I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 17 Middle and Ring Fingers

M. Brayland left Richelieu House as a decent man in neat clothes, but he came back in a state of embarrassment, with his boots missing, his sleeves missing, his coat buttons orphaned, his coat and the collar of his shirt covered in blood. with dirt.

   He would not have been allowed to see the king, but Louis merely stood at the window and ordered Bontang to bring him up, for he recognized the gentleman who was saluting him at the turn of the street.

   Bontang and some servants washed Mr. Brayland's face and hands, and changed him into clean clothes before bringing him to the king.

   "Ah, it's you," said the king, "I saw you salute me at the corner, sir, you said I hired you, but I don't seem to remember that."

Brayland was a little uneasy at first, but seeing Louis was so kind, he calmed down a lot: "Pardon my rudeness, Your Majesty," he said, "I remembered wrongly, I was not hired by you, but your relatives. , hired by the Duke of Cornwall in England, who had a few close associates in Ireland, and asked me to bring him letters."

   "So have you done the job, or not?"

   "It's done, Your Majesty," said Cleland. "But Your Majesty, I have encountered terrible things not far from you, and have to flee back and seek your refuge."

"This is Paris," said Louis. "My domain, sir, if you are indeed a loyal subordinate of the Duke of Cornwall, I would be willing to help you, but I can know what happened. ?"

  Clayland looked around, Louis nodded, and Bontang and some of the servants retreated, but the six reliable Musketeers and Marie did not leave.

   "I met a vampire, Your Majesty," Brayland said.

  —

Speaking of which, Brayland was unlucky, too. As a werewolf, he ran much faster than the best Sierra France horses, so he never relied on horses on land—today he was going to walk out of Paris and take off in the woods. Lose his clothes, turn into a werewolf, and rush back to the port, who knows that the once clear road is blocked by a flaming carriage, where some of the king's opponents are hysterically shouting something that borders on blasphemy, he doesn't want to. To confront the irrational mobs, turn around and walk down a dark alley.

And in this dark alley, a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat is snuggling intimately with a "famous". The narrow alley is occupied by their tightly entangled bodies. Second, Brayland hesitated for a while, sighed, and decided to take another path.

"Sir," said the man who was almost completely covered by the wide-brimmed hat, said first, "are you going to pass here?" He said kindly: "Oh, this is ours, isn't it? I hope you can forgive us, love is always blind when it comes, but we have opened our eyes now, please, please, we will make room for you, don't waste your time."

Brayland really didn't want to waste any more time. He wanted to rush back to Scotland as soon as possible, lest the members of the Presbyterian Church start to waver between the Duke of Cornwall and the Duke Protector again. He looked up at the sky, and if he moved enough Quick, he could still catch the last ship to England, so he nodded to him, thanked him, and walked over.

This kind of small alley is only dirtier than the streets. In addition to the feces, there are many mice, as well as the corpses of cats and dogs. I don’t know who threw the internal organs of the sea fish here. gagging.

Brayland couldn't help holding his breath, the werewolf's keen sense of smell made his head almost split, he leaned on his side and walked past the pair of men and women, and just as they passed by, Brayland bumped into The woman's hand hanging beside her - a cold and stiff hand, without a trace of life.

The    werewolf turned his head in astonishment, a deformed face rapidly expanded in his field of vision, and sharp fangs protruded from his split lips.

The idea of ​​a vampire who dared to come out to hunt for food in the daytime, this idea swept across Brayland's mind. The stench of the alley paralyzed his perception of the smell of blood. The true identity has probably been revealed long ago.

   They scuffled together immediately. The power of a vampire was originally inferior to that of a werewolf, but Brayland did not dare to directly transform into a werewolf in the Paris neighborhood, which put him at a disadvantage.

At this time, I don't know if it was lucky or unfortunate, a girl walked into the alley, she found the dead woman, she immediately screamed, and more people came, and the vampire's face twisted like a hairless bat never It would make people mistake him for a human being. The vampire was flustered and wanted to escape, but was dragged directly into the sun by Brayland. He immediately burned and turned to ashes in his wailing.

The problem is that at this time, the priests and the monks of the Inquisition who were the least willing to see Brayland arrived, and the inquisition all belonged to their own army. These soldiers blocked the block where Brayland was located, even on the roof. People are arranged, and then they start reviewing the people on the block one by one.

