Flowers, Swords and France

By the time Charles left his grandfather's room, it was already late at night. Feeling very tired, he went to the bathroom downstairs to wash himself, then returned to the second floor and walked straight back to his bedroom from the corridor, intending to end this. A day's hard work.

Except for some books, his room didn't have much more stuff than the Marquis's bedroom, but the bed covered with velvet cushions was much more comfortable than the Marquis's.

Feeling slightly tired, he lay down directly on the bed and closed his eyes.

Although my brain was very tired, I could not fall into a deep sleep directly, but entered a drowsy, half-dream and half-awake state. The day's experiences flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern, and my thoughts spread further into the sky.

"France... Napoleon..." "King... political ax..." "Tomorrow's plan" "And Fran, she is getting more and more bad now, she really should be disciplined and disciplined..." It has nothing to do with it. Thoughts kept rising and falling silent in his mind, until finally, he entered an ethereal realm.

At this moment, there was a pain on his forehead.

Charles did not wake up because of this. His hand unconsciously swept over his forehead like he was driving away mosquitoes. It seemed that he had brushed something away. He did not continue to care about it and fell asleep.

Then, a moment later, the same feeling came across his forehead again.

He opened his eyes drowsily.

With the help of dim candlelight, he found a girl staring at him calmly with her blue eyes.

In horror, Ciel's eyes suddenly opened wide and he could see more clearly.

The girl's slender beauty was slightly wrinkled and her expression was very serious. And her blond hair, which was spread down, glowed with a dark golden color under the dim candlelight, as if covered with a layer of tassels, adding a psychedelic color to the scene. The girl was wearing a thin light pink cashmere pajamas, sitting beside Charles' bed, holding a small candlestick in her right hand, and her left hand stretched forward, pressing the tip of her index finger on Charles's own forehead. .

After being distracted for half a second, Ciel opened his mouth.

"Fu...wuwu...wu"

He only had time to shout out the first syllable before the girl quickly sealed Ciel's mouth with her palms. Then he looked at Ciel with a threatening look.

After Ciel understood what was going on and regained his composure, the girl gently took away her hand.

Forlan-Louise de Treville, the granddaughter of the Marquis of Treville and the sister of Charles, made her debut in this way.

After taking a few breaths to calm his breathing, Ciel glared at the girl in front of him.

"Are you crazy?" The voice was low but the tone was very stern.

A fifteen-year-old girl sneaking into her twenty-year-old brother's room late at night is a bit appalling even in the twenty-first century, not to mention France in the nineteenth century.

The girl still looked at her brother, her expression expressionless.

"Do you know what you are doing? Miss Treville?" Charles emphasized again, feeling really angry inside.

Although this sister has shown some signs of entering a rebellious phase recently, this time she still went a little too far. Maybe, his brother really indulged his sister too much and developed such an arrogant character like her?

It’s time to take better care of it.

Just as Ciel was internally reflecting on his educational policy for his sister, the girl's arrogant expression finally relaxed a little, and the corners of her mouth moved slightly upward, forming a slightly sarcastic smile.

"Of course I know, my brother. But now I want to ask for your help."

The voice was clear and melodious, but there was not much respect in it.

Ciel felt angry again. "Then why don't you go back to bed quickly!"

Under her brother's scolding, Fran lowered her eyes slightly.

"Okay..." Charles felt a little regretful, so he calmed down again, "You go back to bed first, and tell me tomorrow if you have anything to do."

"No" Fran rejected the other party's suggestion arrogantly, "I want it now!"

After a moment of eye contact, Ciel gave in.

"Okay, okay, okay! What the hell?!"

As usual, after winning the battle between siblings, Fran had a smile of victory on her face. The girl's smile, set against the bright red lips and fair skin, made Ciel's anger disappear in an instant.

However, this smile did not last long, and returned to the coldness before, showing how heavy the girl's heart was.

Before Charles could continue to ask, she took out a page of letter paper from her pocket and handed it to her brother.

Charles had no choice but to force himself to lean on the back of the bed, take the letter, and read it by the dim candlelight. And his sister was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at him.

"Flan, my dearest friend, thank you so much for your letter..."

After glancing at the front, Ciel was startled, and then immediately raised his head to look at his sister. "Who wrote it?" he asked in a low voice.

"Marie de Leoland, the daughter of the Marquis Leoland, my best friend." His sister lowered her head and answered in a low tone, "She was sent to Blois a while ago, I sent it to her I just received her reply today.”

