Flowers, Swords and France

Just when the grandfather and grandson were chatting happily, the servant brought over a letter and handed it to Charles, and Charles ended the little dispute between them.

However, when he saw a few drops of ink accidentally dripping on the envelope, Charles couldn't help but frown. This was exactly the mark that Bonapartists usually marked on their envelopes when communicating with each other.

What's going on, the letter was delivered directly to my home? He was secretly angry.

There are very few people in the organization who know the addresses of Charles and the Marquis de Treville, and they are all very high-level people. Basically, they will not easily contact each other directly. Even if there is any information that needs to be disclosed, they will never do so. Disclosed by writing letters directly to each other's homes.

Everyone understands the risks of doing so. So what happened and was it worth the risk?

The grandfather and grandson looked at each other, both looking a little surprised.

But the Marquis was an old man after all, so he gave Charles a look to calm down.

So Charles took the letter and waited until the servant left before opening the envelope, which had no features except a few drops of ink and the return address.

After reading the contents of the letter, Charles' expression relaxed a lot, and he gently handed the letter to the old Marquis.

"You succeeded as expected.

Your efforts will always be remembered.

Thanks!

about"

After receiving the letter, the old man read it slowly.

This letter is very simple, and would be almost completely baffling to an unrelated person if they read it. But people who know the ins and outs can understand it at a glance.

"Is this written by M. Bonaparte?" the old Marquis asked calmly, then walked to the fireplace, took out a match from the silver matchbox, slowly lit the fire and burned the letter and envelope together. dropped. "It came very quickly."

"It should be." Charles nodded, "Mr. Joseph Bonaparte has been paying close attention to the progress of this matter. Fortunately, now that it is done..."

"Then why did he send it directly to you? And just today?" The Marquis said with a bit of coldness in his tone.

"He might want to congratulate him as soon as possible..." Ciel was about to reply, and then suddenly shuddered.

No, no, if you want to congratulate, why do you do it this way?

This was both a congratulation and a veiled warning - Joseph Bonaparte wanted to use this veiled way to show that he was still in France, that he was quite well-informed, and that he knew Charles and Treville. The situation of the Marquis' family is also well known.

I am afraid that he hopes to use this method to show his "sincerity and ability to seek further cooperation with the Marquis Treville and his family."

This future prince really couldn't wait... Ciel couldn't help but smile in his heart.

"Charles, what do you think of M. Bonaparte?" the Marquis asked in a low voice.

Ciel thought calmly for a moment before answering.

"He has some abilities and a calm personality. He is a person who can be dealt with."

"What do you mean, you can't completely trust me, you can only deal with me?" The Marquis understood what he meant.

"right."

"Okay, I understand."

Charles also understood that the Marquis would formulate in his mind a strategy for the Treville family to deal with the prince in the future because of his answer. He was vaguely moved in his heart - the old man's political calculations revolved around him alone.

There is no need to say how moved he is, and he understands this.

……………………

"Cheers, Charles!"

Charlotte raised the glass of wine again and asked Charles to drink. Her eyes were full of dizziness, and her face was even red. Charlotte's drinking capacity was not good, and she rarely drank too much on weekdays, but Today was really special, so she drank a lot more. The consequences are also very obvious, she is now in a slightly drunk state.

Yes, Charles came to the Duke of Treville's house for a banquet again tonight - the last celebration banquet.

He also raised his glass, but his expression was much calmer. "cheers!"

"I didn't expect that we actually managed to get things done..." After finishing another drink, Charlotte couldn't help but sigh, "Two months ago, he seemed to be arrogant, but now... But he had to leave in despair... Hahahaha... Could he have imagined that he would be here today? "

As they talked, the servant continued to pour wine for the two of them.

Duke Treville, who was sitting on the main seat, was still sipping red wine expressionlessly.

"Through the revolution of the mob, stepping on the corpses of numerous soldiers under his command, and betraying the revolution and the emperor, he climbed to that position step by step, but in the end he could only get this result..." Maybe it's true. After drinking too much, Charlotte still couldn't understand her hatred and continued to mock Surte, "Sure enough, God will give each of us a fair punishment..."

"It was just the current situation that defeated him. We didn't do much." Charles replied calmly.

"In the face of the current situation, each of us can do very little. After all, a person is just a person." The Duke suddenly spoke, "At that time, some people were able to use these few actions to adapt to and control the current situation - Napoleon He had done it before, but in the end he thought that everything about him was destined by God. He thought that he He was the master of the times... and then he failed." The Duke took another sip of wine. "When he said, 'God gave me a crown, whoever touches it will suffer', he was already lost. He forgot. If the situation could push him to the throne, it could also push him down, so he did those last crazy things."

[This sentence was said by Napoleon after he became emperor. 】

After all, Napoleon's enemies could never forget to say bad things about Napoleon, but what he said was reasonable, so Charles didn't intend to argue.

