Bishop Mazaran heard the king's laughter in the corridor.

This kind of laughter has not been heard for some days, and people with ill intentions often say that Mr. Bishop treats the king as if he were his own day, and this sentence is not without malice, but what these people don't know is that Mr. Bishop does have fatherly feelings for the king, and he did not want to put the burden of the country on that immature shoulder so quickly, but since the king has repeatedly shown his talent as a ruler, Mr. Bishop has also begun to let go slowly in some matters— Whether the king chose to abandon Arthas, or borrow money from merchants, or continue his prize business, Mazaran thought that there was a way to end it, but the king's worries and hesitations during this time could not help but make the prince in red feel pity.

Hearing such laughter, and the fact that the secret agent had copied the letters, Bishop Mazaran could already confirm that the information he had received was indeed true, and he could not help but show a look of relief.

When the king saw the bishop of Mazarin, he invited him to sit down beside him, and by this time his smile had not even completely disappeared, and the traces that remained made the young king finally have the carefree appearance of a teenager, and he showed the cardinal a letter written to him by the Duchess of Montpensier, and it could even be said to be a confession, because it was an extremely detailed and true description of the anguish and guilt of the duchess after leaving Paris, and she sincerely asked the king to forgive her, and to allow her to return to Paris, to the court, to the queen mother and the king, and there was no mention of the Prince of CondéThere was no mention of the Duke of Gaston, or anyone related to them, much to the great relief of the King and the Bishop.

Of course, as a good cousin who was understanding, the Duchess of Montpensier enclosed a bill of exchange worth half a million livres, which immediately relaxed the king's tense heartstrings, and although there was still a gap, as long as it was properly funded, the rest was just a matter of ordinary daily affairs.

"I know that you have let two young men do this," said Mr. Bishop, with a proper compliment, "I must say that I have always been concerned about this, but now it seems that it is entirely my concern, and your eye, Your Majesty, is sufficient to penetrate a thousand feet of rock and take out a shining gem." ”

"But the first person to point them out to me, Mr. Bishop," said the king, modestly, "are you not you? "D'Artagnan was explicitly introduced to the king by the Bishop of Mazarin, but Colbert, although the king intended to promote him, was also tested and approved by the bishop.

"Well, is it them?" exclaimed Mr. Bishop, half-truthfully, "I thought I was giving you a Luculus (an ancient Roman general), but he turned out to be a Cicero?"

Louis knew that he was talking about d'Artagnan, but at this the king's face became a little strange, and he took out of the drawer another letter—not so much a letter as a notebook, which the bishop took and read briefly, and understood why the king looked like that, for Mr. d'Artagnan's actions were utterly contrary to morality or propriety.

————

Let's set the clock back a little.

Monsieur Colbert thinks d'Artagnan in addition to enjoying his love with the duchess's horse, He didn't do anything but wine and meat steaks, that was really wronged him, even if he was a victorious general on the battlefield, it was not easy for d'Artagnan to make a duchess's maid obey him, in addition to the money given by the king, he also borrowed three hundred gold louis from Mr. Colbert, and bought nearly ten thousand livres for the qualification to meet the king, only in exchange for the heart of the maid, in this case, the next thing became simpler, after all, what d'Artagnan wanted to know was not secret, as long as he stayed in Saint-Fargo for a long time, he would naturally know, but what d'Artagnan lacks is time.

If he were to say that it would be more cost-effective to be able to buy all this time with money.

D'Artagnan knew from the maid that the Duchess of Montpensier, though wealthy, did not know much about her own assets and income, and that when she returned to her father as a teenager, she entrusted the affairs of the domain to the Duke of Gaston, and then every year, when the Duchess needed it, the Duke of Gaston would send her the income—just as not long ago, when she was going to renovate the Château de Saint-Fargo, the Duke of Gaston immediately sent 100,000 livres, and then 200,000 livres.

But even the maid who was not good at mathematics knew that the Duchess's domain should have at least 500,000 livres of income per year, but after the Duke of Gaston sent 300,000 livres, there was no movement, and the year was about to end - not to mention that in the previous years, the Duchess had been staying in her own castle, and there was hardly anything to spend a lot of money, but her savings were still less than a million livres, which was a terrible number.

