I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 295 Alfonso Chapel

   Sunday, July 5, 2020 — A Fool’s Travels in France (4)

  Anyone who wants to go to France must go to Paris, and whoever wants to go to Paris must go to Versailles.

As a poor and daring person, I am not prepared to pay a travel agency 65 euros to send me from Paris to Versailles, of course, to save this small fee, the price I give is a 12 euro train Tickets, because getting lost from three kilometers into a thirty-kilometer walk and a pair of **** feet from inappropriate new shoes and long walks.

My initial thought was not right, because when I got off the train, I could see a large walking path hidden in the shade of layers of greenery - two pairs of one palm-wide brass wires were inlaid on the left and right sides of this walking path. They were originally four tracks. When people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries still needed to use carriages to travel, there were thousands of visitors to Versailles every day. Louis XIV ordered engineers to build a track carriage here. And it's a dual carriageway.

But this track has been abandoned since the birth of the car, but as you know, the French are crazy about everything about Louis XIV, and they keep as much as they can about the sun king , so they pried up the four rails, poured cement in them, and then re-pressed the rails that were turned upside down. The original rails were a U-shaped opening with an upward opening, and when they were turned over, they became flat wide copper wires.

Only walking is allowed on this road now, and as far as I can see, all people avoid the copper lines on the road as much as possible, of course, they are not all French, or to be clear, most of them are Foreigners, but even the rudeest Americans... hey, you know, they can do the dumbest and worst things for so-called freedom, but here they have to be honest—I think It's related to some kind of rumor.

I looked around, and it is said that Versailles has the largest number of retired soldiers. Perhaps the Sun King first established a standing army by selecting soldiers from Versailles, so most people in Versailles and nearby Limoges will choose to join the army after graduating from high school or university. Even women are no exception.

  Anyone who dares to do something wrong at Versailles is going to get a good beating right away, right away and right away.

   I have to say it was a relief.

Walking forward for a few minutes with the flow of people, you can see a forked road with white walls and dark blue awning cafes or restaurants, bookstores, souvenir shops, etc., but I did not go. Go in, because from here, we can see the Palace of Versailles.

The Palace of Versailles has a well-known alias, "gold, silver, ivory and crystal." Needless to say, gold and silver are the gold and silver foils and ornaments that decorate the door and window frames. Ivory refers to the beginning of the stairs. , extending to the ground, pillars, and the white marble at the end of the zenith. With the passage of time, these marbles are slightly yellowed due to the corrosion of air and water vapor, but they are more warm and elegant than the original pure white. , which also makes this huge palace like a small city seem to be built of ivory.

Crystal is the ubiquitous glass and mirror in the Palace of Versailles. When the Sun King built the Palace of Versailles, the price of glass and mirrors was not so low that it is now so low, although according to legend, Louis XIV sold his soul to the devil. , relying on the help of wizards has made great progress in the output of glass and mirrors, but we all know that it is just nonsense - I think it should be the king who has always been tolerant and sensitive must have been lucky enough to encounter some unpopular A craftsman or scholar with both knowledge and talent.

It is not far from the train station to the foot of the Palace of Versailles, which is what I said, about three kilometers, and then, from here, you can see the famous 339 steps, which is roughly equal to fifteen floors. Or the height of a sixteen-story building. This height is not very friendly to the elderly, children and the disabled. Someone once proposed to install an elevator on the left or right side of the Palace of Versailles, but this proposal is required every year. Raised once or twice, maybe more, but never passed.

   So here you can see another interesting sight, that is, the crowd of protesters who are always here like Versailles.

Next, it's time for me to be stupid. I could have followed the three hundred and thirty-nine steps, like everyone else, to achieve my biggest long-cherished wish in twelve years, but my curiosity did not I wasn't allowed to do that—I saw a group of Americans in brightly colored translucent sunscreen suits, hats, and sneakers showing hairy legs, walking in the other direction.

As we all know, Versailles was originally a swamp. After the purchase of Versailles, since Louis XIII, the kings have continuously burned the jungle and filled the swamp. The hunting palace was expanded, but Louis XIV did not agree. He chose another vast place, which is here.

