I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 350 Lively Rebellion (2)

"You are like this," Viscount Turenne said after thinking for a long time, "it is very inappropriate." Viscount Turenne has always been a straightforward and upright person, so he did not mention the last time William III pretended to be an ordinary person. Man, he went to London with only a few entourage, and what happened, although at that time William III thought that Charles II was his uncle anyway, even if his father William II was not in the king. When he was in exile, he accepted him, but at least he was willing to lend him a loan - what Charles II pretended to be, the sum he wanted to return was this sum, but William III probably did not expect that the happy king would never care. Another debt.

Although Viscount Turenne didn't say anything, William III had already heard what he meant. His face heated up in the darkness, and his eyes were sore. When he thought of his innocence, he gave it to him, to the Orange family, to the Orange family. How much pain Holland has caused, he can't wait to kill himself - "I didn't come here to tell you this."

   "Then what do you want to say to me?" asked Viscount Turenne.

"Half of the blood of Orange is in your body," whispered William III. "I am willing to give up my present identity, even my life, if you will, sir, if you nod, I will take Utrecht. Donate to you."

Viscount Turenne sighed: "We are in the church now, otherwise I will think you are possessed by the devil, good sir, I know your efforts in Utrecht, you will manage there Very well, I don't think there is anything wrong that your ministers and people are going to rise up against you and expel you, you look ruddy and strong, and you don't look like you are going to see God at any time, why do you want to Utrecht to me?"

"I want to give only one Orange, let's put it this way," said William III. "If you will be a Dutchman, you can have half the Netherlands at once, four provinces, and all agree, if only you Willing to renounce your rights and duties as a Frenchman, they will make you their king—as for me, I can go wherever I want."

   "This news is really shocking," said Viscount Turenne: "Do you already think that the strength you have accumulated over the years is enough to fight against the king?"

   "With you, it is enough." William III said, "We will not ask for more power, you can also become a vassal of Louis XIV and bow to him."

Viscount Turenne laughed, not out of joy, but out of rage: "I used to have a little blood for you, because I loved my uncle Maurice very much, he was like my second Father, you are also an Orange, so on many issues my majesty and I are willing to bear with it--but it may be a mistake, because you think we are all fools by this, and my king is foolish enough to let a Because a little petty profit, no, it should be said that the interests like a castle in the air will immediately betray him, a villain who sells his dignity and morality to become the governor of the Netherlands, and I, you think I will have such ambitions , and dull minds, to believe that the Dutch would like a Frenchman to be their king."

He turned to William III, who had been sitting side by side on the bench before, the old man's eyes gleaming in the dark like steel or some other metal: "Think of your grandfather, William! He had a relationship with you. With the same name, he saved the Dutch from the tyranny of the Habsburgs, for which he exhausted all his assets, two sons were killed in the war, he was reprimanded for treason, his relatives and Friends were implicated - he thought at the time that he deserved a throne in return, of course, I thought so too, a lot of people thought so, but how did the Dutch pay him back?"

"When I read about him and saw how humiliatingly he died in a vile conspiracy - don't say it was done by the Spaniards! He was among the Dutch, and he deserved the protection he deserved. Where is it? No one even wants to issue a warning! His son, your father, should have been crowned as crown prince, but even a ruling position, they gave it reluctantly! And he , young and talented Wilhelm II, how and when did he die! Same assassination, but younger than his father, and you, Wilhelm, the third Wilhelm, you had in Holland Carefree, pampered days? They look at you like a thief trying to steal their purse!"

Viscount Turenne said, raising his voice unconsciously, he stood up, crossed his hands, crossed his chest, and made a fierce gesture: "Someone like this, William, if you come and tell me, This is a conspiracy, a trap, I would like to think highly of you, but if it is true," a smile flickered across his lips: "I would be really surprised that they can not only abandon a king, but also abandon a king. A general who can give up their last hope now, my God, although they are only Protestants, I have to say, they are no different from those Judah merchants, they can be so greedy and cruel!"

  When Viscount Turenne stood up, William III also stood up: "You will not understand, sir, we are willing to sacrifice for Holland, even if we have to shed the last bit of blood."

"Then do you know what my Majesty has said to me?" said Viscount Turenne: "Sacrifice is a beautiful word, but not a good one, because when someone mentions it, it is always accompanied by many Grief and pain, and no matter what kind of sacrifice, if it's not followed by the word 'reward', then the sadness is more sad, the pain is more painful, and sometimes it even makes the word too heavy , it's heavy that no one can afford - the heavy thing is to throw it away."

   "Therefore," he continued, "all sacrifice must be accompanied by a reward, just as Christ **** always answered his followers, and only then can sacrifice become worthwhile."

