I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 99 The Commission of the Duke of Gaston

The servant yelled because Gaston, Duke of Orleans, was almost drowning in blood and clots on his upper body, his pillows and sheets were covered with sticky, stench, black and red semi-solidified things, and his nose purred. Bubbling up from a pile of indescribable black pudding-like things, it was here that the painful gasps came from, but it was the protruding eyes of the Duke Gaston that made him scream uncontrollably. The top of the eye socket is shaky, like a long-ripening grape that is about to fall from the branches at any time. Even the brave knight can't help trembling when he sees such a scene.

This servant is not the personal servant before the Duke of Gaston. To be precise, since he came to Blois, his personal servant has been replaced four times in a row, and each of them is either inexplicably seriously ill and suddenly died, or in After resigning and encountering various accidents, now standing beside the Duke's bed is a daring janitor. Since he can get a golden louis every day here, he has come bravely and sticks to it until now, but in addition There is a problem, that is, this kind of person can't help but be stupid. For example, he only knows how to stand by the bed and scream when he finds out that the Duke is strange.

Fortunately, at this time, the second wife of the Duke of Gaston, the one whom he loved and borrowed, Madame Marguerite de Lorraine's bedroom was separated from the Duke's room by only one wall. She quickly put on her cloak and rushed into the room. The whole process did not take more than a minute - since the Duke was seriously ill, the lady had never taken off her coat in bed, and she slapped the servant and told him to stop. She shouted, ordering her maid to bring hot water and cotton cloths, and shouting for the servant who had been beaten sober to wake up the others, the duke's confessor, the priest, the doctor, and her and the duke's three daughters.

A few minutes later, the hot water and the cotton cloth came. At this time, the sheets on the duke had been pulled away and thrown away. They were piled under the bed. The duchess twisted the cotton cloth from the copper basin to half dry and gently covered the duke's face. , slowly wiping away the dried blood—the black pudding clots had been swept away with the sheets first, and the duchess closed the duchess’ hideous eyes, and put a velvet mask on him, so that people could He couldn't see his terrifying appearance now - except for the eyes that were about to fall out, as well as the swollen tongue and the dense bruises and blisters all over the cheeks and neck.

Within about half an hour, the confessor, the priest, the doctor, and the Duke's daughters all came. The oldest was thirteen and the youngest was ten. Originally they had an eight-year-old brother and six-year-old sister, but They died six years ago and two years ago, respectively, and now the duke has no male heir, only an eighteen-year-old illegitimate child.

One can tell how miserable Mr. Duke is just by hearing the sound of his breathing - his breathing is irregular, sometimes long, sometimes short, thick like a blacksmith's bellows, shallow like a butterfly While flapping his wings, his moan was like a ghoul coming from the soil nine feet below, slender and desolate, and everyone who heard it would have an idea in his heart, that is to let this Death to the moan, don't let him continue to suffer like this.

But after the doctor - that strange guy, always wearing a crow's mouth mask and hunched over his back, poured the Duke a potion that looked like boiling mud, the Duke came over again, and he held The hand of the duchess, his thoughts passed from this clenched hand to the heart of the duchess, he was indeed tormented, but he did not want to die, at least not now, he had no male heir, wait for him to die Then, only Philip, the younger brother of King Louis of France, will inherit the territory and the title. That is to say, not only has he lost to his enemies, but everything he seeks will become a delicacy in the mouths of his enemies, and he cannot accept this result no matter what. - But his serious illness is not just a disguise as people guessed, he is indeed ill, almost terminally ill.

When he realized that the duke might not need them yet, the confessor and the priest withdrew at the beckoning of the duchess. When they were about to leave the room, the confessor saw a set of triptych altarpieces hanging in the duke's bedroom— What he saw made him draw a cross on his chest.

The Duchess stared at the huge wood engraving from Flanders, Hieronymus Bosch, three men so wide with outstretched arms and so high as one, the eccentric evil The painter's vicious imagination in this painting dedicated to the convent, although the subject remains a common religious theme.

