Granville's estate

The invitation to the ball of the Vicomtesse de Bourgogne was sent by the footman of the Vicomte's mansion.

The servants with the coat of arms of the de Bourgogne family embroidered on their livery rode expensive taxis that ordinary people would only take once in a while when it rained, and galloped through the streets and alleys of Paris to deliver the lady's invitation. The posts were sent to the mansions of all the nobles.It is said that a total of [-] such messengers were sent out, the purpose was only to allow invitees of the same status to receive the same invitation letter on the same day, so as to prevent some honorable invitees from receiving the invitation later than others. feel offended by the post.

Although they are all rented carriages, because the rented carriages in Paris are different due to the level of horses, carriages and luxurious decorations, the rental prices are also different.This time, the Boulogne Mansion rented all the most luxurious rental carriages for the messengers, and even rented [-] of them at a stretch. The rent is much higher. According to Alred's estimation, the Boulogne mansion will have to pay at least five or six hundred francs just to send out the many invitations for this ball, which can only be said to be quite extravagant!

Along with the invitation to Alred, there was also an invitation to Sologne Grostedt, the distant nephew of the Viscountess de Bourgogne. I left Alred, and politely asked Alred to help pass it on.

"But, why don't you deliver the invitation to him yourself?" Alred, who received Sologne's invitation, asked the messenger rather puzzled: "Could it be that you don't know where he lives?"

"Ah, sir!" replied the messenger, "we can only entrust you to convey it because we know where Mr. Grossetter lives. My coachman categorically refuses to drive his beloved carriage to the No. 12 arrondissement of Paris." Even if I told him that Madame would be willing to pay him ten francs an hour, he would not."

No.12 arrondissement - the place where Margaret Labudin, beloved of Al Laide, was born. It is the poorest, chaotic and filthiest arrondissement in Paris. It is said that the bottom and poorest 120 of Paris' 10 million population The rogues are concentrated in this area.It is a paradise for criminals, full of scammers, all the anti-civilized rascals, anti-society scum and anti-king criminals in Paris. It is said that five out of ten people will have criminal records in their passports, and the rest Five of them had either just come out of the poor workhouses set up to "reform the laziness of the poor," or were about to be taken to the police courts.Not to mention the nobles, as long as they are a little decent people, they will definitely not be willing to step into that area.

Alrede obviously knew that the nobles of the upper class and those who depended on the upper class rejected District No. 12. After hearing what the servant said, he just shrugged his shoulders, took a twenty centimes silver coin and gave it to The footman sent him away as a tip.

"This time we have to take your carriage to find Sologne! Your carriage is relatively low-key." Alred said to Louis, "My carriage driver is suspicious every time he goes to District No.12. People passing by were scoundrels trying to tear off the wheels of his wagon, and once he even asked me to take a stagecoach myself."

Louis, who had only heard of the bad reputation of District No. 12, knew for the first time that Sologne actually lived in District No. 12. Although he had never lived in Paris, he had heard of the great reputation of that area. For a moment, he was stunned.

"That Mr. Sologne Grostedt, why does he live in District No. 12?" Thanks to the reputation of District No. 12, Louis instinctively became vigilant almost immediately: "Even if I live in Ma Gong, I have also heard the saying, 'The No.12 district is the ugliest scar in Paris, although it is in Paris, it is full of uncivilized barbarians'."

"Oh, don't worry too much, Louis!" Maybe it's because the girl he loves is also from that area, but Alrede seemed quite unconcerned: "Sologne chooses there, but we need a warehouse to store The purchased tea, and the rent in No.12 District is the lowest. He rented a three-story building similar to mine on Moore Street in the Holy Temple. He used the first and second floors as a warehouse and lived with the workers himself. On the third floor and the attic. Sologne's personality is different from mine. He can do anything to save money, but it is still clean and tidy, and because it is in No.12 District, one year The rent is less than my quarterly rent!"

"This sounds too suspicious! First he dug tunnels for smuggling, then he started the lucrative tea business, and he's a person who lives in District No. 12!"

