Sur ma peau

32.

When you see a rose, you call it beautiful, but when you see a snake, you call it disgusting.You don't know this world, the rose and the snake are close friends, and at night they transform into each other, the snake's cheeks are bright red, and the rose's scales are shining.You see rabbits say they are cute, and lions say they are terrible. You don't know how they bleed and love each other on a stormy night.

—— "The Marchioness of Sade"

The servant wearing a silver bird's beak mask walked up to the third floor of the castle with a breakfast tray. Before entering the master bedroom suite, he took off the mask to let the guards outside confirm his identity, then put on the mask again and entered the room.

The overly thick hypnotic fragrance, even with the medicine pack and cotton gauze, gradually penetrated into the nose. The waiter covered the aromatherapy, and opened the window sash door by door, so that the cool wind in the summer morning could come in and brighten the room. The scent dissipates.

A few minutes later, the attendants who waited on changing clothes filed in. Before approaching the four-poster bed with the curtain hanging in the middle of the room, a slender white hand lifted the curtain.

"Send over the letters and reports." His Royal Highness closed his clothes and came out, rinsed his mouth with tea from the dinner plate, and wiped his face with a hot towel.

There was no laziness and sleepiness in his voice, and he didn't know when he woke up, but it meant that the dose of the medicine was starting to lose its effect again.

I wrote a letter to Sir Francois who was still in Versailles yesterday, inviting him to come for consultation. I don’t know if the letter has been delivered yet, but the waiter wondered inwardly. He responded and nodded to the herald waiting outside the door. He waved his hand to let the attendants retreat first, and then he also retreated.

Yabofika picked up the folder handed over by the herald, first read the battle report, and the news from various spies.Lost on the battlefield, Lafayette, who had supported the American War of Independence and served as Washington's adjutant, stabilized those young people who had just entered the army for training, and did not suffer too many substantial casualties, which also reflected his ability .

There was also a new letter in the folder, just a roll of rough paper sealed with wax, sent by General Lafayette from the front, naturally without any particular conditions.

In the last letter, it was said that the United States refused to provide assistance. Louis’s actions to support their War of Independence twice and make the national treasury run out of money were in vain after all. return.

Yabofika unfolded the scroll, and there was only a short sentence written in scrawled words on it.

"Paris is behind us, and there is no way back."

The dragoon had been on standby for several days, waiting for an order to attack and assist, but Louis didn't want him to join the battle.According to the news from Paris and Austria, Louis chose another path, because he has family members, except the eldest princess in Avignon, and a seven-year-old son. He wants to leave France like those nobles in exile. An Austrian army that entered France came with the purpose of assisting the escape.

Compared to them, Abfika cared more about the undispatched Prussian army.

So he was waiting, waiting for the Prussian army, waiting for Spain, who was conspiring with England, waiting for Louis to leave, and he stayed to calm the anger of the people.

On the afternoon of the assassination at the Palace of Justice, Louis asked him to return to the territory to cover up the symptoms that had begun to appear. Living with a person who is good at medicine, it is difficult to eliminate the clues.

"You have to go back to the territory to recuperate." Louis rarely used such strong words. He was always overly kind, worried that he was not doing well enough, and looked forward and backward, vacillating left and right. Even if it was an order, it was often in a negotiating tone.

Those radical revolutionaries cannot be allowed to discover his symptoms, because this is the beginning of everything falling apart.As the last bastion of the royal family, under the seemingly unshakable power, there is an Achilles' heel-like Achilles' heel.

"I'm scared." Before leaving, Louis waved away the others and said to him.The power of the people is uncontrollable and growing stronger day by day. It can only be guided, not suppressed. If there is a slight carelessness, it will blow away the entire original order like a flood that bursts a bank.

Fear makes people make bad decisions, and someone has to make amends and take the blame.

Minos was awakened by sporadic gunfire, in the early morning, when the sky was not yet fully bright.Soon the butler went upstairs and announced the news of the adjutant's visit outside the door.

"The king's family tried to leave the city through the east gate of Paris at three o'clock this morning, but they were discovered by patrolling guards. Now the carriage has taken refuge in the Palace of Justice." The adjutant also came in a hurry, and Minos noticed that he even missed a disciplinary buckle. .

"What's the matter with the conflict?" Minos asked.

"Words of the King's defection are spreading throughout the city, and the Tuileries Palace is surrounded by angry crowds attacking the Swiss Legion guards," the adjutant replied.

"En." Minos responded, took his coat, and went downstairs. Before leaving the front yard, he met Robespierre who came in a hurry.

"You'd better not go anywhere. I just came from the Parliament. There are witnesses accusing the king of secretly cooperating with Austria. The evidence is in the Tuileries Palace."

