I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 191 Saint Denis (10)

The triptych of Jeromenis Bosch has reached the last one, which is the small painting on the right. The second one, the main painting, has been completed. Rubens added a golden brilliance to the painting. Birds and flowers, the picture is so cruel, and everyone's faces are so happy, especially Saint-Denis, it can almost be said to be dancing - the last sketch has been drawn, no need to repeat it, of course not. It would be an ordinary person who would describe and see how the saint manifested the holy miracle. The Saint-Denis and his entourage in the picture were calm, and the executioner's axe had fallen. Rubens felt a little confused, because the heads of the three were still on the scene. Stay well on your shoulders.

"It will fall when it's time to fall," said Bosch, who sat in front of the drawing board, staring at the main image for a long time before starting to paint the third painting—"How beautiful, how brilliant, What an honor."

  ———

Captain Vauban did not feel tired after returning the king to the palace, partly because he was still young, and partly because of the excitement of the upcoming battle, which he knew would be good for tomorrow, or for a longer fight. It was not good, so he returned to the tent and instructed the attendants around him to find an empty tent for him, and he wanted to take a bath.

After the king expressed his strict requirements for cleanliness, his ministers and generals were also used to immersing themselves in warm water, but on the battlefield, only the king could carry a bathtub with him, and it was very difficult to vacate a tent. Easy, but not so easy to find a suitable bathtub - but those dexterous children soon moved in a sink for horses, and the weather is hot, and if it is in the daytime, a sunbath can ensure the water temperature is suitable , Fortunately, the meal preparation was over, the fire had not been completely extinguished, and it was not difficult to boil a few tin buckets of water.

In the rising mist, Vauban lay down comfortably. The wooden thorns at the bottom of the sink made him laugh and scold him involuntarily, but he didn't want to blame his attendants. His skin was not so delicate that it needed to be covered with silk. But all of a sudden, the thorns were gone, replaced by a velvety touch—the king’s captain submerged his hand—where he dropped a dagger, laughing at himself for being too sensitive. Well, now it comes in handy.

"I have no ill will, sir." A man came out of the shadow of the tent. When Louis was in the inner world, he had seen wizards coming out of the fire, from the water, from the sea of ​​flowers, while Bohemia The witches are not too much, but their movement methods can only be from the shadows and the quagmire, which gives people a much worse look and feel.

Aside from this, Manet is still a woman with a certain charm, unlike the ladies Vauban knew, her eyes glowing in the firelight, aggressive, and bohemians love to wear collars and cuffs Fringe on, or torn the edges into strips, Manit is no exception, this ragged look exposes her smooth light brown skin, waist, thighs and arms, which are looming and want to be explored after all.

   "I'm not in a good condition to receive a lady," Vauban said, his hands moving on the water. He didn't have the qualifications to know about the inner world and the outer world, but he also heard vaguely, especially these Bohemian women-the soldiers who said they would perform witchcraft and healed under their witchcraft Quite a few, but some are grateful, while more are whispering, wanting to ask the priest to see if their body is being controlled and cursed by witches - because of this war, the king has dispatched a lot of doctors, but you We also know that in the seventeenth century, there was not much difference between doctors and monks. There were not many crazy people like Andrea Vesalius.

   "Just some little thorns," Manitt said, twirling his fingers. "No fuss, sir."

   "It feels like velvet," said Vauban.

"A little spell," Manette walked behind Vauban, seeing the man's shoulder muscles visibly tense, she slowly put her hands on him, sliding on the skin, Vauban's skin no better than a witch's They are shallower, he likes the battlefield more than any noble, and he can take the lead in both training and combat. "We sometimes use it when we want to sit."

   "You are witches?" Vauban asked.

   "Wizard." Manite said, "You should have noticed, we didn't do much to cover it up."

  Vauban subconsciously wanted to ask the king if he knew? But he immediately answered the question in his mind, how could the king not know, he would never put an element of uncertainty in his army, "Do you have any orders? Madam? Wizard lady?"

  Manet smiled, holding Vauban's shoulders and slowly pushing away those tangled muscles: "I think you need to relax," she said, "I have a better way than hot water."

"I won't act rashly until the price is determined." Vauban said, while breathing a little, although the army must be followed by "famous people" who are talked about by people, but he has devoted himself to the king these days. On the important task of delivery, he has no such thoughts at all. Now—he has also read the book of "The Witch's Hammer", although he sneers, but now he has to admit that some of the content in it is really right—the witches want to seduce When a man, it's hard for men to shake off and reject.

   "I can give you gold." Vauban held the hand that was moving underwater.

   "I don't want gold," Manitt said.

   "Do you want me to marry you?" Vauban asked jokingly.

"I don't want a husband like you," Manette's other hand also fell under the water, her breath was close to her ear, her curls were soaked in steam, and the soft touch was transmitted from Vauban's bare back. Come: "Your loyalty belongs to your king, not to a woman."

   "There is no doubt," whispered Vauban, "so you can say, if you don't want gold, what else do you want? Could there be something more ridiculous and absurd than our marriage waiting for me?"

   "A little thing." Manit said: "When do you think this war will end?"