  This is not far from the original hunting palace. Although it is also a depression, it is connected to the hills. This is why the Grand Canal of the Palace of Versailles can divert water directly from the Seine without an elevated aqueduct.

What these Americans planned was not to climb the steps like the others, but to climb up the gentler **** on the right, then go north to the junction of the Grand Canal and the Seine, and from there to Versailles Palace walks, that is — the opposite of other tourists.

  I thought this was a really good idea, folks, just think I'm obsessed with the devil.

It only looks like a small segment on the map, that's not the case at all in the real world, we started to take a different route at 1 pm, thinking we would be there in an hour or two, but who knows we made it all the way to the sun Falling down the mountain, it became dark all around and I couldn't see the Grand Canal. Hell, there are nearly 10 million visitors to the Palace of Versailles every year. What about people? Why are we the only ones here?

At that time we were tired, hungry and thirsty, and didn't want to say anything. I was thinking about whether to sleep in the open all night, and then to see if I should call the police, but I was looking around, trying to find a flat place. , I saw the lights.

  I was almost sure that was God answering my prayers, and I ran away, oh my god, it wasn't a hallucination, it was a chapel.

I don't even know how there's a chapel here, and there's a very kind priest in it, and he's received us, gave us water and bread, cheese, and some ready-to-eat hams, and I've been gobbling it up before I've had time to take a slow look— It is a chapel, no doubt, but not even less ornate than the Saint-Louis chapel I saw in Paris, and it should also be a Gothic building, because I saw the vault and the curved ribs, the base The walls were at least ten feet long, and there were no windows, all of which required looking up.

  Those huge stained glass windows - for a while I couldn't see which story the stained glass was depicting, it should be a saint.

I looked from the first stained window, which depicts a swaddling baby and his mother, surrounded by angels, holding a crown, a scepter, and a holy ball, which is to say, the baby in the picture , it should be a king or an emperor, but besides St. Louis, I don't know which king has been canonized... I was about to guess whether this king was St. Louis, but I saw that the fringe of the stained window was red. Golden Castle, I have seen this pattern on the coat of arms of the Portuguese royal family.

and many more! This is too strange, in Versailles, behind the most magnificent crown in France, there is a chapel related to the Portuguese royal family?

I regained a little strength, stood up, and looked through rose window after rose window—the second rose window was a lonely little king, sitting alone on a throne, with countless ministers under his seat, but no A man looked at him, they only looked at the lady beside him, now I can already guess that she is the mother of the king, the queen mother, it is not uncommon for queen mothers to be regents for young sons, but I also noticed, queen mother , neither in the first picture nor in the second picture, she did not look at the little king, in the first picture she looked at the ground, in the second picture she looked at another baby.

   In the third picture, the queen dowager disappeared, a minister stood beside the adult king, and the ministers' eyes finally fell on the king.

  I don't know why I vaguely felt a burst of unreasonable joy, but after a few minutes, my heart became heavy, and the king fell, no longer surrounded by ministers and generals, only servants and doctors.

The fifth is puzzling, because at the king's bedside the bishop is doing the sacrament of his death, the servants are weeping and weeping, but the king's hand is sticking out from under the sheet and resting on the head of a young girl, the girl's wet nurse In the corner of the picture, he stretched out his hand, as if praying, as if he was always ready to take the girl away.

In the sixth picture, I saw a king and his queen, they were dressed in royal blue robes of gold lilies, with crowns on their heads, holding hands, and behind them was a chapel—could it be this pair of French kings Built this chapel with the queen?

   "This is Louis XV and his wife, Princess Isabella of Portugal, Queen of Louis XV."

  I turned around and saw the priest who had just received us, and the Americans were following him. They must be curious, and so was I.

   "May I know," I asked, "who did they build this chapel for?"

