I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 345 More than five sheepskins

  Louis looked at the middle-aged man, he immediately raised his eyes to the sky, and said nothing.

"It is never the enemy that makes me so eager." The king of France said slowly: "Mr. Spinoza, it is indeed my fault, but I think that after you came to Florence, you should have understood how it was. That's what happened." If it was Descartes, or a mathematician, or a doctor, he might not have been able to guess the king's true intentions, but Spinoza was more of a philosopher than a philosopher. A psychologist, his intelligence allows him to see everything very thoroughly, and it is precisely because he is too thorough that he will end up like that.

"I, Your Majesty, I..." Contrary to what the middle-aged man expected, Spinoza did not show any joy at this great opportunity: "In fact, I left Amsterdam when I was twenty-four years old. , to The Hague, and then back to Amsterdam..."

"Because of hearing the French invade the Netherlands, you're going to persuade those MPs and officials to keep them in Amsterdam—whatever you do, as long as you can keep the French army out of the Dutch hub for a week, even if it's three or five. God, things may turn around." Louie said.

  Spinoza breathed a strange sigh of relief: "Yes, Your Majesty."

"What does that matter?" Louis leaned forward on a walking stick, not paying any attention to the strange smell coming from Spinoza, who hadn't bathed in a few days: "If you want to kill all the Dutch who have opposed me, then The population of Amsterdam is now at least a third smaller," he straightened up: "I am very strict with some people, but very tolerant of others, Mr. Spinoza, you happen to be the latter, I see I am interested in some of your theories after reading your correspondence with Mr. Descartes."

   "Mr. Descartes showed it to you?"

   "How is that possible?" Louis said confidently: "I demolished it privately." Little Louis, Spinoza and the middle-aged man couldn't help showing an indescribable look.

   "You are nothing like the king I imagined," Spinoza said.

   "What's the difference?"

"I thought you would be tougher," Spinoza said. "I am worried for my former friends and colleagues, Your Majesty, the lion will not care about the barking of the hyena, the mountain will not be afraid of the hurricane, the more you are Moderate means that the more complete and tighter your hold on Holland is, if they are willing to pledge their allegiance to you, that is a good thing, and if they are still delusional, they will suffer a great setback."

"You may be partly right," Louis smiled reservedly, and he had to admit that he was being complimented just right: "But I'd rather be in a comfortable room, leaning on a soft sofa, with coffee, lemons beside me. Water and cake (Spinoza and the middle-aged man couldn't help but swallow a few times when he said this), and then we will talk slowly." He looked at Mrs. Milady beside him, Milady Mrs. Leddy waved her hand forward knowingly, and Spinoza's body suddenly lightened, as if being embraced by an invisible person. His toes were still touching the ground, but he could no longer feel any weight. , his muscles were tense for a few seconds, but then relaxed and he took a deep breath.

Spinoza had heard that the king of France once kept a large group of devil servants like King Solomon. He looked at Milady inexplicably and guessed that she might be a witch, although there are many powerful people in Holland. He will keep wizards, but this kind of transaction is always carried out in the dark, but Louis XIV took a witch with him as if nothing happened, as if he was taking his royal wife, and even let her perform in front of such a person. Witchcraft, "May I take it that you don't change your mind?" He looked at Louis XIV.

"Why should I change?" said Louis, "your mind has not aged with your years, your will is still strong, I can see life in your eyes, you still have what I need in you , Mr. Spinoza."

   "Yes, Your Majesty," said Spinoza, "you are a man of boldness, and in that case, I may suppose that you do not care about my previous crimes?"

   "Teaching privately?" Louis said, "No, I was just asking you to teach at my university."

"The Elector of Brandenburg also once sent me an invitation, and he wanted me to be a professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, but on the condition that things related to religion should never be mentioned, but without religion, human philosophy is like It is an animal without flesh and bones, and there is only a hollow fur to talk about, so I rejected him, Your Majesty, and now I still have to say..."

   "You can say anything you want," Louie said.

"No, no, you don't understand," said Spinoza, agitated, "since you have read my correspondence with Mr. Descartes and investigated me, you should know how I was in my twenty-three or four-year-old age. was expelled from Amsterdam."

   "Your understanding of God is as vast as a world apart from other people's understanding of God," Louis said. ,

   "Aren't you worried then?" Spinoza asked.

"worry about what?"

   "The young men of France may go astray as the young men of Athens."

"Here I want to say," said Louie, "that you will be teaching at my university, and before that, you will be competing with other professors for your time with your knowledge and ideas—in my university, this is mine Ask that if your interpretation of God convinces others that they cannot logically and intellectually disprove you, then you can preach your theories to young people as you please."