[Blois is a small city about 130 kilometers southwest of Paris. There is a Carmelite monastery in this city. From the 17th to the 19th century, many French nobles sent their daughters to this place in order to avoid the expense of dowry. Monastery and monasticism. The famous mistress of Louis XIV, the Duchess de Lavalier, also lived in seclusion here since 1674. 】

After hearing this answer, Ciel finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then continued reading.

"...I am so touched by your letter! I implore you not to forget me in the future, send me more letters, and tell me about outside things. This will be my greatest pleasure!

So you see, my friend, what kind of life I am leading now! They couldn't sleep for six hours a day. When they got up in the morning to do morning classes, some people just knelt down and dozed off, swaying. After breakfast - how can you Parisians imagine what we had! ——Then continue to clean up.

For a whole day, we had nothing but boredom, but don't misunderstand, this does not mean that we have no work to do. In fact, in order to make us feel alive, we have a lot of work: all our personal clothes have to be taken away, and we have to mend our own clothes. We read books over and over again, and of course they are all theological books, full of outdated nonsense that even the readers themselves do not believe. We will also make holy wafers, reliquaries, and paint icons...

All of my predecessors have been ravaged by time and have become old and yellow. They have lost all hope in the world and live step by step all day long. Yes, alive, that's all. I shudder to think that soon I will be like them...

You see, my friend, this is my whole life now. Everyone says this is the closest place to God and heaven, but I have to say, if this is the case, I would rather live in hell! May God forgive my arrogance!

I don’t blame anyone for being in this situation. This is a disaster bestowed upon me by fate, and I can only endure it silently. In today's world, there is only one punishment more severe than being a nobleman without money, and that is being the daughter of a nobleman without money! Under such great sin, what else could I do except suffer silently?

However, my friend, when I am replying to you, there is a jealous snake in my heart gnawing at our friendship. Please forgive me! I know how precious our friendship is, but when I think of what a bright world you will live in, and what kind of seclusion I will spend my whole life in obscurity, I can't help but feel pain in my heart, and I can't help but want to Jealous of you. God forgive my sins!

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

My friend, forgive me, but don’t forget my instructions and send me letters on time!

your most loyal friend

"Marie de Léoran"

Ciel finished reading it, and then he probably understood what was going on.

French aristocrats have always had the tradition of sending their daughters to convents to become nuns in order to avoid having to pay a large dowry for their daughters; and after Napoleon promulgated the Civil Code, which stipulated that other children of aristocrats have the same inheritance rights as the eldest son, this The old custom becomes more and more popular. In order to keep the family property within the family as much as possible, the nobles had more incentives to send their daughters to a monastery to serve God - at least God would not come and demand an equal share of the family property.

And this poor friend Fran was probably sent to a monastery by her parents because of this.

Fran bit her lip tightly, looking uneasy.

"If this continues, she will die soon. What kind of punishment is it for a Parisian lady to live such a life!"

"Maybe." Ciel replied flatly.

Fran's fist quickly hit his arm, and the fierce movement pulled up the thin pajamas, revealing a large piece of white greasy on his chest.

"How can you be so unsympathetic!"

"Okay, what do you want to do?" Charles didn't want to argue with her about moral issues.

"Is there any need to say that?" The younger sister raised her head and looked at her brother, her blue eyes overflowing with burning flames. "Let's go rescue her!"

"Then how do you plan to save it?"

"I haven't thought about it yet." Fran replied confidently, "So I'm here to find you, right?"

"But I have no choice!" Charles frowned, "Maybe I can lead people into the monastery and take her away, but what's the point? She will lose her identity and family, and go from one misfortune to another. What a misfortune... If this is her parents' choice, there's nothing I can do about it."

"You will definitely find a way." Fran stared at her brother closely, her eyes filled with silent trust. "No matter what happens, you will find a way."

Charles didn't answer.

Tears slowly gathered in the girl's eyes, and then rolled down.

Ciel sighed.

"Okay, I'll find a way. Stop crying, Fran."

"Are you sure?" My sister was still a little suspicious.

"Yes." Charles said with a straight face, in an unquestionable tone, "Definitely. Just wait, your Mary will come back in a few days, and no one can stop me from bringing her back to you. Come to you."

"I knew you would find a way!" The girl broke into tears and laughed, then she hugged her brother excitedly, pressing her chest tightly against him.

This silly girl actually thought that the matter had been resolved! Charles smiled bitterly and patted his sister's back gently, "Okay, go to bed..."

After the girl obediently left the room, Charles sorted out his thoughts and decided to do the most important thing at the moment.

Sleep.

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