God gave Eve to Adam, the joys of the world, the pain in hell... But from the Garden of Eden (God and Adam and Eve), many strange plants and animals appeared on the screen, like huge buildings Flowers, thorny fruits that split open and stick out their tongues, winged fish and three-headed birds, etc.; the mundane is depicted as a large garden full of young men and women, their hairless, ambiguous gestures, and There are many more mutated and twisted scenes, owls hatched from pomegranates with many legs, mermaids wearing iron helmets, women riding cats, and what is even more strange is that the complexion of those humans ranges from bluish gray to White, and then from white to red, and then completely black to the point of indistinguishable eyebrows, eyes and limbs, it looks like an upright shadow of a human shape.

In hell, the artist's imagination is completely released. What you see here is that animals rule over human beings. There is no flame, no magma in hell, and no pain can be seen on human faces, but they are clearly created. It has become a variety of furniture and musical instruments, either being penetrated, crushed, or carrying heavy objects, unable to straighten up. The strange thing is that people will say absurd when they see them, but they can't take their eyes away. When you look at them When the time comes, it is as if you can hear all kinds of sounds coming from the screen, from grunting, crying, roaring, or pleading.

This painting was supposed to be destroyed, but for some unknown reason, the bishop of the women’s convent kept it, and then the Duke of Gaston heard about it occasionally and insisted on going to see it, and then paid a thousand livres for it. It was bought.

   "It's an honor for you to like my writing so much." The doctor laughed when he saw the Duchess's eyes again, his laughter was like a frightened cat.

   "Mr. Bosch," Duke Gaston didn't take off his mask, but he seemed to be able to see the picture through the deep black velvet: "How long can I live?"

"You should have died a long time ago," Hieronymus Bosch, who should have died a hundred years ago, but was still able to walk in the world as if nothing had happened, picked it up with a smile from the sheets that had not been thrown away. One thing, held up in front of the candle for the Duke to see, "Look, sir, this is your lung."

   "Is there no hope?"

"there is none left."

"If I could have another son," whispered the duke (he didn't have the strength), "I could still sleep with women...my wife would arrange for me, ten or twenty, their bellies. There can always be a son here, and I'll get Margaret to admit him, and he'll be my rightful heir..."

"It's impossible, Mr. Duke, you start to rot from the inside of your body, which means that even if you can... well, get up, it's impossible for your two shriveled eggs to produce seeds, you are doomed to lose Your territory and title are gone, but it doesn't matter, at that time you are dead and buried in the ground, you will no longer have any consciousness."

This remark made the duke furious, but all he could do was rip off the mask, and even so, he was still panting from exhaustion, and the duchess held his head in her arms without disgust and let him Lying on his lap, even though the duke's head was like a rotting plum, after a moment of excitement, the duke suddenly calmed down again. It's almost impossible to see what's in front of him now, but as long as he's got his mind working, he's got a loyal wife and subjects, he'll...

   "Then," he said calmly, "if I want someone to bury me alone..."

"Who?"

   "King Louis XIV of France."

   This answer silenced Mr. Bosch for a while, and then he asked, "Return?"

   "All the money I left, and a hundred blank identification papers."

   "Where's your wife?"

   "She has her own dowry."

   "Where's your daughter?"

"They are all engaged and have their own dowries." Here, the Duke of Gaston did not mention his eldest daughter, the Duchess of Montpensier, if the Duchess of Montpensier returned to the court again. Before, she had given the impression of Duke Gaston as an incompetent waste, a betrayer, so after she exchanged the income from the domain for the king's forgiveness for her instead of her father, she was Gaston The Duke of the East is an out-and-out enemy.

   He didn't let her die, not out of his father's kindness, but because the power the Duke now has is very meager and needs to be used in the most critical places.

   "Where's your... son?"

   "He is my only bloodline, and I will send him to Spain."

   "And what about Philip, Duke of Anjou?"

   "I want to leave a Bourbon king for France, and if I make such a request, you will never grant it."

"Indeed, sir," said Bosch, taking off his mask, revealing red eyes and sharp fangs: "but we have promised Prince Theoderic of Vanderbilt that we will never harm anyone in the royal family. any one, so I can only regret it as an intermediary for you."

   "My salary should impress a lot of people."

   "It is true, and your Majesty," said Bosch, "he has done something lately that has upset a lot of people."

   (end of this chapter)