This is the normal operation of the Church and the Inquisition. Once a vampire or werewolf appears in a certain place, the area must be cleaned like a grate several times, and such cleaning is indeed quite effective - when he saw the priests When checking everyone's fingers under the protection of the soldiers, Brayland knew something was wrong... Although only vampires appeared here, the church was not immune to the suspicion of werewolves.

Werewolves in various countries and regions have their own characteristics, but they have one thing in common, that is, the **** and ring finger of each werewolf are the same length, although in normal times, it is difficult for people to notice this, but The priests can immediately detect the clues by simply asking the person under examination to put their fingers together.

   Brayland's hesitation outside the crowd had already fallen into the eyes of a few vigilant ascetics, and as soon as he turned to leave, they chased after him.

   "Maybe they're hanging around the door now," Brayland said.

   "You stretch out your hand." Louis said, and Brayland had to stretch out his hand under the eyes of the musketeers, so that the king could see his hand clearly. His hand was indeed as he said, the **** and the ring finger were the same length.

   "You are wrong, Mr. Brayland." The king said: "The Church and the Inquisition move very quickly. They should be asking to see Bishop Mazarin or me now."

   He looked at Mary: "Marie, I have a request for you now, I don't know if you can do it."

  The king quickly made his suggestion, and Mary immediately ran back to the room and brought a bottle of potion.

   "Drink it now," said Louis, "if you will believe me."

"Of course I'd like to believe you," said Brayland, who had also been watching Louis for several days, and asked him to say that the young French king was not one of the common depraved people, even if he didn't want to. Shelter Brayland and will not deceive him with lies.

   After the werewolf finished speaking, he drank the entire bottle of potion.

  ————

   A few minutes later, Bishop Mazarin brought two black priests and two ascetic monks to the king and asked the king to allow them to hunt down a dangerous werewolf here.

  Louis agreed, but: "Don't disturb my mother, my brother, and my guests."

One of the priests immediately stated that they would only take a look, recite a few verses, and sprinkle a little holy water, not only would they not disturb the Queen Mother and the Duke of Anjou, but also the guests of England, and they would be blessed. Yeah.

   "That would be the best," said the king, "perhaps you can have dinner with us."

The priest was even a little flattered. He thanked the king for his gracious invitation. Although he and his colleagues might not be able to get away from the heavy work for the time being, he must praise the king's pious and generous heart, and asked him to say, Even if it wasn't a king, but an earl, a general, and had to interrupt the meal, just because a suspected werewolf ran into the courtyard, even if they weren't angry, they wouldn't have a good look for them. Woolen cloth.

In this case, the priests and ascetic monks can't be too public. They walked through each room quickly, even the Queen Mother's bedroom was not spared - after all, they were forced to avoid fatal danger to the royal family members. Yes, but to their dismay, the werewolves really don't seem to be here.

While checking the room of Bang Tang, the head of the dormitory, an ascetic saw a giant wolf and could not help shouting, but the giant wolf did not move, and was obviously dead. Bang Tang told them that it was Kong Dai. The human wolf skin, which the prince dedicated to His Majesty the King, had been placed at the foot of the throne for many days, but because a maid was frightened a while ago, the king ordered him to put it away, make a specimen, and put it in his hunting later. in the hall.

The priests examined this giant wolf. Although its fur still maintained its original plumpness and thickness, its eyes were dull and its body was stiff. It looked like it had been dead for a long time, and Prince Condé had a human The matter of the wolf skin was indeed registered in the court, and they ordered Bontang to leave.

At this moment, a priest suddenly stopped: "By the grace of the Lord," he said with a smile, "We shouldn't forget this." He proposed holy water, sprinkled a few drops on Bontang, and again Sprinkled a few drops in the giant wolf's slightly open mouth. As soon as the holy water fell into the hideous mouth, a puff of smoke immediately rose. The priests stared at the giant wolf, which did not close its mouth reflexively. , no muscle twitching or fur tightening - it was indeed dead and they really walked away.

It wasn't until noon the next day that the witch's fake death potion didn't work, and Brayland fell to the ground, back to human form, gasping for breath, his tongue was bloody, but fortunately it was only a few drops of holy water, and he would soon get well.

He hid in the Richelieu Mansion for several days, until the monks of the Inquisition thought that the suspected werewolf might have escaped from Paris. The Duke of Cornwall already had the support of King Louis of France, and although both Holland and Spain had reached some sort of agreement with the traitor Cromwell, at least he had a strong supporter.

   (end of this chapter)