I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 225 The Tragedy of the DeWitt Brothers

If there is anyone who can best understand the power of the seemingly humble and weak people, except for Charles II whose father was pushed to the guillotine and himself, his brother, mother and sister were all forced into exile, there is probably only Louis X. Fourth, although the leaders of the Stone Slinger movement are all noble and important officials, in fact, their driving force still comes from the people. , even extraordinary people will inevitably feel fear, otherwise there will be no appearance of the world.

As the backbone of the slinger, the Duke of La Rochefoucault is of course very clear - he could not help but smack his tongue slightly for the king's ruthlessness. Do you have any questions about the king's orders?"

The Duke of La Rochefoucault quickly restrained the strange expression on his face, "I just think, Your Highness," he said sincerely, "I didn't understand why you valued Your Majesty so much at first, after all at that time..." He shrugged : "You know, His Majesty was still underage at that time, and people thought he was just a child curled up in the bishop's robe and the skirt of the queen mother..." But you have to hand over the entire Tsmish clan to him as a It is too confusing for a prince who is so picky about his sons that he has no direct descendants. In particular, the Duke of La Rochefoucault, who directly faced Amon, had made a big mistake and therefore had a deeper understanding of the existence of vampires.

"I like Louis precisely because he will never be bound by stupid morals or ideas." Amon said, and after speaking, he turned into a group of bats under the gaze of the Duke of La Rochefoucault, opening from time to time. flew out of the open window.

Amon’s behavior has always been so unrestrained, but such behavior will undoubtedly frighten some people. Just before the Duke of La Rochefoucault walked to the window, he heard a sharp shout, and then people rushed out in a panic. with prayers.

   "Speaking of the devil, the devil is here." The Duke of La Rochefoucault murmured.

No wonder he said that, because the person who came was one of the friends of the Duke of La Roche-Fouquet in Amsterdam, the most prominent Madame Van Schulman, who was not only young and beautiful, but also outstanding in literature and art. Talent and accomplishments, the relationship between the Duke of La Rochefoucault and her is at the ambiguous stage between a friend and a lover. It can also be said that the emotion is the purest and hottest. As soon as she saw her, the Duke immediately rushed. Go out and take her to his mansion.

When the lady was leaving the carriage, she was met by a swarm of bats flying out of the window of the Duke's room, and she was uttering strange laughter, which really frightened her, and the Duke kept stroking her back to comfort her, While undoing her shawl, so that she could breathe, the servant brought the maraschino chocolate.

Chocolate is also a product of the New World. The Spaniards first introduced it to the court, but it was used as a drug to treat depression and malnutrition, but since King Teresa came to the court, this drug came naturally. It has transformed into delicious food, of course, thanks to Louis XIV's development and promotion of sugar cane and beets, making French sugar a stable product. Now people know that chocolate without sugar tastes Bitter, but with the addition of cream and sugar, it becomes extra tantalizing, and the duke of La Rochefoucauld is so popular among the ladies that he has a lot of credit for the steady stream of sweet treats around him.

The wine-stuffed cherries were soaked in brandy, covered with a rustling sugar shell, and the shell was soft creamy chocolate. I ate a few of them in a row. Whether it was sugar or alcohol, they all had the desired effect. Mrs. Van Schulman finally gradually The ground calmed down: "How terrible," she whispered: "Sir, it's like the devil in the book and the picture, they are still laughing above my head."

   "It's just a bunch of ordinary bats," the Duke of La Rochefoucauld held his wife's cold little hand: "Some bats sound like they're laughing."

"Bats are the devil's servants," said Mrs. Van Schulman slightly reproachfully, "you should know how frightened I am watching them fly out of your room—I am afraid they will bite you or kill you. The plague has spread to you." So the Duke could only kiss her hand as an apology. "I was wrong," said the duke, "but I just don't want you to worry about me."

   "Why are there so many bats in your room?" asked the lady.

