not a big city like Siena and Florence, and it was not surprising that the people's lives were withering for various reasons—and that the poverty and loneliness here also made them a lot less trouble- The Italians did not have a good opinion of the French, but the inhabitants found that the French soldiers did not plunder, nor kill, nor burn their houses, but if they took a fancy to their things, whether they were ornaments, furniture, or food, they were willing to buy them with real money and louis (coins), and they immediately put aside their prejudices and went about their business with joy.

The idea of Catina and Vauban, of course, is wrong, the Colonna family has been in operation in Rome for many years, and has produced a pope, several princes in red, how can their ancestral land, that is, the town of Colonna, be as barren and poor as ordinary villages and towns in France?

They thought that the situation in Colonna was bad enough, but after leaving Colonna, the road under their feet quickly became broken - literally broken, the road built in ancient Rome may have not been carefully repaired for hundreds of years, and there were cracked stones everywhere, and thorns grew out of the cracks, and the cracks formed pits, and there was water in them, and in addition to these, there were fallen trees, vines that spread to the road- Some of the fallen trees were natural, some were man-made, and there may have been many robbers here who wanted to rob the path, and they laid down the trees, only to find that it was not a lamb, but a lion in armor, and they fled immediately.

The soldiers had to take off their beautiful coats and get to work, but fortunately they were used to doing it, after all, their general Vauban was an infrastructure maniac. The road was quickly cleared, the carriage went on, and the Dauphin Louis looked out incessantly.

He saw a long and monotonous scorched brown that spread all the way to the horizon, and although Tuscany was not the main grain producing region of Italy, the Dauphin Louis the Younger had personally participated in the major projects, and had also visited the farmlands of Versailles with his father, and he certainly knew that this was not the case, and that the ground that had been cultivated or harvested was not like this.

When they came to a city in the evening, the mayor and the citizens were greeting the King of France and his army on both sides of the street, and the Dauphin, when he jumped out of the cart, almost tripped over a clump of ryegrass, and he was taken aback, and thought that someone had accidentally lost a bundle of horsegrass here, but then he found out without saying a word that the ryegrass had grown out of the cracks in the masonry, and that the streets of the city were overgrown with grass, just as the roads they had passed.

And that was not the most shocking to him—after dinner, the mayor of the place came to thank Louis XIV for his generous gift of bread and coins to the people of the place, which was a compensation for disturbing them, "if you want to thank me," said the king, "then bless the marriage of my son, the Duke of Colonna, and the daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Anna." ”

"We will do a great mass and a citywide procession to thank you for your generosity and to wish your son and his bride a healthy heir soon. ”

The king smiled, the lord of Anna was in fact only ten years old—the wedding was purely political, "I just wish them happiness and well-being." He said, "I will give the Cathedral of Siena another twelve boxes of candles, a set of silver vessels, and some linen." ”

"Allow me to thank you on behalf of all Sienanese people, Your Majesty. The mayor said.

"Siena?" the crown prince was still drinking his milk slowly, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but look at the mayor in horror: "This is Siena?"

A trace of shame and resentment crossed the face of the mayor of Siena, but not for them, "Yes," he said sadly, "this is Siena." ”

Siena, the crown prince Louis Jr. couldn't believe it at all, he subconsciously looked out, only to see a darkness - Siena, which was once rich and prosperous, now has only a few dim lights at night, and the whole city is silent as if it were dead. The crown prince could not analyze the size of the city because he had been in the carriage, but when he saw the bad road conditions, the mottled walls, the dull clothes, the old furniture, the drapery, and the rusty metal fittings everywhere, he thought it was a small town with no name.

"It's going to be a fast time for cities to decline. Louis XIV said: "The bigger the millstone, the more force it takes to make it turn, and if it loses its protection and nourishment, even Paris or Versailles will become what you see now." ”

"I'm sorry," said Dauphin Louis Jr. to the mayor, "I didn't expect such a change in Siena. ”

"Nothing," said the mayor, "even I, when I came back twenty years ago, almost didn't recognize that this was my Siena." ”

"You are a dutiful man," said Louis XIV, taking out a gold louis from his pocket and rewarding him, and when the mayor retired, the look on the face of the Dauphin Louis the Younger suddenly became complicated: "Siena has become like this, Florentine ......"

"Not the worst. Louis XIV comforted, but little Louis was not comforted at all.

