The men and horses rested in the small castle until two o'clock in the afternoon, after which the Duke of Choiseul gathered them together and, as the organizer of the hunt, expressed his joy to them at their invitation to the hunt and announced the official start of the hunt.

Lawrence, on the other hand, had no time to listen to the overly enthusiastic speech of the Duke of Choiseul, and he was helplessly changing his clothes in a small, dimly lit room.

Although the hunt was not organized by Crown Prince Louis, since Lawrence had been invited to join Crown Prince Louis's hunting party, according to the rules of Versailles, he had to change into a uniform to match the honor of the members of the royal hunting party.

He wore a black-and-gray coat, a dark red waistcoat and breeches, a blouse trimmed with gold trim, high boots with a high heel like Crown Prince Louis's, and a hunting knife that was not sharp but had a very ornate carved hilt.

These were sent by the Duke of Choiseul very carefully, after all, he placed his hopes for further wooing Crown Prince Louis on Lawrence.

While Lawrence was changing his attire, a precision shooter hurried into the castle and circled Lawrence's room as unobtrusively as possible.

"Huh?"

Lawrence, who was basically dressed, was standing in front of the mirror to make the final adjustments, and saw the shooter suddenly break in, which also made Lawrence stunned a little.

However, Lawrence glanced at the shooter's appearance and recognized him as the one who had quietly left the group with Grosso halfway through the morning, so he guessed that the task given to Grosso was probably completed.

The shooter was also out of breath, obviously running all the way back, and his clothes were also very messy, with a lot of dust and branches on it, and even a few imperceptible traces of blood on the saber at his waist.

Although he had cleaned up a bit before entering the castle, he could tell that they had probably been in the woods for six or seven hours.

Lawrence put his index finger to his mouth to signal the shooter not to speak, then cautiously walked to the door and looked out for two seconds to make sure no one noticed, then closed the door and locked it from the inside.

"So, you're all done over there?"

After confirming the secrecy, Lawrence asked the shooter in a low voice.

It's not that Lawrence is too cautious, it's actually that once this matter is revealed, it will be quite unfavorable to him, and the prison sentence is light.

The shooter replied in the same whisper:

"Yes, my lord, Lord Grosso has already done it, and basically meets your requirements."

"It's good, no one found out, right?"

Lawrence nodded in satisfaction and continued to ask.

The shooter nodded and replied:

"No, the ranger there slept like a pig, and we got some tools from outside his hut."

"Ranger?" Lawrence frowned and asked:

"He didn't notice what was going on, was he?"

"No, we walked several miles into the woods before we started."

"Hmm... That's good. Lawrence also breathed a sigh of relief, and then arranged:

"You go back and let Grosso stay where he is, and be careful not to be spotted, and as for the rest, he knows what to do."

"Yes."

The shooter replied, and was about to leave, when he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly handed Lawrence a bag of things in his pocket, and said:

"By the way, this is from Master Grosso, and he said you should take it with you."

Lawrence looked at the thing, which contained a string of beast's teeth with fresh blood on them, and a small piece of beast's fur, also freshly peeled, wrapped in it.

Lawrence nodded understandingly, tucked the string of teeth into the inner pocket of his coat along with the fur, and said to himself:

"I didn't expect that this arrangement could be used on Crown Prince Louis, it was really a sudden surprise."

......

By the time Lawrence had finished changing his costume and walked out of the castle, most of the nobles had already gone into the woods with their hounds, and Crown Prince Louis and his party waited patiently in front of the castle.

The area of this royal forest farm is very large, unless it is quite fateful, the possibility of two hunting teams colliding together is still very low, so Crown Prince Louis did not rush into the hunting ground.

"Ah, Governor Bonaparte, you are here."

Crown Prince Louis saw Lawrence from a distance and waved at him.

Lawrence, too, with an apologetic smile, trotted forward to apologize to Crown Prince Louis and the other nobles in the team:

"I'm really sorry Your Highness, but this dress really took me a lot of time."

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's also blamed on me."

Crown Prince Louis smiled and waved his hand, as a benevolent and generous crown prince, he did not care about Lawrence's tardiness, but said to the rest of the team with a little reproach:

"I invited Governor Bonaparte temporarily, and I didn't give him much time to prepare, and I have to apologize for delaying everyone's time."

"Where, where, Your Highness, you have spoken."

The nobles in the team shook their heads again and again and said, after all, Crown Prince Louis apologized for his own approachability, but if they really accepted the apology, it would be a violation of etiquette.