"Alfonso VI, King of Portugal," the priest said. The name was unfamiliar to me. The priest smiled, and obviously understood my feelings. The Sun King single-handedly suppressed the contemporary kings as if they were in the middle of the day. The stars and the moon are as dim as the moon, and most people may only remember Leopold I, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, because he tried his best to be the enemy of Louis XIV for life, and perhaps King Ludwig I of Poland, because of this The guy is legendary enough. He is a relative of the Sun King, but he had the intention to usurp the throne, and later became a traitor to the country. He also fought with France as a Spanish general... In the end, it was Louis XIV without any hesitation. sent him to the throne of Poland.

  Although everyone now understands that this is just a Habsburg operation... In any case, the Polish royal family is still surnamed Bourbon in 2020. But everyone must sigh, the heart and courage of the Sun King is indeed unmatched.

"Alfonso VI is the uncle of Queen Isabella, the mother of the princess, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy was once the wife of Alfonso VI, but then Alfonso VI was infertile and was declared annulled , and later she married Alfonso VI's younger brother, Pedro II." An American girl suddenly added, shrugging when everyone was looking at her, "I like the Sun King a lot. Yes, so I looked at some history related to him."

   "I like the Sun King too." Another girl said: "But I really don't know who Alfonso VI is."

   "A poor man," said the previous girl.

   "But why is Queen Isabella building a chapel for her uncle here?" An American boy asked my doubts.

The girl hesitated, and she glanced at the father cautiously: "I'm not sure if that's true, maybe it's just a rumor." The priest didn't speak, and the girl looked at the stained window—the penultimate picture, almost completely covered by the sheets cover up person.

"It is said that at that time the Sun King was choosing a wife for the Prince Louis - Princess Isabella was also in the selection range at that time, and it was very likely, and Portugal was in desperate need of a French queen at that time, but the problem was that Alfonso was at that time. Although King VI is ill, he is still alive, he is alive, Pedro II is the regent, and no one knows when Alfonso VI, or someone borrowing his name, will take Pedro II. Take down the throne, and then Princess Isabella is just a prisoner's daughter..."

I, and others, immediately understood what she meant, and I suddenly felt that the chapel was colder than ever before - "Many people went to 'visit' Alfonso VI who was under house arrest, including the Queen Mother and the Archbishop of Lisbon, but Alfonso VI never meant to go to **** voluntarily..." The girl's eyes stayed on the stained window, the young girl, with her back to the people, but you could see how terrified she was, she was almost curled up.

   "Later, Alfonso VI died of drinking too much spirits, but he is said to have blessed Princess Isabella before he died."

After the girl finished speaking, the chapel fell into silence. After a while, someone sighed: "In other words, without his sacrifice, Princess Isabella would not be able to become the queen of France..." He paused. For a moment, Queen Isabella also has a place in the history books - the medical care system and public school system founded by the Sun King was inherited and even further popularized by the queen who was once questioned everywhere, so her portrait is sometimes more than her husband Louis. Fifteen is more common.

   Someone whispered: "No wonder Queen Isabella and Louis XV built a chapel for him, this is what he deserves, this is the behavior of a saint at all.

"Her Majesty Louis XV and Her Majesty the Queen did intend to seek a canonization opportunity for Alfonso VI, but unfortunately, the church was in a great turmoil at that time, and this matter was delayed." The priest suddenly said: " But Queen Isabella's descendants never gave up - maybe this year you'll see another new saint listed."

   The crowd rioted slightly for a while, and I was also surprised. I didn’t expect to witness the birth of a new saint here by accident.

   "So that thing is true?" one person asked.

   To this rude question, the priest just smiled and did not answer: "You can rest here tonight," he said: "Tomorrow I will take you to the Grand Canal."

  The next day the priest really took us to the Grand Canal. It turned out that this chapel is located in the dwarf woods at the junction of the Grand Canal and the Seine. We are very lucky here.

The priest never asked me to keep it a secret, I think, I should still write down this matter, although it has little to do with the Sun King and Versailles, but... I think, in the dim stars under the brilliance of the Sun King, Although this star fell quickly, its last flash of light...

very beautiful.

   (end of this chapter)