   "Are all people like this?"

"Yes."

"Then that's fair enough," said Spinoza, "I'm forty-five years old, and I'm tired of wandering around and grinding glass lenses, and if you're still willing to hire me after you've heard about me, Then I'll go to France."

   "You don't look like forty-five at all," said Mrs. Milady.

   "The loneliness and hard life brought about by the betrayal and separation of relatives, and the pain that no one understands will make a person age quickly." Spinoza said.

"Then just wait for the answer here, I believe it will come soon." Louis nodded, and when he was about to leave, Spinoza stopped him: "If you are willing to be a sinner like me Forgive, accept, merciful Your Majesty, then would you rather have more than one available?"

"Anyone available? Who?" asked Louis, trusting Spinoza's recommendation—these overly wise scholars have no place in the eyes of vulgar mortals, including kings and archdukes, and there must be merit in those they see, Flute Carl recommended Spinoza to him, and now he wants to see who Spinoza is going to recommend to him.

   Spinoza tilted her head. "It's him," he said. "Your Majesty, he is Alexander Torricelli."

   "The surname sounds familiar to me, but I can't remember who he is." Louis said frankly.

"Evangelista Torricelli, you should know the name." Spinoza said: "He is the adopted son of Evangelista Torricelli, Your Majesty, his father once It was the last disciple of Mr. Galileo, but when he was studying with Mr. Galileo, Mr. Galileo was blind and had only three months of life. He and Mr. Galileo's former student Vivani helped Mr. Galileo to complete the final Manuscript finishing work.”

Spinoza spoke these words in a hurry, almost biting his own tongue. He was afraid that Louis XIV would be satisfied after getting him and would not care about a small person like Alexander, but there was no shout from Alexander before, Louis X Four would never find out that the cage was exactly the man he was looking for—he was really worried, because the mention of Galileo made Louis XIV's nerves tense.

If there is anything to regret about Louis XIV, it is that he was born a little late, many scientists and philosophers died before he could take power, and Galileo died when he was only four years old, like the previous Torricelli, also died six years later, his spies returned without success, much to the regret of the king - but adopted son?

   "You are Torricelli's adopted son?"

"Yes," the middle-aged man said nervously, but maybe he wasn't that old—their family couldn't even get close to the cage to feed them, and certainly couldn't clean their faces, trim their beards and hair, Coupled with the wind and the sun, it is understandable to look older than before: "I am, yes yes — yes, Evangelista Torricelli's adopted son... I am..."

   "You weren't so nervous when you spoke to Spinoza just now." Louis said helplessly: "Speak slowly, I'm listening, I don't have anything important, and I don't feel tired."

The man with the same name as the ancient Macedonian king paused for a while, woke up, took a deep breath, and then slowly continued: "I am indeed the adopted son of Evangelista Torricelli, who is devoted to studying Learning, he has never been married, but what he did not expect was that he had a serious illness at the age of thirty-nine, and he needed to be anointed with holy oil at any time. At that time, I was his student. He asked me if I would like to be his son - I agreed. ."

"Then you have inherited his inheritance." Because he heard that Torricelli passed away early, and another student, Vivany, may have gone to England, Louis XIV, who was not interested, did not order the spies to continue their investigation. go down.

"All, Your Majesty," said Alexander wisely, "if you need it, you can ask someone to transcribe it, but please don't take it away, at least not in the next few years," he said cautiously: "I am following the teacher's Take notes for research and experimentation, Your Majesty, if you allow…”

"Let's go to Paris and do it together." Louis XIV said simply, talented people are always as rare as gold in the gravel, but the foundation of science needs to be solidified by people who are willing to be down-to-earth. Whether or not it was intentional to deceive, other scholars tried it out, and the Bastille could always squeeze out a place or two.

  Little Louis pulled his father's shirt. "What's the matter?" Louis asked sideways.

"What crime did this gentleman commit?" asked little Louis, and Louis remembered that he did not ask - mainly because he didn't care whether the other party was a real criminal or not. As a king, the bottom line should always be set very low, and he did not feel What a despicable thing to do for a scholar who still insists on getting his work done in the face of him: "You're not a Judas."

   "I'm not from Judah, my wife is." Alexander said bitterly: "My wife gave birth to a son for me, but she has insufficient milk and needs to hire a wet nurse."

   "What's the problem with that?" Many thoughts passed through Louis's mind. Did the wet nurse stole the important information, or did they take their son, and in desperation, Alexander killed her?