  —

"When will this war end?" Louis took a sip of his coffee. His coffee has always been filled with milk only, and sugar is strictly prohibited. This habit really tends to be puritanical - the coffee that Bontang brought to Captain Vauban There was a plate of sugar cubes neatly stacked next to it, so Captain Vauban poured them all into his coffee calmly, "I don't know what she wants to do, Your Majesty."

  Louis held up a piece of parchment and looked down from above: "Looks like you had a good time last night."

   "Very well," said Vauban, "but I didn't say a single word without your consent."

"Then I can tell you," said the king, "she just wants to use your mouth to test my ideas." These Bohemian witches must be disappointed to think that after abandoning the royal family for nearly a hundred years , the king of Bourbon must be eager to welcome them back to court, but this is simply their imagination and self-consolation, just as they always describe the life of displacement as "free" - but for Louis, A group of unscrupulous and unscrupulous wizards cannot even be compared with a group of refugees. The refugees can be managed, educated, and shackled by laws and beliefs, but what about witches? To put it in a bad way, if something, someone, or words made them feel unhappy, the most likely thing they would do is to vent hysterically and then run away.

Before they even refused first, that is to say, they guessed that the king might let them fight against the dark wizard - and they are willing to submit to a mortal before they can not face those terrible kind - if they know the time limit of this war, Then if things change, they can also infer the king's intentions.

But how could Louis put his life in the hands of these untrustworthy women, so although the king still ordered them to serve and gave a considerable number, he also promised not to let them appear in the inner world On the battlefield - it was a plan that Louis had planned for a long time to set up military doctors and nurses in the army, but in this era, people's moral values ​​are really strange, married men and women can find their own fun as they want, but unmarried women, Even if it is just one step over the mine, it will be covered with dirt that cannot be washed away - especially the army, the people have tacitly agreed that all the soldiers who follow the soldiers are women who make money, so there will be no girls from good families with the soldiers. , let alone looking at their bodies, wrapping their wounds, wiping and dealing with more intimate matters.

  It should be said that there are not many such women in the army, and they do hold multiple jobs, but the problem is that they are too few and too loose.

  The use of witches is just an attempt, and if they can't be placed here either, then Louis will try to find another, correctly, the last resort.

Unexpectedly, the witches did a good job, but Manit, Louis thought in his heart, just as he thought before, even if these witches were available, the members of the witch cult would still be purged, as if they were removed. The bones in the stewed chicken's body, there is no master or leader, and the remaining people are at the mercy - Louis unconsciously fiddled with the quill in his hand. The feathers plucked from a large raven, in fact it came from the inner world, a bird of Gayola, it never chirps, there are only three such feathers on its body, three plucked from the same bird The feathers are distributed among the three wizards to hold. No matter who has an accident, as long as the other two are broken, this is a gift from the Duke of Colonna to his father - but the reason why Louis stayed These Bohemian witches were to ensure that the court would not be completely occupied by the wizards of Gayola.

"I hope these Bohemians can change people's minds," said Louis. "Captain Vauban, you see it, too, the presence of paramedics, sometimes even more than doctors," said the doctors on the battlefield. , I am best at amputation. Although amputation can indeed prevent the injured person from dying from high fever after infection, blood loss and pain still keep the mortality rate high during and after surgery, not to mention that some doctors resolutely do not wash their hands. (This wastes a lot of time) I did an operation, and one operation killed three people (here, a doctor performed an amputation operation for a patient, and the knife used for the amputation first cut off the patient) , then injured the assistant's arm, and finally landed on the doctor's foot, causing a wound infection that killed them all at once), so when the soldiers saw the doctor, it was like a lamb seeing a butcher.

But it's different with female paramedics, think about it, just when you thought you were about to fall into hell, you opened your eyes and saw clean tents and rooms, dressed in white apron (this is the king's request) young girls looking at you with a smile, holding hot soup or milk in their hands, their voices are so sweet, their gestures are so light, even if they wash their wounds with salt water and spirits, let the lovely girls It doesn't seem that painful anymore.

   "But those, Your Majesty, they are not mortals."

"Can't mortals do the things I said before?" said the king, "I let these Bohemian women come here to serve my soldiers to let them know that not all the men in the army are Women are all despicable and despised, this is the most important thing, and when they have this understanding, it is possible to recruit daughters from ordinary people." Otherwise, even if someone is willing to let their sister, daughter and wife come to work, and the rude behavior of the soldiers will also frighten them, feel humiliated, and refuse to continue to work for them.

This is also a helpless thing. It is too difficult to change people's minds overnight, not to mention others, even Bohemian witches have to marry a soldier, and then take care of her husband, her husband's brother, and her husband. A friend of this kind can convince his own people to exist.

   "Speaking of which." The king asked, "How did it work?"

   "Very good." Vauban said: "There are some **** who are envious and even want to get hurt."

  The king laughed. "That's right," he said. "You don't have to answer Manet's question. If she asks again, tell him that the king hasn't changed his mind. That's all."

  ————

Manette didn't ask Vauban any more. Maybe the king's reaction explained everything, and one-third of the witches and the wounded were left in Lille. The king didn't call them to go elsewhere, but she Still feeling uneasy all the time.

   But in this war, there was really not much she could do. At about ten o'clock the next day, the siege of Brussels began.

   (end of this chapter)