Fortunately, when they arrived in Florence the next day, the Marquis de Lois was clearly relieved to hear the Dauphin, and he thought that he would see a Florence that had collapsed like those ancient buildings near Rome, no, it was still flowers and pearls, as Louis XIV said, although the flowers withered and the pearls lost their color, but still flowers and pearls, and the humanistic ideas and literary arts that had once lit up the whole of Europa like a torch still have its afterglow.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany, his brother, his son, and his daughter greeted Louis XIV at the city gate, and although he had not been very good, Louis XIV, who had always been modest, would not embarrass his son's father-in-law, and he took Cosimo III by the arm and walked forward with him.

Everybody was smiling, and the Florentines and the French, who had been enemies for nearly two hundred years, were now in love with each other like friends, and if anyone asked, they would say that the Florentine feud with France had ended when Marie Medici became Queen of France, and now they had two more beautiful women made in heaven - While the identity of the Duke of Colonna is up for debate, the stupidest Florentines also know that it is impossible to get an extra Medici queen to the French royal family.

The Duke of Colonna took the arm of the Dauphin Louis the Younger, and if he hadn't passed Siena, he might not have noticed that the pavement had obviously been cleaned and scrubbed, and although the gaps could not be concealed, they had skillfully filled it with fine stones, which were not filled casually, but in color and shape they matched the surrounding stone tiles, and even looked like they were intentional, worthy of the Medici and Florence, who had trained and accepted countless painters and sculptors.

The walls were also decorated and painted, and the places that could not be covered were covered with silk carpets, drapery, and flags, and they also covered some of the alleys with luxuriant flowers, and maybe there was still a mess inside, little Louis retracted his gaze and sighed inwardly, "What's the matter?" asked the Duke of Colonna.

"Nothing. Little Louis said that he had decided to give part of his income to the wedding to thank the people who had come to bless the couple, and that the people of Florence were obviously not so happy. Although they saw that the people on both sides of the street still wore silk jackets, the old and new silk was always the easiest to see, and in the courts of Versailles and Paris, under the teaching of nobles such as the Duchess of Montpensier, the crown prince immediately saw that this might be their last decent garment.

Three days later, they were greeted by Pope Innocent XI and a group of red-clad princes, and many more clergy, and the sight of red wide-brimmed hats and hooded cloaks rubbing against each other in the streets had not been seen by the Florentines for centuries, and they were running around the room excitedly to witness the spectacle, and countless people knelt on the ground praying for blessings—and the Pope made gestures to grant their wishes.

Needless to say, the ceremonies at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the banquet that followed, not only the King of France, but also the Grand Duke of Tuscany became generous, and silver coins rained down on the crowd like hailstones, as well as bread, beer, and potatoes, which were food from France, and which were to be eaten and drunk as much as they pleased.

When people have eaten and drunk, they start dancing and singing, and they sing a euphemistic and touching love song, as if they are expressing their deep love for the couple in the room.

On 23 May 1670,[3] Ferdinand II de' Medici died of a stroke and edema. [3] At the time of Ferdinand's death, the population of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was 730,594,[3] and the streets of the country were overgrown with weeds, with buildings in Pisa in danger and Siena in almost abandonment. [3]

Archduchess Marguerite Louise and Lady Vittoria della Roville vied for power. [3] Vittoria was victorious in the protracted struggle, and Cosimo left the day-to-day administration of the Grand Duchy to his mother. [3] Cosimo, the first Grand Duke, was eager to save the empty treasury and allow his subjects to appeal to him on disputed arbitrations. [3] However, this novelty soon wore off. [3] Cosimo began to grow tired of politics, and he granted his mother Vitdoria greater powers and allowed her to enter the Privy Council. [3]

After recovering from the departure of his wife Marguerite Louise, Cosimo began to persecute the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. [3] Sexual intercourse between Jews and Christians was forbidden,[3] and according to the law enacted on July 1, 1677,[3] Christians were also not allowed to work in institutions to which Jews belonged. [3] If a person violates the rules, then they face a fine of 250 shillings,[3] if the offender is unable to pay the fine, then he will be tortured on the rack,[3] and if the person is deemed unfit to be tortured, then he will be sentenced to four months' imprisonment. [3] Between June 16, 1679 and December 12, 1680,[3] the publication of the anti-Semitic roster further restricted Jews from intercourse and cohabitation with Christian prostitutes. [3]

(This chapter will be updated tomorrow with a thousand words.) ）