Lawrence also took the opportunity to glance at Crown Prince Louis's hunting party, in addition to the crown prince himself and the three guide entourage, there were only four nobles in the team dressed like Lawrence, and they received the invitation of Prince Louis a long time in advance.

These nobles are very young, and most of them seem to be the sons or heirs of some powerful families, and although they do not have much status at the moment, it is estimated that most of them will inherit the title of duke in the future.

Although they were a little dissatisfied with Lawrence's sudden arrival and late behavior, they were not easy to attack in front of Prince Louis, so they had to look at Lawrence with a blank face.

Lawrence didn't care about the attention of these noble young masters, but silently counted the number of people in this team, and after counting that there were only nine people in this team, Lawrence was also relieved a lot.

After all, the smaller the number of people in this team, the better it will be for Lawrence's setup.

And to Lawrence's great pleasure, Crown Prince Louis did not choose to go on a field hunt today, but only carried a small entourage for an ordinary hunt.

Field hunting was loved and often carried out by the great nobles and kings, after all, only their financial resources could afford it.

In the field, the king would bring hundreds or even hundreds of retinues, and these retinues would surround and drive the prey inside in a huge hunting ground, driving the prey to the king's position from all directions.

And the king almost only needs to stand in place, keep pulling the bow and shoot arrows, and even sometimes if the king misses, there will be a seasoned hunter around him who will immediately make up for the arrow, and after shooting the prey to death, everyone will tacitly pretend that the king shot it.

In fact, it was this kind of field hunting that Louis XVI indulged in after his succession, otherwise it would be a complete fantasy to kill 1,500 prey a month in an ordinary hunt like a real hunter in ordinary hunting, as his diary says.

As for the small nobles and the rich and idle landlords, if they wanted to hunt, they had to take or hire a small number of hunters as their retinue, and carry out a hunt that lasted for several days as if they were traveling in the mountains and rivers.

The Russian writer Turgenev was very fond of this kind of hunting, and he wrote a book for this purpose, "Hunter's Notes", to record what he saw and heard during the hunting trip.

"Then let's go."

Crown Prince Louis also became excited when he saw that the team was ready, and he personally took the longbow and put it on his body, and then patted his guide and said.

Everyone also nodded, cheered up, and began to follow the guide towards the depths of the dense forest.

......

The forest farms of Versailles were all royal forest farms, and Louis XV often organized grand hunts here, judging from the harvest he always returned with a full load, there were many prey here.

In particular, the stags of Versailles were legally only allowed to be hunted by members of the royal family and their close relatives, and as members of the same hunting party as Crown Prince Louis, these nobles are now granted such privileges.

Even for a man of such high stature as them, it would be a great honor to be able to hunt a majestic stag back, so everyone, including Crown Prince Louis, was looking forward to the hunt.

Lawrence was not interested in this, although hunting a stag and offering it to Crown Prince Louis was a good way to close the relationship, Lawrence also had a good understanding of his own hunting skills, and wisely gave up this impractical method.

Of course, this is also because Lawrence has a more effective way of pulling in with Crown Prince Louis.

The group was led through the woods by guides, and two of the Crown Prince Louis's retinue also carried broad-edged swords similar to the knives of the mountain to crack the weeds and thorns in the road for the children behind them, so as not to stain their clothes.

Maybe it was bad luck, or maybe the novice hunters didn't pay attention to hiding their breath and movements, and they walked through the woods for a long time without even seeing the shadow of a stag.

On the contrary, two of Crown Prince Louis's retinue looked very experienced, and they quickly grabbed a few fat hares, cut the arteries with broad-edged swords, and presented them to Crown Prince Louis and the other nobles, so that they would not return empty-handed when they returned.

"Oh, that's bad."

Crown Prince Louis gradually felt a little tired after another march, although he was now only sixteen years old, his figure was already a little out of shape under the daily feeding of delicacies from the mountains and seas, and it was inevitable that he was slightly gasping for breath after this exercise.

A nobleman glanced at the tired face of Crown Prince Louis, and said very discerningly:

"I don't think it's getting early, Your Highness, why don't we go back?"

Crown Prince Louis let out a long breath, looked at the drowsy sky, and then at the prey that could only be considered comfort: a few hares that were about to drain their blood.

Despite some unwillingness, Crown Prince Louis frowned and said:

"Okay, if you go back too late, you won't be able to find your way, at least we still have something to gain today, right?"

A few people next to him immediately flattered and said:

"Of course, I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people who go back empty-handed."

"And you see, these hares are so fat that they are worth half a stat."

"You," said Crown Prince Louis, shaking his head with a smile, to the guide:

"In that case, let's start to return, please lead the way."

