shadow of britain

Chapter 117 The Proud Gallic Rooster

Greenwich Police Station, a place usually avoided by Londoners, has become a holy place that journalists flock to.

There is naturally a reason for making them so crazy.

That's when they heard that the Frenchman rescued from the high seas by the Royal Navy was being protected here.

Nearly a hundred reporters from various newspapers, large and small, blocked the place. Their high enthusiasm for interviews even forced Arthur to order the cancellation of some patrol tasks of the police, and temporarily transferred them back to maintain order on the scene.

And in his office, Arthur had to do some sort of temporary training with the fat Frenchman before letting him out for an interview.

Looking at Dumas, who was wearing loose casual clothes and a worn-out felt hat, he couldn't help shaking his head and said, "Mr. Dumas, what is that on your head? Can it be considered a hat?"

When Dumas heard this, he immediately retorted: "Oh! Mr. Hastings, what is that under your hat? Can that be considered a brain?"

As soon as Alexandre Dumas said this, the red devil who was watching the excitement immediately burst into laughter.

Arthur shrugged helplessly, and said seriously: "Mr. Dumas, I'm not here to fight with you today. I'm just stating a fact, you can't go out for an interview wearing that hat. Otherwise, those reporters will see you , if they don’t make it right, they will have to add more fuel to make up stories, saying that we abused you.”

Dumas reached out and knocked on the table, and the fat man asked, "Didn't you abuse me?"

Arthur squeezed his chin and recalled the collection of French jokes he had said these days, and couldn't help but smile awkwardly: "Those are all mental, at least we didn't abuse you physically."

But Dumas did not intend to reconcile after hearing this. He solemnly demanded: "You must apologize to me on behalf of the Metropolitan Metropolitan Police and the Royal Navy for your previous behavior!"

Arthur heard this, and his face was a little tangled: "Please forgive me, Mr. Dumas, Scotland Yard and the Royal Navy did not have a precedent to surrender to France. But if you really need an apology urgently, I suggest you go to our Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. Although it has been a long time ago, the Army did surrender its guns to the French. You should remember that Yorktown, Virginia, in the eastern United States, was in the last century, 1781."

Dumas took a deep breath when he heard the words, he took a look at this young man who was a few years younger than him, and suddenly felt like he was a match.

This was the first guy he met in his life who could talk to him cheaply.

He took off his broken felt hat and said, "Okay, then I'll listen to you. Actually, it's okay if I don't wear a hat. Only you Brits like to wear hats. After all, most British people only need to take off their hats. The head can literally blind someone's eyes."

Arthur nodded approvingly when he heard the words: "You are indeed a great playwright, and your words are always so eloquent."

Dumas was taken aback when he heard the words: "How do you know I'm a playwright?"

Arthur feigned embarrassment and said: "Mr. Dumas, I forgot to tell you, but I actually admire your talent very much. I happened to have read your amazing work "Henry III and His Court". This The play is not only very popular in Paris, but also spread to London in the past two years. I have watched it many times in the Old Vic Theater, but every time I remember it vividly."

Arthur praised Alexandre Dumas so much, and now it’s embarrassing to replace Alexandre Dumas. He coughed twice, raised his head proudly and said: "Actually, it’s nothing, it’s just an ordinary play. But I also thank you very much for your support. For my support, to gain a fan on a small island on the other side of the channel really makes me very happy."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help changing the topic: "But, I actually have a French playwright I like better."

"Who?" Dumas raised his eyebrows: "Voltaire? Diderot? Or Rousseau?"

Arthur shook his head slightly: "No, no, they are all too old for me. I'm talking about a writer who is about your age, Victor Hugo."

"You like Victor?" Dumas thought for a while and nodded, "But it makes sense. After all, he wrote the "Cromwell". I've heard that he is quite popular in England."

Now Arthur was surprised: "You know him?"

"Of course!" Dumas said, "I had dinner with him. We are ordinary friends, but we are not very close."

Upon hearing this, Arthur calmly picked up the handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

When Alexandre Dumas talked about literature, his aggressiveness was obviously reduced. He asked with interest, "Which of Victor's works do you like the most?"