"That's my servant's fault," said the duke. "He forgot to close the window. Perhaps it was more subdued because the fireplace was burning in the room. . ."

"That's an incompetent servant," said the lady, frowning, "but you'd better not dismiss him for a while," the duke looked inquiringly: "he's an Amsterdammer," said the lady, "I don't know you If you dismiss him, he will talk nonsense outside, you know," she held the Duke's hand instead: "The current atmosphere is very unfriendly to foreigners like you."

Her eyes touched the Duke's in the firelight of the fireplace, and the Duke was a little moved, because he knew that the lady suddenly came to visit in the middle of the night disrespectfully, and was really worried about his safety: "I feel it too. "How sad, ma'am," he said softly. "I thought we were friends already."

   "We are friends." Madame said: "But you should leave as soon as possible, or I don't know if you will be in any danger."

"Will they kill me or imprison me?" The Duke left the chair, bent his left knee, and knelt in front of his wife: "If it's just imprisoning, I don't care, because I'm already your prisoner, but they want to kill me. If you kill me, then I just ask you to be the executioner." After hearing this, Madam sighed loudly and turned her head to the side.

   "And," said the duke suddenly optimistically, "perhaps things won't get so bad, ma'am, if the relations between Holland and France can be eased, this matter can be settled peacefully..."

This sentence made the lady laugh, but it was not a reassuring laugh, but a helpless laugh. If a woman at this time said she had a high status, it either came from her father or her husband. After all, the Virgin Mary There is only one German, and Mrs. Van Schulman is precisely because she has a father who is a member of parliament and a husband who is a member of the parliament. She knows the current situation in the Netherlands very well. The powder keg - one could even say that it was not just a war between France and the Netherlands, but a **** battlefield in which an alliance of several countries fought each other for Europa hegemony.

   It was precisely when she realized the seriousness of the situation that she hurried over and asked this good gentleman to leave here immediately.

   "I have a mission from the king," said the duke, "I can't just go back with failure."

"You still don't believe me after all." The lady endured for a while: "Then, well, my friend, you swear to me now that you will not tell anyone what I told you tonight, not even that person It is your king, no no no, it should be said that you will not let anyone know about this in any form."

The duke could not guess how the lady would persuade him to leave Amsterdam, where the king's ships were still in the dockyard, and everyone knew that he would be in such a bad situation as to be coldly treated by the king, and he moved his knees, a little further away from the lady. A little closer, almost to the point where his breath could hit the bare, flawless skin—it was the fashion at this time that a woman would like to show her virgin **** to show her chastity, youth, and Dignity, the higher the status, the more so—of course the lady felt it too, she shivered slightly, the tiny fluff stood up, "then I swear," said the Duke, his breath burning like a flame The lady's skin, she trembled: "Every word you say here today, I will not tell the third person, even if he is my father, my mother or my king, I can point to the cross , swear by the holy book that if I break my promise, I will go to **** and suffer for a thousand years..."

"Oh, ah," Madame trembled, reaching out and pressing his lips, "this is enough, sir, this is enough, I believe you." She lowered her head: "Sir, the reason why I took the risk today Dabuwei is here because I want to tell you that if you continue to stay in Amsterdam, the dangers you will encounter are not only the people, but also the ones you can’t imagine…”

   "Speak, speak, ma'am, I'm listening."

"And the sea." Madame's voice was so low that she could barely hear, "Sir, there is the entire North Sea, as you know, Amsterdam is a city on a dam, and there is only a dam between it and the North Sea. And my father, and my husband, the MPs, have decided that as soon as the Dutch army can't stand up to the French army - which is almost certain, they will pretend to submit to your majesty and wait until When the French soldiers enter Amsterdam, the dikes will be broken, and the sea will rush in, drowning them all in the bitter tears of the Dutch."

   "Oh my God!"

"So please leave as soon as possible, maybe you can try to convince your majesty not to enter the dangerous land, but please also remember your promise to me, or you will kill me, my father, my husband's The murderer."