   "Isn't such a statement like a businessman?" William III asked: "Sacrifice for ideas and virtues should not be rewarded."

"On the contrary," said Viscount Turenne, "there is nothing less worthy of being cherished than free—that's what your grandfather did, he turned his back on his monarch for the Dutch, and did the Dutch thank him? No Did the Dutch thank him when he hired soldiers with his own money? No! Did the Dutch thank him when his tears fell on his son's corpse? No! Once he said, to be king, they Outraged that he was plotting Dutch ownership in the first place."

   "They are already remorseful," said William III.

"Remorse with indifference and sarcasm, I see," said Viscount Turenne contemptuously: "How many concessions did you make to allow them... to admit you? You never thought it was yours, if They didn't sit back and watch the Spaniards kill your grandfather, then legally and morally you are the undisputed ruler of the Netherlands, and the Netherlands will be a united and complete country, both the British, well, the French, Don't even think of cutting a piece out of your territory, but the Dutch gave up, and now you and them will swallow the bitter fruit."

  William III shook his head, "I came to persuade you, but now I'm about to be persuaded by you."

   "Whether it's your impulse or a conspiracy, I'm sorry, Your Highness, I'm not going to continue to accompany you any longer." Viscount Turenne lifted his cloak.

   "Aren't you afraid that the king's agents will tell Louis XIV of our meeting?" asked William III.

   "Not only them, I have to write a letter after I go back to tell His Majesty about this in detail. He will laugh when he sees it." Viscount Turenne said.

   "Aren't you afraid? Maybe Louis XIV will be suspicious of you, you are so far away from him, and you control the army, the tax revenue and the people."

"You must have heard of the Prince of Condé," said Viscount Turenne, "but you may be half right, and it is quite possible that your Majesty will write back to me and say, Mr. Viscount, since the people of Utrecht are so ardent and sincere , you shouldn't push it too much, accept it as soon as possible... and so on."

   "It's not the same, Poland doesn't belong to France, but North Holland..."

"You still don't understand what I mean," said Viscount Turenne helplessly, "I want to tell you that my venerable Sun King is a man with an incomparably powerful army, country and people. Therefore, it is as wide as the sea. A king like this will never be full of suspicion about his subjects, because he and I are very clear that even if I really betray him, he will be able to conquer the Netherlands next time, of course. A second shot."

   William III opened his mouth and was almost speechless.

"So whatever tricks those people want to play, forget it," said Viscount Turenne; "they are of no use to your majesty, William, go back to your Utrecht. , between England and France, you can at least have the Orange surname, and don't let it disappear completely in Holland."

   He turned and was about to leave, but was stopped by William III: "I have something to tell you," he stood among the rows of benches. Like something long forgotten: "I think it's a whistleblower."

   "It sounds hard to imagine that you were willing to sacrifice your life for the Netherlands just now," Viscount Turenne frowned: "What are you going to tell me?"

   "It has nothing to do with Holland," said William III. "It has to do with the most basic morality of man."

   "I know how vicious humans can be when they are at their worst." Viscount Turenne said: "You can speak, and I am all ears."

   "You know Madame Lavarière," said William III, and after seeing the Viscount Turenne nod, he continued: "She bore a child to Louis XIV."

   "Duke of Hallebre," Viscount Turenne said, "for this reason Madame Lavarière was canonized as Duchess of Brussels." He bowed his head slightly, showing respect: "It has something to do with them?"

   "Some of the Dutch," said William III, "they came up with a dastardly plan to hire an army, sneak into Brussels, and take the Duchess and her children."

   Viscount Turenne's expression became serious: "How many?"

"A thousand men," said William III, the anachronism in his nature that made him brave to accept exile and death, but also made him unacceptable to use a child and a woman to subdue an enemy who could fight , from Utrecht to other places, even to North America, you can persist for ten, twenty, or a hundred years, but such behavior, no matter where and when, is extremely shameless , he firmly opposed, but he knew that although those people agreed to him on the surface, but from the flow of money on the books, they still did it... He looked at Viscount Turenne, a little ashamed, but if Tirena Viscount Reina was able to dispatch the army in time, perhaps before it was too late.

What he didn't expect was that Viscount Turenne was stunned for a while, then lowered his head, repeated "a thousand people" several times, and then began to shake his head again. Just when William III thought he was crazy, He burst out laughing!

  ————

Although Mrs. Lavariel's Serbian werewolf group suffered a lot in the previous wars inside and outside the world, it definitely exceeded a thousand people. After they settled in the Halepur Forest, there were other lost ones one after another. The tribesmen came here. The needs of werewolves are not as strong as those of human beings.