The guide nodded respectfully, and was about to begin to turn back, when suddenly his brow furrowed, and he subconsciously hunched his waist, looked around cautiously and listened intently.

Everyone present looked at the guide strangely, not knowing how he reacted, only Lawrence, who was at the edge of the crowd, had his eyes lit up, knowing that it was Grosso who had started to act.

"Huh? What are you doing? Crown Prince Louis asked with some displeasure.

"I'm sorry Your Highness, but..."

The guide, as a skilled hunter, said very nervously at the moment:

"There was just movement in the woods, and it must have been from a group of animals passing through the bushes."

"Oh? A herd of animals? It can't be a herd of deer, right? ”

Crown Prince Louis suddenly shook his hands and asked excitedly.

The guide said with a pale face:

"No, no, No, Your Highness, the deer herd will not take the initiative to approach us, looking like this, it should be some kind of beast..."

"Beasts?" Crown Prince Louis was stunned for a moment, he had never heard of any wild beasts in this area, even a weasel would be hunted down by the royal rangers here.

The guide had no time to explain, the voice grew closer, and soon, in horror, he pointed his hunting knife to the left and waved his hand to the crowd to step back.

There was a noise in the bushes he was referring to, and then under the nervous gaze of everyone, three wild wolves with gray fur came out of it, staring at them with bright green eyes.

"Huh? How come there are only three heads... Damn, though, it's definitely three hungry wolves. ”

The guide was stunned for a moment, a little surprised by the scarcity of the wolves, but he did not relax because of this, for judging by the empty bellies of the three wolves, they had definitely been hungry all day.

Normally, three wolves would not have dared to attack in the face of such a large number of humans, but if these beasts go hungry, they will not be able to fight for their lives.

The guide swallowed and turned his head to look at the crowd, where the nobles, including Crown Prince Louis, were already stunned.

In their understanding, hunting was to shoot animals with bows and arrows that would not fight back at all, and as for wild beasts, they had seen the heads of beasts hanging in the showroom at most.

Seeing that these noble children could not help at all, the guide had no choice but to wave and shout to the other two stunned entourages:

"Let's hold these beasts down and let the adults go!"

The two attendants suddenly woke up, and they also understood that the three of them still had a good chance to subdue these wild wolves, although they would pay the price of injury, but if something happened to these nobles, especially the crown prince, then they had ten heads that were not enough for an executioner to cut off.

Seeing that the three men took the initiative to step forward and confront the three wild wolves with their swords, Lawrence, who had expected this, calmly walked to the side of Crown Prince Louis, pulled his arm and said:

"Let's go, Your Highness, they don't know how long they can drag."

Crown Prince Louis also woke up from a dream, and said in a pale voice:

"Yes, yes, let's go..."

Crown Prince Louis said, his legs were limp, and he walked towards the back almost with the help of Lawrence.

The nobles also hurriedly followed the steps of Crown Prince Louis, and retreated towards the back.

The crowd ran a few hundred yards away in a panic, and just as they thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, they heard the sound of a search again in the woods beside them.

Another she-wolf came out of the woods with her tail wagging her tail, her bloody mouth always open, and the transparent and viscous saliva dripping from it, even making people smell the stench.

"God, this is..."

Crown Prince Louis looked at the wolf's tongue and sharp teeth, and couldn't help but cry out.

The rest of the nobles turned even bluer and took a few steps back, even though they knew that if the six people present worked together, they would be able to subdue the beast.

But these nobles knew in their hearts that they were different from the three lowly retinues, even if they escaped, they would not be too implicated by this, there was no need to risk their lives to resist here to the end, and who knew how many wild wolves there were in the woods.

Crown Prince Louis trembled and glanced at the people who had begun to retreat, although he was extremely frightened, he did not lose his mind, and the thoughts of these nobles Crown Prince Louis could completely guess it.

And if everyone scatters and flees, the fat Crown Prince Louis is undoubtedly the one who is left behind.

"Your Highness."

Lawrence gently let go of the hand that was holding Crown Prince Louis and said to him in a deep voice.

"You... Doge Bonaparte, you... Also? ”

Crown Prince Louis shrank and spoke incoherently, thinking that Lawrence was preparing to let go of himself and be ready to spread his legs like other nobles.

However, under everyone's shocked gaze, Lawrence slowly walked to the front of everyone, like a wall between the wolves and the nobles.

Then Lawrence pulled out the hunting knife from his waist, pointed it at the she-wolf's forehead, and turned his head to Crown Prince Louis and said in a deep voice:

"Please go first, Your Highness."