Dumas can be regarded as asking Arthur to stop. He has never read Hugo's masterpiece "Cromwell" that Dumas said, but he is not sure whether famous works such as "Notre Dame de Paris" will be written at this time.

So he could only answer ambiguously: "It's not so much that I like Mr. Hugo's works, but I like some of the golden sentences and witty lines in his books. I always think that Mr. Hugo's talent in comedy is beyond the reach of ordinary people." attainable."

When Dumas heard this, he immediately frowned: "You're not talking nonsense, are you? Victor's writings are all historical dramas. When did he write comedies?"

Arthur shook his head: "You don't understand that different words will have different effects in the eyes of different people. You should know that Shakespeare once said that there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people. In France In the eyes of people, Mr. Hugo writes dramas and tragedies. But in the eyes of the British, Mr. Hugo's writing has a comic effect."

"For example?" Alexandre Dumas nodded slightly, as if he had thought of some writing skills.

Arthur said: "For example, the sentence - all Europe is attacking France, but the French are attacking Paris. What could be more tragic than this? This is an epic tragedy!

The French thought it was a tragedy, but the Brits couldn't stop laughing. "

When Dumas heard this, he couldn't help hugging his sore and aching head. He gasped hissingly, wanting to refute, but felt that any refute was powerless in front of the facts.

He sighed: "Forget it, I don't care about it with you. Which book did Victor write the sentence just now? I have to find it later and take a good look."

Arthur didn't answer, but just said, "You'd better go out and finish the interview first. If you don't go out again, I'm worried that these reporters might be planning to smash up the police station."

Alexandre Dumas was like an eggplant beaten by frost, and even his unkempt head, which was proudly raised in the past, drooped down.

He asked, "During the interview, is there anything I should pay attention to?"

Arthur couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words: "Why are you so cooperative all of a sudden?"

Dumas stared angrily: "Otherwise? If I say something wrong, won't I have to be sent back to France?"

Arthur joked: "Are you afraid that the current king, Louis-Philippe, will give you his head?"

Dumas looked at Xiaoyu outside the window with complicated emotions, and he held back for a long time before revealing the truth in his heart.

"Hmph! I'm not afraid of him, he's just a tyrant. I'm just afraid that when I go back, I won't be able to help inciting the great French people to attack Paris again!"

Arthur also smiled and sighed: "Forget it, I might as well go to the interview with you. I am also worried that with your hot temper, if you get angry under the pressure of the reporter, you will say something that you shouldn't say." Yes, that's a big problem.

By the way, I have to inform you separately that according to the orders issued by the Ministry of the Interior and the headquarters of Scotland Yard, after the interview, you cannot stay away from the sight of the Greenwich Police District, at least not away from my sight. "

"Why?" Da Zhong immediately glanced up and down at Arthur: "You British police also play French tricks? Oh, but it's understandable, after all, they all learned these things from us."

Arthur said: "It's not that you can't learn, I have to tell you honestly, the reason why we took so much trouble to save your life is not because of the determination of the Ministry of the Interior and Scotland Yard to fight crime.

But the big shots think that even if you want to die, you can’t die in the hands of the French. If you are caught this time by an ordinary slave trader, we probably won’t chase you to the high seas, let alone mobilize the Royal Navy .

So, although I will still monitor and protect you in the future, the content of the monitoring is limited to preventing you from falling into the hands of your compatriots.If you are involved in other crimes, we can still give you the greatest freedom of choice. "

Having said that, Arthur paused for a moment, then asked with a smile: "If you look at it this way, do our Scotland Yard police still look like French military police?"

Dumas's eyelids twitched: "To be honest, in some respects, you may not be as good as the French military and police. You either ignore it or control it all. What kind of devilish behavior is this half-control method?"

Arthur stood up from the chair, and he patted Dumas on the shoulder: "Come on, Mr. Dumas. This is the characteristic national character of Great Britain. You will gradually become familiar with it in the future. The difference between the British and the French That's right here. Come on, let's go to the interview."

(End of this chapter)