Louis thought so in his heart. He didn't trust Alred's so-called college classmate very much. Now that he heard that he lived in District No.12, he felt even more suspicious, but seeing that Alred believed in Sologne very much , he didn't say what he thought, but made up his mind in his heart that when he saw that Sologne Grostedt, he would carefully search for the case with the most meticulous attitude of a judge hearing the case. The gentleman's flaw.

This time they took Louis's carriage, and Louis's coachman, Peter, was entrusted with an important task for the first time since he came to Paris. He made all the preparations for the trip; but he didn't expect that they were going to the No.12 district of Paris, and the street conditions in this area were so bad that any coachman who took good care of his horse and carriage would regret driving his carriage. into the point here.

"My Virgin Mary, this is the first time Papa Peter has encountered such a bad road!"

When he was blocked by a potato cart for the third time on the narrow and muddy streets of District No. 12, Papa Peter, who couldn't bear it anymore, shouted from his coachman's seat.

"I say, just bear with it!" the coachman on the other side yelled, while beating the old horse pulling the cart, forcing the exhausted old horse to stack the full potato sacks on the cart more than people The carriage that was still a head taller pulled out of the mud pit: "This place is not for you noble people. Since you are here, you have to obey the rules and wait slowly!"

"Damn it! You clearly saw that we came here first, and you still fight with us!"

"Do you think this is your kind of small carriage that can be dragged by yourself! Pulling such a heavy thing, you can't move when you stop!"

Just when the two coachmen were about to quarrel with each other, the window on the attic of the dilapidated house on the side of the narrow street was opened, and a fat woman in a worn-out apron leaned out, clattering. A large basin of dirty water was poured below, just onto the top potato sack.

"Hey! Damn bitch!" The coachman on the opposite side saw the goods on his carriage being splashed with a big basin of water, and shouted all of a sudden: "What are you doing! Your water has ruined my potatoes!"

"Why are you arguing? Who told you to stay under my window!" The fat woman in the attic was also a savage, pinching her waist and cursing back: "The rats that no one wants eat the leftover stinky, wormy, rotten stuff!" , I’m kind enough to help you add a few pounds to earn a few more sous, and I haven’t asked you to collect the money yet, you still have the face to scold me!”

Being disturbed by the fat woman, the carriage driver on the opposite side immediately forgot about the quarrel with Peter's father, and started arguing with the fat woman instead. After listening to the "you come and I go" and "extremely exciting" quarrel for half an hour, I left this lane with the help of the transport carriages that came one after another.

"This ghostly place is a nightmare! Sir! Father Peter swears, there will be no next time here, there will be no!"

As the saying goes, "The No.12 district is the ugliest scar in Paris", where there are traces of poverty, hunger and desperation.Along the way, the poverty in this area can shock anyone who has a little sympathy: the streets and squares are dilapidated, and one hundred people cannot find ten people without patches on their clothes, but they can find Ten sick people, twenty men who have drunkenly paralyzed themselves to relieve themselves from their toils; Instead of the idleness of the wealthy gentry that Louis had seen in the boulevards and the Bois de Boulogne, it was a miserable idleness with no way out; A woman picking up tatters with hooks, a man in black mourning clothes renting out himself to play the role of mourning at a funeral, a child kneeling on the ground to shine someone else’s shoes, a girl selling baskets of low-quality fruits and dying flowers on the road... ...this area, the Paris not seen in the glamorous rue de Tebes, the Boulevard d'Antin, and the boulevards, where the poor gather, where the city's high society pretends to be non-existent, covered up festering wounds.

"Never again! Never again!"

Even Papa Peter, who thought he had seen everything, couldn't bear this seemingly boundless scene of cruel suffering. He muttered while driving the carriage.

Louis also looked at the various scenes on the streets passing by the carriage from the car window, and he was shocked by the naked poverty—if the Latin Quarter at the intersection of multiple districts is said to be dilapidated, then No.12 District is even more dilapidated. Brutal dilapidation, a desperate dilapidation where even the vitality of young people cannot be seen. Even the air here is rotten, filled with the smell of soot, sewage and poor-quality dyes.At a certain moment, Louis deeply understood what Ossion meant when he was in Bisson's tailor shop, "If you don't have enough gold coins, you can't even breathe fresh air".

——"This is really a ghost place."

——This is the No.12 district of Paris, this is Paris, and this is not Paris.