I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 80 The King's Wrath

It was the Count of D'Artagnan who reminded the King once more of this Monsieur Mancini and not of Mademoiselle Mancini, who indignantly proposed a duel to Felipe Jules Mancini, because He stole Madame Lafayette's heart.

Madame Lafayette was a beautiful woman in her twenties. She was not very good at the court of Paris because of her appearance alone. In terms of status, she was more often regarded as the female companion of the Duchess of Montpensier. She is known to surpass other noble ladies in her tenderness, chastity, and profound literary qualities, especially the last item, when most women's education was still limited to religion and women's popularity, she was able to write. The moving poems and articles can only be said to be very rare and respectable. The people who pursue her are like crucian carp crossing the river, and the Count of D'Artagnan is also one of them. If you say, this wise lady It would not be surprising to have chosen a king, or a general or scholar, but she finally succumbed to Mr. Felipe, no wonder D'Artagnan was so furious.

When the king hurried to the room where they were, the scene was already tense, and Madame Lafayette fainted and was helped to rest in the next room. Felipe smiled, with his hands in his coat, with a nonchalant look on his face, D'Artagnan looked serious, his shoulders were tense, and he was groping for his saber while constantly staring at the wall—presumably worried about Madame Lafayette, who was still in a coma, and several dukes and Officials, they were almost all on D'Artagnan's side, staring at Felipe.

   "Who will tell me what's going on?" asked the king.

D'Artagnan was gently pushed, and he was not very afraid. Of course, Felipe was the nephew of the bishop, but he was also favored by the king, so he fought back his anger and told the king Just now - at court, **** between men and women is seldom reproached, and although it is bewildering that Madame Lafayette chose Felipe, neither D'Artagnan nor the other suitors have done anything despicable. Things to hinder or hinder their love, but Felipe openly pulled out a gorgeous ribbon from his sleeve during the party just now - Madame Lafayette's garter belt, Madame Lafayette immediately fainted. In the past, Count D'Artagnan drew his sword in a rage.

Louis now knows why Marie calls his brother a skunk. He pressed his forehead. In the court, duels are not allowed without the king's decree, but he really wants to Daniel pierced the guy with a sword. "Please put away your swords, gentlemen." He said, "I won't allow you to bleed in my mother's suite."

   "But only blood can pay for this sinner's humiliation to a worthy lady!" said D'Artagnan through gritted teeth.

"I've never been in favour of a duel as a solution," said the king, who saw Felipe laugh and D'Artagnan pale with anger: "but sometimes a duel might be a solution," he turned to Cardinal's nephew: "I want you to go out on the street to solve this problem, but I won't allow any of you to take your life."

   "So am I going to accept this rude request?" Felipe said.

Louis glanced at him unexpectedly, after all, it was all about his frivolity, and Louis didn't really like someone who looked down on women (she's still his lover!), but because Felipe was after all The nephew of Bishop Mazarin, so Louis only wanted D'Artagnan to give a small punishment, but Felipe's response showed that he did not understand the king's good intentions at all.

From this room, you can see that Felipe, D'Artagnan and others walked to the street. According to the convention of duels, they should each have two assistants. D'Artagnan chose two musketeers, who were also his subordinates. As an assistant, and one of Felipe's assistants was astonishing because he was Philip, Duke of Anjou, Louis frowned.

Although D'Artagnan was too liberal in love, he was in no way inferior to any warrior in battle. He rushed to Felipe, but Felipe backed away without any shame, and handed the battle over to him. The Duke of Anjou, facing his younger brother, D'Artagnan couldn't help but feel constrained. He wanted to destroy his weapon, but Philip's performance in the martial arts course was not false. He was like a glittering swimmer. The fish generally shuttled under D'Artagnan's sword, and when D'Artagnan intended to settle the fight with a dash, he slid sideways over the tip of D'Artagnan's sword - and then slammed it hard, piercing D'Artagnan Arm - only then did his broken red shoulder strap slowly fall down.

Just when the other two musketeers couldn't decide whether they should step forward, Bontang ran quickly and stopped the duel. With the help of the king's brother Philip, the shameless villain was able to retreat, D'Artagne. Ang insisted on continuing the duel, but was forcibly suppressed by the king.

