I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 489 During the Wedding (Part 1)

   "Are you going to rest now?" asked Bontang.

   "No hurry," said Louie, "I think little Louie may come to see me soon."

If anyone wants to see the king, they must make a request, wait for the arrangement, and then wait. Only the king's mother, brother, wife and children do not need this procedure. The crown prince, the little Louis, knocked on the door ten minutes later and asked himself respectfully. May I have a chat with Your Majesty.

He was greeted by Bontang and entered the room. As soon as he saw the hot black tea and two cups on the table, he knew that all his thoughts were within his father's expectations. The crown prince involuntarily flushed his cheeks and hardly dared to raise his head. Come,

   "Hey, why are you so embarrassed, my child, didn't you act very brave just now?" Louis teased and gestured for his son to sit beside him.

   "But I'm not relying on my talent or talent," Little Louis said in anguish after sitting down, holding a teacup: "I rely on your authority."

  Louis nodded, "Show me."

"what?"

"What your friends have prepared for you." Louis said. Little Louis hesitated for a while, but he took it out and handed it to his father. Louis read it slowly like he was enjoying a volume of poetry or a script. it.

Little Louis looked nervously at his father's expression from behind the cup. Louis XIV had been in power for 20 years, and the kingship of France had been concentrated to an incomparable level. Even the church could not restrain the king's decision. Once he was judged as useless by the Sun King , or with ulterior motives, no matter how talented or courageous you may be, you don't want to get ahead in French politics or in the army. It can be said that the group of young people headed by the Marquis of Lafayette are using their future to protect the stubbornness of the crown prince. They are impulsive and naive, but they are very cute.

   Although this speech is very long, it still looks very fast. Louis first gave his son a gentle look, lest he be too frightened, "You have a group of good friends."

   "Yes, Your Majesty, they are all good young men."

"Don't be nervous," Louis said. "I can see that they are serious and carefully preparing this speech for you." These young people have not been able to get in touch with the deeper inside story for the time being, and because of this, The king can see that they have brought out all the treasures that can be presented to their friends, which is very valuable, and he hopes that little Louis will value this rare friendship - "but you are useless."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I am useless." Little Louis replied with a trembling voice. He was facing the invisible pressure exerted by Louis XIV. He had seen countless people bend their knees and bow their heads here, but he had to wait until he felt it for himself. How terrifying, it was a Sisyphus-like fear in hell--the slightest mistake and it would be shattered: "I chose... another way."

   "Why?" Louis asked calmly, almost turning the question into a narrative sentence.

"I just thought of you, father," said little Louie, "a very simple math problem—Your Majesty, the teacher told me that you have to solve hundreds of government affairs and make thousands of decisions a day," he looked up. : "You won't have a debate with the ministers every time you make a decision... And I'm your heir, you should expect me to think and act in your way."

  Louis smiled: "So that's your decision, boy, but you still look a little unhappy because you didn't convince them by your own strength."

   "Now let me draw an analogy," said Louie, "if I want you to hunt me a lion, or a bear. Would you go?"

   "Yes." Little Louis answered decisively.

   "If your friends can only give you daggers, will you borrow a shotgun from me?"

"Will do!"

"There's no difference between the two," said Louie. "If I were a normal father, you could only borrow a shotgun, but I'm a king, and you can borrow my authority. In fact, I am very Glad you did it because many rulers are not necessarily stupid, they can even be called smart, just can't figure out where they are - it's not surprising, many people have this delusion - think they are a Perfect."

"But a king who compares his talent in law and literature with his ministers, and his generals in command and battle, is like a knight who jumps off his horse and compares who can run with his own horse. Faster, that is a very ridiculous act." Louis said bluntly: "You will be a king in the future, my son, and you will have a vast and rich country, and your people are as many as the stars, The best among them are countless, and what you have to do is to choose them and put them in the right places, not to compete with them for honor and status, as you compete for bridles and saddles with horses.”

   He took a sip of tea and continued: "You have to drive them, always keep your eyes on the front, look at the same place, you have to make accurate choices, issue clear instructions, and drive the carriage of France to a bright future."

   Hearing this, little Louis couldn't help showing a look of fear: "This is what I worry about, father," he said: "How can I always make the right decisions like you?"

   "I don't always make the right decisions." To the crown prince's surprise, his father said so confidently: "I have also made wrong judgments, child."

   "How is that possible?!" Little Louis almost jumped up from his chair, his eyes widened, he could hardly believe that the person in front of him was indeed his father, Louis XIV, the Sun King of France.

"I'm just a mortal too, boy," said Louie, "and I've made mistakes and hurt others. But some mistakes can be undone, and some can't." He said, "This is the second thing I'm going to tell you. important thing," he whispered, "never forget that you are only a mortal man, you can make mistakes, you have weaknesses, you are not perfect, and sometimes you even allow yourself to trample on the bottom line of law and morality. You have to be ruthless. Measure, judge savagely, decide rudely—you have to understand that you are not omnipotent, you can only choose, between danger and danger, cruelty and cruelty, pain and more pain, sometimes they The boundaries are so small, and the time left for you is so short - if you make a mistake, the crime may be a hundred times more than all the criminals in prison combined, because no matter how cruel they are, they cannot be in a decision. Thousands of people died."