We all know his relationship with the royal family, if he comes forward at this moment, he will definitely be attacked as a party defending the royal family.

"Don't forget where you stand."

On 8 August, angry at the king, rioters forced the Legislative Assembly to abolish the 10 constitution, abdicate the king and introduce universal suffrage.But the riots expanded further, and the flames of war even reached the merchants who had previously raised prices, and some bakeries and grain merchants were affected. Only those who fanned the flames at the beginning became restrained and asked the court gendarmerie to help maintain law and order.

It was a day after Minos re-entered the Tuileries Palace. The magnificent glass windows of the palace were smashed, together with the fallen chandeliers and pushed furniture, the marble floor was covered.The soles of the shoes felt sticky when walking because of the undried blood and human tissue everywhere.

The king's order to give up resistance made this the first scene of the massacre, and none of the 800 guards was spared.When the atrocities spread, people who had nothing to do with the matter were implicated. Just a word of collusion with the royal family could break in, burn, kill, and loot. The evil of human nature is infinitely magnified without barriers.People always have a certain fluke mentality. When they commit crimes as a group, they feel that their crimes will not be discovered or punished.

The law has always limited the boundaries of evil, maintained by power, so that people can be fixed on the side of human beings.Even though the whole of Paris knew about the relationship between Minos and the Grand Prince, in the past few days, no mob dared to trespass on his mansion because of the guns and swords in the hands of the gendarmerie.

There were many familiar faces in those shattered corpses. After being distorted by pain, it was difficult to identify for a while, but there was a thin old man with gray hair. Even though half of his skull was broken and his face was stained with blood, Minos could Recognized at once, because he had seen it too many times, Sir François, the royal physician.

Before the riots, Minos also planned to take the time to visit him, the most likely insider of the events that happened in the palace 18 years ago.After the coronation of Louis XVI, the doctor left Versailles for the domain of Count Ploin, where he stayed for a year before returning to the palace.

Now this clue has also been broken, leaving two people who should know better, being detained by the Trial Conspirator Tribunal reorganized by the Radicals in order to avoid him, a judge with a royal bias.

Before the Supreme Court finished handling the cases left by the riot, another news spread to Paris. His Royal Highness, who had not heard from him for more than half a year, led the dragoons to leave the station and head north.The mob, who were afraid of being retaliated, broke into the prison overnight and massacred more than 1000 royalists and nobles inside.

Under the horror of dying, people will turn into immoral demons. All the female prisoners, those noble ladies and ladies, were gang-raped and beaten, and then cut into pieces and ostentatiously carried away as trophies. Even some pretty males are not immune to the same treatment.The mob impaled the heads of the offshoots of the royal family on sharpened sticks, and walked past the towers where the queen and king were imprisoned, so that the king's family could see through the windows.

What is even more ironic is that a few days later, new news came that the dragoons did not come for Paris, but passed through the Champagne Ardennes district next to Paris, entered the northeastern Lorraine district, and were surrounded and occupied by the Austro-Prussian coalition forces. In the fortress of Verdun, the defeat on the front line began to reverse.

But the people of Paris seem to forget that they are going through war, and devote themselves wholeheartedly to this revolution that is doing evil things in the name of freedom.

On September 1792, 9, Valmy's victory brought a temporary end to the five-month domestic battlefield.The Girondins, who represented the interests of the business class and won a comprehensive victory in Paris, feared that the Grand Prince would be liquidated when he returned to Paris, so they opened the National Convention on September 20 and announced the establishment of the First French Republic the next day. The title of nobility, the old titles of sir and lord were removed, and replaced by comrades and brothers, and publicly demanded that Jabofika, who led the dragoons, returned to Paris immediately to question the king's trial.

This kind of joke-like order was sent to the front line, but was naturally ignored by that person. The French rose was busy showing its sharp poisonous thorns to the invaders, and pursued the victory all the way. By the end of October, it even left the border.

Robespierre entered the National Convention as the candidate with the most votes among the Paris representatives, and finally regained the balance of the sanity lost by those fanatics. After the cavalry chased the allied forces for a while, they turned around and quickly retreated back to the country without delay, not even giving the opponent a chance to pursue.When the coalition forces came to their senses, the National Guards who had rested and reorganized on the border had already been waiting in full force. Behind their lines, the Dragoons leisurely reorganized and set up camp, counted the dead and wounded, and allocated subsidies.

At this time, the National Convention did not want Abafika to return to Paris, because of the army in his hands that had not retreated, the National Guard was assigned to change defense with the dragoons, and the dragoons who had just returned to their station for less than a month , was ordered to go west to prevent Britain from launching a naval blockade against France in May. As for Abafica, he was ordered to stay in the territory for the reason of questioning, waiting for the court to collect evidence.