Furthermore, as the lord here, Madame Lavariel has the right to collect taxes, or not to collect taxes, or to decide the level of taxes, and the scholars and merchants sent by the king to build schools and business routes for them, so they The days were very pleasant, except that Madame Lavariel sometimes missed the father of the child. Although the little duke did not show the characteristics of a werewolf with the help of the witch, his body was obviously stronger than that of ordinary children. Runs earlier than human children, and starts eating meat earlier. He likes to run in the forest and whimper like a wolf, and he is still trying to howl recently.

In a situation like this, I'm afraid that the Duke of Harlebull won't be able to return to Versailles until he is sensible enough to hide his nature, but Louis also promised Madame Lavariel that the little duke's coming-of-age ceremony must be held in Versailles. palace.

   On the day of the attack on Halepur Castle, she was writing to His Majesty the King, about the Duke of Halepur, but also about Brussels, and Louis had placed them here, certainly not just for a moment of mercy.

   The battle that day may have lasted for two or three hours, but on paper, it was just a sentence.

   Deaths: One thousand and thirty-two.

At the beginning, this letter was not taken seriously by people other than Louis XIV. They were collected together with other letters between Louis XIV and his children and their mothers, but with the development of communication technology and network technology in later generations Ascension by leaps and bounds, more and more people are beginning to be curious about the Sun King, and a bold Asian scholar even intends to collect information about Louis XIV and his many wedlock and illegitimate children, because let him It seems that, with the gradual expansion of France's territory (including all, that is, conquered, inherited, traded, and colonized) in the later period, Louis XIV seems to have arranged for him and the queen's son to be with him. The sons of the ladies of the royal family and the sons of the king's younger brother were all given the position of grand duke or king, which is also known as the six crowns of Bourbon - this kind of behavior can not help but remind the scholar that he had been implemented in his native country. The enfeoffment system for thousands of years, but it is also said that this is the wisdom of picking up people (Habsburgs), because the Habsburgs have always used the above methods to expand their territory and influence.

   For the time being, and because of the scholar's curiosity, in a routine exhibition about the Sun King at the Palace of Versailles, several seemingly ordinary letters aroused his idea, one of which was written as follows:

  This letter was written in 1667, four days before the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, at the Chateau de Halebourg, Brussels.

  To my lord, my king, my dearest one:

  I once again put my heart, my soul and my body into your hands with all my heart.

We have been separated for a long time, but your figure and face, your smile, are still as deeply in my heart as the words engraved on the rock, my thoughts and days multiply, in times of pain, you are the only one who My greatest gift to my consolation is that of the Duke of Harlepur, our Baptiste.

He is now taller than my knees, can almost hug my legs, is very lively, and even gives me a headache. Fortunately, after he can go out, he spends most of his time in the forest, this forest, My Majesty, I want to thank you, for to us, to Baptiste, it is like the Garden of Eden—there was a small lake here, and then our people discovered hidden streams and springs elsewhere , they simply call it Green Lake, Cherry Creek and White Spring.

Cherry Creek got its name because there are cherry trees on both sides of the stream, which is surprising, perhaps because of the steep mountain walls on both sides, which were not discovered by wild beasts and birds. Unfortunately, when we found out, the cherries were already there. Knotted once, and by next spring I'll send you some cherries in hopes of adding a little color to your dinner plate.

   We also recently spotted a new herd of deer.

  Baptiste's elders caught two of them before they could walk, and they gave Baptiste the deer that were still breastfeeding. Baptiste seemed to intend to make them his mounts. He fell several times, but was not injured.

You mentioned Brussels last time, Your Majesty, as far as I can see, they are always like a nest of ants, always eager to find opportunities, their mayor respects me on the surface, but in private there are many complaints and complaints. I doubt it, but since he is still willing to obey your will and decrees and cooperate with your general, I don't know if I should deprive him of his position.

In addition, something happened this morning, maybe because you transferred some of the troops here before, some people thought they could do something with the opportunity, they hired about 800 to 900 Italian and Austrian mercenaries, together with here The thugs, more than a thousand, attacked the Khalepur Castle at dawn - no, they first tried to loot the village and town here, but you know, by your grace, mine The clansmen lived here, plus the... refugees who moved here later, the number of people in the town has long exceeded 18,000.

  I don't know if it should be called a war, because they couldn't even get into the town - the battle lasted about two hours or so, about two dozen people were injured and no one died.

   But I think our enemies were cursed, and in their panic, they ran into the nearby swamp, and none of them came out.

   One thousand and thirty-two people, none of whom survived.

   May God forgive them.

  Your Louise de Lavariel

- Seeing this, the Asian scholar is somewhat incomprehensible - how the former royal lady, the Duchess of Brussels, calculated that there are a thousand enemies who ran into the swamp, whether cursed or not. What about thirty-two people?

   (end of this chapter)