"At least France and we have a chance to right the wrongs the Emperor has done."

"Really? You guys?" Duke Treville remained expressionless, but there was a hint of sarcasm in his tone, "Will France give you a chance?"

"Of course it will, and it won't be long ago." Charles replied firmly. "Besides, I also know that France will never give you another chance."

Now that the cooperation goal of the two factions has been achieved, there is no need to deal with it in vain. The tone of the Duke and Charles is a bit tougher than before. The two looked directly at each other, obviously wanting to have another argument.

Seemingly realizing that something was not right between the two of them, Charlotte, who was already a little confused, quickly smoothed things over, "Today is a rare opportunity, so we don't have to talk about those boring things anymore, okay?"

Then she gave Ciel a hard look, signaling him to stop arguing with her grandfather. There was a hint of pleading in his eyes, but also a bit of charm.

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

Charles frowned slightly, but still obeyed his cousin's request and looked away again.

However, the Duke was still a little reluctant.

"In the past twenty years, the mob has destroyed the elegance of France to such an extent that we have finally rebuilt everything. Do you think you can let people do it again? You are so naive..."

Too much.

"It's a pity that Duke Lauzun's demeanor didn't save him from the guillotine, did it?" Charles responded with a mocking tone.

[The Duke of Lauzon was born in 1747. He was famous for his beauty and grace. At that time, he was regarded as the first-class representative of French "aristocratic elegance" and was extremely popular among the court of Versailles. However, this elegance failed to save his life in the end. He finally failed to escape and was guillotined by the revolutionary government during the Terror in 1794. 】

This word made the living room of the Duke's mansion freeze for an instant, and both the Duke and Charlotte turned pale. For the old French aristocrats of this era, there is no word more worthy of emotion and hatred than this.

"Guillotine, okay, guillotine!" The Duke's voice was extremely low. "What a Bonapartist! Don't forget that your surname is Treville, and your great-grandfather also died on the guillotine!"

"That is a thing of the past. We cannot live in the old times forever. Moreover, the Bonapartists are not fighting for the recurrence of this kind of thing. On the contrary, we are fighting for..."

"They're all the same!" the Duke interrupted. "The only difference is that one intends to send us to the guillotine and the other intends to send us to live in seclusion in the countryside, isn't it?"

"If we can't even adapt to the current situation, we are lucky to be able to avoid the guillotine and live in seclusion in the countryside! If we can adapt to the current situation, we can live well no matter who is in power." Charles sneered, "Do you think Would France have remained the same forever without the Bonapartists?"

"Can't stay the same..." The Duke chuckled again, "It was this kind of thinking that killed the king and queen."

"The people can judge the king. This is the progress of the times. Even though there are countless innocent souls in this progress, it is still worthy of respect."

"Totally stupid!" the Duke shouted angrily.

"Extremely glorious!" Ciel replied.

"You are the descendants of those regicides!" The Duke raised his voice, with some rare excitement on his face. "Just because Napoleon gave me a little benefit, your grandfather and you ended up on that side!"

"So what?" Charles stood up and looked directly at his cousin, "If you are really so loyal to the dynasty and the king, then why didn't you join Prince Condé's army and instead hid in peace? Shoe repair in Dusseldorf?”

Ciel questioned with a hint of obvious ridicule. This sharp blow left the Duke speechless.

[Referring to Louis-Joseph de Bourbon, the eighth Prince of Condé, who escaped from France during the Revolution and later settled in Worms, Germany. He recruited a large number of exiled French nobles here to form the "Condai Army" and the revolutionary political ax to carry out guerrilla warfare, and successively cooperated with Austria and the Russian Empire. In 1801, the Kong Dai army was finally defeated by the political ax army. Prince Kong Dai went into exile in the United Kingdom. He was able to return to the country after the collapse of the Napoleon Empire in 1814 and died in 1818. 】

"Charle!" After seeing the fierce quarrel between the two relatives, Charlotte had completely sobered up. She hurriedly ran to Charles, grabbed his sleeve, and laid her face on Charles' shoulder. , the voice was trembling a little, "Please stop arguing, okay..."

The quarrel finally came to an end.

Ciel picked up the wine glass in front of him, drank it in one gulp, and then bowed.

"Obviously, our cooperation has ended now. Let's go on and see who has the last laugh. Good luck to both of you. Goodbye."

Then he left without looking back.

Looking at Charles's receding back, Charlotte shook her head gently, then turned to look at Duke Treville, with some helplessness and even some complaints in her eyes.

"Grandpa, why did you make such a good dinner so unhappy? Some things can obviously not be said... Why do you have to make you and Charles so angry...? Hey, Grandpa..."

She suddenly found that her grandfather had returned to the calm and indifferent look just now, as if the person who had just quarreled with his nephew was another person.

"This is a need." Duke Treville replied in an extremely cold tone.

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