"Neither," said Alexander Mumu, "according to the laws of the Duchy of Tuscany, Christian children cannot be fed by a Judasian breastfeeding mother, and if the mother is a Judah, the father must submit a written report to the government, Allow the wet nurse of the Judas to breastfeed the child." He showed a look of crying or laughing: "I am not very rich, Your Majesty, I did not bribe the officials of the Office of Public Etiquette, they would not approve my application, nor did I Can't hire Christian wet nurses because they're worried about their reputation, but even if they wanted, I don't have enough money - their commissions are three times that of Jewish mothers, and my son drinks honey for days Water, he was dying, and as a last resort, my wife's sister-in-law secretly fed him a few mouthfuls - and was immediately caught. That merciful and pitiful woman, Your Majesty, was in the cage behind me."

  Louis XIV and little Louis, and other French people finally understood why there were so many female prisoners here, and looked closely, their chests were bulging and their faces were full of pain.

   "I'll see your wife right away." Madame Milady said immediately that although she had no children, she had raised the Duke of Colonna until he came of age, and could almost be said to be the nurse of the Duke of Colonna.

"Many thanks."

"Okay," said Louis XIV, "is there anyone else you would recommend to me besides this gentleman?" I'll let Mrs Milady take care of this."

Spinoza hesitated and said nothing, but Louis glanced at him, not anxious, he had to say it anyway—unless he thought it would be a good thing to keep a friend in Florence like this, Louis XIV in Holland No matter how cruel people are in their hearts, everyone can see his love for scholars, artists, and capable people. Otherwise, how can people say that the second Renaissance was in Paris and Versailles?

But this question may not need an answer, because at this moment, the guard of the square suddenly had a conflict with a man, who didn't seem to be a strong fighter, and was knocked to the ground all of a sudden. When he went further, Louis XIV's entourage stopped him.

He was brought before the king, with a bruised nose and dirty clothes. He was still clutching a cloth bag in his hand. The sweet smell of candied fruit was in the cloth bag. He thought he was going to sneak into the square and give some food to the prisoners here. Yes - the sweet and sour preserves will keep them going for longer.

   He looked at Louis XIV with a look of horror, and then subconsciously looked at Spinoza who was still standing in the cage.

   Spinoza coughed. "Your Majesty," he said, "this is my friend Christian Huygens."

Christian Huygens has three titles, physicist, astronomer and mathematician. Louis XIV showed a subtle smile: "I also asked Viscount Turenne to find you, Mr. Huygens." Hui Gens was born in The Hague and never left the Hague before he became friends with Spinoza, and he should have died in The Hague - but he, like Spinoza, ran bravely when he heard the French invaded Amsterdam. Volunteers, the problem is that before he and Spinoza got to Amsterdam, Amsterdam was already in Louis XIV's pocket - there was no fierce war or **** carnage they imagined, and it was a fool's errand at a friend's place. After a few days, they heard that a French general was looking for Spinoza, and they fled without thinking.

They also did not dare to flee back to The Hague. In addition to worrying about implicated relatives and friends, The Hague was already French, and they thought for a while—Huygens still had some money, and they did not dare to go to England, even though England was also Protestant , but their Anglican sect was not that kind of magnanimous sect. Spinoza was not only a Jew, but a Jew wanted by the Church of Rome, and Protestant believers, hearing his nonsense, also He must be burned at the stake. Nor did they dare to go to the Holy Roman Empire, or Spain or Portugal, let alone France—that would be self-defeating, and Huygens later suggested that they could go to Florence, Italy.

People in Florence know that the glory and freedom of Florence is no longer what it used to be, but others don't know that Huygens and Spinoza thought they were in a promised land and could start breathing the sweet air, who? Knowing that they have tried their best to come here, only to find that the strict rules and customs of the Principality of Tuscany have turned the people here into slaves of action and thought. They are in heavy shackles and can hardly breathe. .

Spinoza and Huygens wanted to leave, but they... had no money... and they dared not reveal their real names, so Huygens went to work in a watch workshop - given that he had improved timing machinery , Spinoza continued to polish the lenses of telescopes and microscopes. The problem is that Spinoza's habit of being a teacher has not been changed. He has several students in The Hague, and gradually some young people in Florence He asked, although they did not know that they were facing Spinoza, but the sparkle of wisdom is like a diamond, and it only takes a little light to attract people's eyes.

You also know what happened later. Spinoza was arrested. Huygens was not affected for the time being, so he tried his best - he couldn't raise enough ransom, but he couldn't watch his friend die. .

  The reason why Alexander Torricelli knew that this man was Spinoza was because he was one of the people who went to visit Spinoza.

   (end of this chapter)