   "How terrible, Your Majesty."

"It's no more terrifying than thinking you're a saint who doesn't make mistakes," Louis said. "If you don't admit that you make mistakes, you lose the possibility of correcting your mistakes." He shook his head: "I know what you're afraid of, but when You take all the power in your hands, and you have to bear all the evil consequences of this power." He shook his son's hand: "For example, this time, you took my authority in your hand and told three facts that the ministers could not deny anyway, yes, boy, France is stronger than portugal, and I am its master, and you are my heir, and you need no help Those boring rituals to intimidate and humiliate your wife, to show your majesty, yes, that's right, but if your behavior comes to an abrupt end - I'm going to be disappointed."

   He looked at Little Louis: "...Tell me, what else are you going to do?"

"I...I'll send a secret letter to Isabella." There was a glimpse of remorse and remorse in little Louis' eyes: "I'll tell her my thoughts right away, before the dust settles!" With his father's reminder, he suddenly realized his mistake: "I want to let her know about this matter immediately! This matter - it's not me who is most likely to bear the consequences, it's her! I...Father, please help me!"

"Okay," said a smile on Louie's lips, "until you make up for your mistake...I could ask them to hold off on this matter, but if Isabella says no, boy, what are you going to do? ?" He paused: "It would be a very shameful thing, and after that, any decision you make or words will not be so powerful."

  "..." Little Louis stood there with a painful expression: "That's my fault too."

   "Yes, it's your fault," said Louie, "but you might be able to get it back, and that's probably the best part of the matter."

  ————

   Bontang held up a stack of "King Bread" and watched little Louis hurried away. He looked at Louis: "What did you do?"

"Give him a little reminder." Louis reached for the bread, Bontang moved the silver tray away, and the king's personal attendant showed a disapproving look: "If it was the one I thought, you should have reminded him earlier. ." Instead of casually mentioning it at this time, and then watching his son's jokes.

   "If not..." Louis said, but did not go on. But Bontang has understood - little Louis is different from Louis XIV, he has not suffered any hardships, even the only younger brother, who was born after he came of age, and is about to become the king of another country, France is prospering On the road of the future, there is no enemy worthy of fear, and his future will be full of flowers, without any filth and obstacles.

   But is this a good thing? Of course not, especially since he will still hold the power that was concentrated at the peak of Louis XIV's time - Louis is not at all worried that little Louis will become a tyrant like Nero in the future, but he is worried that he will not be able to withstand this power. Broken down by the stress and guilt he brings... Before he becomes king, he must admit that he is just a mortal who can make mistakes.

   A mortal who knows that he can make mistakes can only see if he has made a mistake when he looks back at the decisions he has made—otherwise, he doesn’t even have the concept, how can he make due judgments?

   Even Louis XIV himself...it was only after Marie died that he realized what a big mistake he had made.

   But at that time, Louis XIV had only his mother and younger brother who needed his care and concern. Bishop Mazarin and other ministers were also teaching a king. When Louis realized that he was just an ignorant mortal, there was nothing left for him to recover.

   Bontang put down the tray silently and let the king take a loaf of bread.

  ————

  Through a wizard who only Louis XIV could drive, Princess Isabella, who was far away in Portugal, received a secret letter from a raven the next night. The secret letter was short, but it made her heart flutter—of course she knew about the ceremony, she was surrounded by Portuguese and French teachers, as well as older female officials, and her mother had euphemistically mentioned the test to her— Perhaps for those ministers, councillors and the king himself, this matter should not be worth mentioning, but for the parties involved...

  Isabella's mother, the Princess of Savoy, went through the same ordeal when she married to Portugal. Some people may say that these noble princesses are not naked under the gaze of the maids when they bathe and go to bed. But the same thing, driven by malice and goodwill, will have two completely different feelings - even if there are no male officials in the ceremony, only female officials and maids, but it is ridiculous that these maids and female officials from the man's country will in the future. Likely to be the "Royal Lady" of the King.

There are very few kings like Louis XIV, and even fewer royal ladies like the one-time Madame Lavalier, and no one knows that these young women hide from the harsh sight of those who surround the future queen What a stinger of jealousy and hatred. Sometimes, before the queen arrives at the church, all kinds of secrets about her body will fly to the whole court and no one knows about it. If the other party is more vicious, even the common people will have all kinds of secrets about the queen. Privacy in the mouth to chew repeatedly.

Those female officials and maids who are struggling to climb up will also regard the queen's physical weakness as a weapon to attack the king - no one can be a perfect Virgin Mary, and even the slightest flaws will be taken by them. Repeated exaggeration, in order to trigger the king's disgust for his wife.

Princess Isabella certainly would not be happy to face such a predicament, but the Dauphin Louis the Little also honestly wrote that if she had not gone through this ceremony, as the first person to try the forbidden fruit, she would later be in Versailles, She may have to face a lot of criticism and criticism about this matter. As a queen from Portugal, she has to bear enough pressure - he doesn't know if this will be the last thing to crush her. straw.

He apologized to her that he had not been able to consider the effect on her for a while - or that he had wished that it would be good for her, and he regretted it, but he assured her that Isabelle Any decision made by Ra will have his full support.

  Princess Isabella did not think long, she wrote a letter to the Dauphin of France, her future husband.

   (end of this chapter)