"I will keep my promise to you," said the duke, holding on to the arm of the chair to get up, and he helped the lady to stand up, because the lady had brought such terrible news that they had lost their warmth. Time and energy, they hugged for a while as if the man and woman before the disaster had no desire. "Then I have something to tell you too," said the duke against his shell-like ear: "My dear good man, my previous words are not without reason. I know from our king that your grand chancellor is frequently in contact with us, as well as Brandenburg, or the Danes, wanting to bring the Netherlands A good price—well," he hugged the lady who was trying to break free: "I know you don't believe it, and I didn't believe it at first, but that's what I heard, and your William III. Orange, is said to have suffered an unfortunate accident for this reason... I don't know exactly what happened, but one thing I can be sure of, you asked your father and your husband to check the Amsterdam Let's go to the treasury and see how much gold is in it...because this money has been used by the Prime Minister to buy him and his brother's life and future titles..."

The lady who suddenly heard the news, even if it was not like falling into an ice cave, was like being hit by a thunderbolt in the chest. She even forgot her last goodbye. As soon as she pushed the Duke away, she staggered out of the door. When the duke came back to the window, he saw her getting into the carriage with the help of his servants, and perhaps because she was urging them constantly, the carriage started running almost before her servants caught the frame, and her The face flickered behind the car window, and the Duke waved his hands to her immediately.

This is their last meeting. If nothing else, the duke thought in his heart, and he didn't expect it to be so fast, so he smoothly took out the rumors that the king wanted him to release. Madam's father and husband were very unfortunate. Yes, although they are one of the MPs, they are also supporters of the Orange Belt Party, which is William III.

As for the secret that the lady told him, yes, the Duke promised more than once that he would never tell a third "person", and he immediately went back to the room, cut his wrist, and let his blood drip on a ridiculous-looking doll The blood seeped into the doll and disappeared instantly. After a while, a small black bat flew into his room: "Alas," it asked in Amon's lazy and gloomy voice: "You Did something difficult happen?"

   "Yes," said the Duke, pressing his wrist to stop the bleeding: "I have something I want you to tell Your Majesty immediately..."

  ——

The last card that Louis arranged for the Dutch in Amsterdam - how should I say it, it is not so unexpected, after all, the battle of France against the Netherlands is the battle of ruining the city and destroying the country, not to mention the Utrecht belonging to William III, who We all know the intention of Charles II. Unless William III has the protection of God, when England and France decide the outcome, he will lose the meaning of existence. He, and his descendants, the best outcome is to become The Duke of Utrecht... No, they probably won't have such an ending, because William Orange, his descendants will always be a flag of the Dutch, to assimilate the Dutch and make the provincial republic completely disappear, This flag must never be raised again.

   This is also a sad thing for them, but now that he has learned from the past, Louis will not make such a mistake.

However, he still gave the order that the Duke of La Rochefoucaude should leave for Dunkirk on the same day. As for their custom-made ships in Holland, it depends on whether the greed of the merchants can overcome their desire for freedom and dignity. Heartbroken... After all, these ships have only paid deposits. If Amsterdam, as the lady said, becomes a performance venue for the Dutch to sink their boats, then these ships will be turned into useless scraps of plates, right? For the French, it is a loss, but it is not unacceptable, so are the owners of those shipyards willing to accept this loss? The Count of La Rochefoucault has entered into contracts with seven shipyards, and they are faced with millions of easy profits disappearing into the sun like foam on the sea...

And it turns out that there are not many Dutch people who can give up a cow in their hands. The Duke of La Rochefoucault finally came with fifty huge double-decker ships (warships that can set up a hundred guns), and a hundred Twenty merchant ships of considerable displacement were triumphant.

   And when the Duke of La Rochefoucault returned to Paris, he also learned of his other achievements from the court secret.

   It's too late, a little more.

   (end of this chapter)