   "I want to talk to you," Louis said to Philip, and then he glanced at Felipe, who was standing not far away. The bishop's nephew had an unpredictable face.

  —

Louis thought that Philip would come to him soon, but he waited until he was about to go to bed, and he couldn't wait for his younger brother. Sitting there, he always felt a burst of palpitations and uneasy, so he went to the Queen Mother's place. During the evening prayer, when she saw the king and heard that the king was also looking for Philip, she was very surprised, because Philip left early in the morning, and she thought he was looking for her brother.

When the king was anxious, he caught a glimpse of Mary holding a candle tray for the queen mother. Mary subconsciously turned her head to avoid Louis's sight, but such a move was purely for cover. The king only called Mary, She surrendered. Mary took the king all the way through the corridors and stairs, and came to a remote palace. The king's mood became more and more nervous, and at this moment they heard a low shout. Louis immediately wanted to rush in, but he Suddenly stopped, "Don't follow me!" He shouted sharply. Although Bontang and his attendants were reluctant, the current king was already very powerful. They stopped, and Marie had been closely behind the king.

It was a small suite with only three rooms. It belonged to some officials who were trusted by the king but did not have a room in the Louvre. They were temporarily staying for banquets or meetings when it was too late, so the furniture in the room was simple but still quite Comfortable and complete, Louis quickly searched the outermost hall and saw that Philip's saber was thrown on the ground - although no candles were lit here, the moonlight was shining through the door, and Philip's saber was on the scabbard. It was always full of jewels again - Louis found a shiny pin in front of the door of the small hall and bedroom, also Philip's, the bedroom door was closed, Louis kicked the door without thinking, it violently. The ground shook, but didn't open. "I'm coming!" said Mary, and she threw a cloud of ashes on the doorknob, which snapped to the ground after uttering a short Latin word, The king gave it another kick, and this time it slammed open, and the whole door swung back and hit the wall.

There was someone in the bedroom, panting in pain, and there was a peculiar fragrance mixed with a strong smell of blood. Mary's face suddenly became very ugly. Fortunately, the king could not see in the darkness, and then she heard Louis say: "Light the candles!"

   "No!" cried a young man, but Mary would not follow the second man's orders, and she put her hand on the candlestick, which was lit with a flash of light.

The first thing Louis saw was Felipe, who was wearing only a linen undergarment and had bare legs, and then the king's brother, Philip, leaning against the bed, neatly dressed, just pressing his shoulders, where the blood was constantly flowing , as soon as he saw Louis, he shouted loudly: "Kill him! Louis... brother, kill him!"

   Felipe looked flustered: "Wait! Your Majesty, I can explain!"

"Explain to the devil!" Louie said, he didn't want to hear what the other party said at all, he didn't even want to know what happened before, he only knew that it wasn't the worst, and there was a possibility of recovery, he raised his interest The sword, pressing towards the defenseless Felipe, Felipe still wanted to struggle, but as soon as he saw the king's eyes, he knew that the situation was over - only when the sword light flashed, his shoulder was pierced, which was still the same. In triumph, the reckless man screamed, "Mary! Help me!" While rolling and crawling to the ground, he fled under the king's sword.

  Mary stood there, motionless.

The king chased after him. Ever since he knew that there was still a dangerous inner world, he had never slackened his martial arts lessons, even if the power of mortals couldn't compete with these monsters - he gave Felipe another sword in the thigh, He groaned and tried to crawl towards Philip, but Louis kicked him over, the point of his sword pointed at his chest.

   But Felipe was not looking for help from his brother, but his bag of magic materials, and he sang a spell aloud while raising his finger at Louis.

Mary pounced, and faster than her was a small gray shadow, the king's cat boy jumped out of his pocket, and landed on Felipe's face while dashing away the spell, gouging out his eyes.

Louis stabbed down, the tip of the sword slipped over Felipe's ribs and stabbed into his lungs, he coughed violently, "Don't, don't kill me..." He called weakly, "It's Mr. Bishop. , Mr. Bishop made me... let me do this! And the king..."

The    king raised his sword in silence and pierced his throat with all his strength.

   followed by a terrible silence.

  The king stepped over Felipe's body and came to his brother. He had fainted from blood loss. Louis was not sure if he heard anything.

   "Nothing happened tonight," Louis said, "Marie."

   (end of this chapter)