Just when the guild was ready to be ignored again, unexpectedly, this time the other party chose to obey the order.

"Who is going to bring people back?" As soon as the question was raised, the hall that was still full of enthusiasm just now suddenly fell silent, with eyes dodging.The entire Provence region was formerly the territory of Abafica. Even if the Republic revoked the identity of the other party, it could not avoid the fact that it was still someone's stronghold.The guild can deprive him of the army in his hands, because it is in line with the current situation of defense, and he is fearless in his own territory.

"Minos Gelfin." Someone proposed aloud, which attracted a lot of echoes.

Seeing that everyone turned their attention to him, Minos smiled lazily and said, "Since it is the general will, of course I agree."

Bystander inaction to murder should be as guilty as the murderer.

Some of the topics of the National Convention were even comparable to the poetry readings of the law school back then. It made people drowsy. Minos, who spent half the meeting to catch up on sleep, walked out of the council hall, still feeling that the back of the chair was carved. It hurts my bones.

"Hello! Minos. Is that the name?" Someone stopped outside the porch and waited for him, wearing a striped gray overcoat and a red scarf tied crookedly, waving at him with a bit of street-smart air.

Although not officially met, Minos also knew Robespierre's friend, Danton.

Minos heard his name many times, half complaining and half resignedly telling Robespierre about his romantic anecdotes.

"What's the matter?" The newly formulated rules of the Republic are to remove the old etiquette names and red tape, and make the conversation quick and concise, which Minos likes very much.

"The little prince in the tower, I've been sick and crying for several nights, I'm so annoying, you take it away." After Robespierre resigned from the position of the chief judge of the conspiracy trial, Danton voluntarily joined the jury, Became head of the prison after the September massacre.

Seeing that Minos did not answer, he said again: "The evidence of treason for the king and queen is solid, and there will be a public trial in the next year. Many people want to be his caretakers." He put his hands in the pockets of his coat as he spoke. The weather was getting colder and gloomy like it was about to snow.

"There is always a limit to being a human being." Dandong looked at some people walking down the stairs with unabashed contempt.

On the night the Tuileries Palace was captured, apart from the thousands of people who died, there were also a large number of unverifiable disappearances. The always elegant and refined nobles became the best prey and collections of the mob.This was acquiesced by the National Convention, and it was a benefit due to the overthrow of the royal power.

Some people even whispered and pointed their ideas at the commander of the dragoons who was leading the army outside, but it was too difficult to get one.As for the helpless little prince at the moment, he was a close relative from the same family, and his appearance was somewhat similar, so he became a better substitute.

"Okay." Minos didn't want to pay attention to it. Thinking of this, he gave an agreeable answer by accident.

Delayed by the illness of the little prince for a few days, Minos arrived in Avignon with several small gendarmerie regiments, already after Christmas.After the dragoons switched defenses, they seemed to have taken away Jabofika's guards. In the castle, apart from the servants who hadn't left, there were only a few servants who maintained their daily lives, the eldest princess and the owner of the castle.As soon as the gendarmerie entered the city wall, they quickly occupied all inspection points and watchtowers, and separated everyone to guard them.

Minos saw Yabofika in the study of the castle. He hadn't seen him for more than a year. The sword of kingship, which had just experienced war, was still sharp. He was sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace, holding the military standard muskets.

From August to September, some nobles who could not bear the humiliation chose the road of suicide. Knowing that they would not be accepted by the church after death, they still weakly escaped from reality.

Minos stepped forward, pulled out the gun from Abfika's hand, and pressed it against the side of his head. The angle of inclination can ensure that the lead bullet can instantly destroy the nerve center, and people will die before the brain receives pain feedback. Quick and pain free.

"Tell me, are you loyal to the king or the republic."

"I am loyal to the kingdom. Please keep your tricks in Paris within the scope of not disrupting stability and unity." Yabofika said in a cold tone.

Leave France, go now.Lafayette gave a special reminder when switching defenses.

The disappearance of several dark lines in Paris, Lafayette's warning words, means that he has been betrayed again.He was probably used to this kind of treatment, and he didn't feel at all when he came to a conclusion, but was extremely calm and clear. That's why he handed over the dragoons to Shi On, resigned from the post of regimental commander, and faced his end.

"So sure I won't shoot?"

"No bullets." Yabofika spread out his right hand, revealing the lead bullet in his palm, "I took it out before you took it." He promised that he would not commit suicide.

Now he wished the buckshot was in the chamber.