D'Artagnan asked her, "Isn't anyone willing to remind the Duchess?"

Perhaps, but as long as the Duchess of Montpensier did not want to listen, it would be useless to warn her, or rather, she was deliberately blinding herself so that she could continue to indulge in a false dream.

D'Artagnan did not continue to ask, he also knew that if he rashly mentioned this matter to the Duchess, let alone the task assigned by the king, it might not even be possible to continue to live in the Château de Saint-Fargo as a guest, and the Duchess might have to entertain himself with a whip and a soldering iron, so he immediately went to another person who was very fond of the Duchess, and bribed him with a thousand livres.

This man was Jean-Baptiste Poclain, but his other name is better known as Molière, which means ivy in French, which shows his expectations of himself and his talents, but unfortunately his fate was not good, since he gave up his original "hereditary status" in 1643, the so-called royal chamberlain, and the de facto supplier of royal furnishings, the troupe he formed with friends was not as popular as he thought - Most of the plays at this time were solemn and sacred religious plays, or the following romantic performances, and the plays he wrote were considered too frivolous and even a little vicious, so they were never favored by the nobles, until the Duchess of Montpensier came to Saint-Fargo, where he happened to be there, which aroused the Duchess's interest, so he was allowed to stay in the Château de Saint-Fargo, and put on some funny plays for the Duchess.

This made Molière both happy and distressed, but if d'Artagnan hadn't taken out the identity of the king's envoy, even a thousand more Mr. Molière would not have been willing, but the thought of being able to perform for the king made his heart shake.

Of course, d'Artagnan could not tell the Duchess so bluntly that her father, the Duke of Gaston, was an out-and-out ghost, and even if it was, the Duchess could not help but feel ashamed of the previous deception, and then feel ashamed, and perhaps even angry, so he just asked Monsieur Molière to write a short new play, in which he wrote about an old father who loved money more than everything, who took away the property that his daughter inherited from her mother, and because he was unwilling to prepare a dowry for his daughter, he wanted to marry his daughter to a dying old noblemanThe greed of the old father and the innocence of the daughter are vividly depicted, and people cry and laugh when they see it, especially at the end, when His Majesty the King of Kuanren personally looks for a good family for this daughter, but the father is forced to return the property and dowry that his daughter should inherit, and he says a long, vicious word to accuse his daughter, and has no regret for the sins he has committed— This again annoyed the audience, who shouted for Molière to revise the ending, that at least the greedy man should be punished, without noticing that the Duchess of Montpensier had left in a hurry.

What the Duchess of Montpensier thought, no one knows, but that night her maid found d'Artagnan, and D'Artagnan found Colbert, who could be said to have gone through the accounts of the whole room all night, and finally came up with an answer that made the Duchess angry and disheartened— Her father, in administering the territory for her, had made millions of livres for his own gain, and he used them to prepare his army, expand his territory, lend money, or do business, and at the same time the money was spent on his wife, lover, and children, which was the most unbearable for the duchess, and she wept alone in her room all night, and the next morning she rode away from Saint-Fagor, and on the sixth day she brought back nearly a million livres.

D'Artagnan did not know how she had managed to take this piece of meat from the Duke of Gaston's mouth, but Monsieur Bishop only glanced at the king, and guessed that in the hands of the Duchess of Montpensier, there must have been a lot of control from the Duke of Gaston, and the king wrote down this point in the pamphlet, he certainly hoped that the Duke of Gaston would spend the rest of his life in Blois in peace, but if not, he believed that he could also get back from his cousin evidence that might be extremely fatal to the Duke.

But before that, the king decided to give d'Artagnan and Colbert the reward they deserved, d'Artagnan was simpler here, he wanted Vauban where he was now, and Vauban also proposed that he would prefer to serve the king on the battlefield, good horn, as for Colbert, Bishop Mazaran proposed that he could be allowed to come to his side, nominally he could take care of the finances of Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Bishop could also take a good look at this young man of ordinary origin for the king.

The king agreed, and then it occurred to him a question, although the messenger was faster than them, but d'Artagnan and Colbert should have returned to Paris yesterday, and what were they delayed?

————

By vampires.