Eagle’s Glory

"Have you survived another day..."

Looking at the gradually whitening sky, Duke Treville said to himself calmly.

Almost ten days have passed since he first led the guards to attack the militiamen. During these ten days, the Duke truly experienced the feeling of "living like a year". Almost every day was a kind of torture for him. He had to squeeze out every ounce of energy from his aging body to endure this suffering.

The night that just passed was by no means peaceful. Starting from the afternoon, the militiamen and mobs besieging the palace had been launching attacks. After nightfall, a small group of people even wanted to infiltrate into the garrison's position from the temporary trench in the garden. After a period of fighting, they were finally driven away.

The offensive did not come to an end until the early hours of the morning. The exhausted Duke Treville and the guards of the palace did not even have the heart to cheer, but took advantage of this small gap to rest quickly.

At this moment, the Duke was resting in a temporary rest room converted from a storage room next to the garden.

Although there were sporadic gunshots all around, for the Duke who was used to all this, this level of sound was almost like a lover's whisper and could not touch his nerves at all.

Although the sky is only bright at the moment, with the help of these weak lights, Duke Treville can see from the window what the palace looks like at this moment - the originally beautiful garden is now a ruins, beautiful flower beds and buildings , have been blackened by gunpowder, and some places even show a strange purple-black color because they are covered with coagulated blood.

Among the broken walls and ruins, the corpses all over the ground were left unattended. They could only lie quietly among the bricks, mud, and ruins, silently continuing to witness this tragic disaster.

Fortunately, it was a cold winter, so the body would not start to smell quickly, otherwise the entire palace would have been enveloped in a strong stench.

If the Duke had not lived a wandering life in his early years and developed a strong will, I am afraid that he would have been unable to endure such tragic scenes and difficult conditions.

Because he had not closed his eyes all day and all night, he was exhausted at this time, and his aging body was almost on the verge of exhausting the remaining energy. However, even so, he never showed any flinching or fearful emotions, and kept tirelessly patrolling around to cheer up the guards.

Everyone who witnessed Duke Treville's performance during this period couldn't help but admire him. His Majesty the King naturally also looked at the Duke with admiration. He secretly hated himself for not discovering the Duke's loyalty earlier, and instead reused a bunch of trash.

As a result, I got what I ended up with today.

But even so, the environment was bad enough, and the Duke could clearly feel it. As time went by, the palace guards suffered huge casualties, and their will to fight was constantly weakened. Now most of them no longer believe it. There will be reinforcements outside to help him. Even if the Duke keeps encouraging them with official appointments and wishes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get their response.

Compared with the low morale of the guards, what is more worrying is the group of royal relatives and dignitaries surrounding the king. They have always lived a pampered life and have never suffered at all. They have never seen the tragic scene now. , the fear of death has overwhelmed them, they have no fighting will at all, let alone boosting morale.

If the palace was not basically surrounded now and there was nowhere to escape, the Duke had no doubt that these people would immediately pack up their belongings and escape.

Precisely because he knew the current situation of the palace well, the Duke's reason came to a conclusion-the palace could not hold on for much longer.

However, he never expected that he could create a miracle and kept persevering.

He had previously understood the thoughts of the Marquis of Treville through his son - he was required to persist for a week, and now that he could persist until the tenth day, he had overfulfilled the task.

However, is such an effort really meaningful?

For the Duke, the people who can evaluate his "performance" are not within the palace, but outside the palace, he can only complete his mission if the Bonaparte family takes the opportunity to seize power.

However, since the Duke of Orleans asked his supporters to launch an attack on the palace, he has been cut off from the outside world. At this moment, he does not know where the rapidly changing situation has reached, nor does he know how much progress the King of Rome has made, or even I don’t know if my brothers and descendants are safe now.

He just followed the agreement with his brother and guarded here tenaciously, trying his best to delay time - although he had no military experience, he relied on his innate ruthlessness and indomitable will to lead The palace guards resisted the enemy's attacks and held on.

"I hope all these sacrifices are meaningful..." Duke Treville glanced at the ruins in front of him again, and then sighed in his heart again.

He was extremely exhausted at this moment, so he decided to take advantage of this short period of calm to rest first. However, as soon as he closed his eyes, a palace attendant knocked on the door of this temporary headquarters.

"His Majesty wants to summon you, sir."

After hearing His Majesty's call, the Duke did not dare to neglect, quickly put aside his sleepiness, then cheered up and ran to the King's study.

When he came here, he found that in addition to the king, there was a boy of about ten years old in the study. He was leaning on the king, his face was bloodless, and he seemed to be trembling.

The king was caressing the child gently, his face full of love.

The Duke of Treville certainly knew who this child was - he was Henry de Bourbon, the posthumous son of the King's youngest son, the Duke of Berry. Since the Crown Prince had no heirs, this child was also His Majesty the King's only grandson.

If nothing unexpected happened, he should have become the legitimate king of France in a few years, enjoying the worship of his descendants.

It's a pity that fate played tricks on this child after all. Maybe throughout his life, he will never be able to wear the crown that should have belonged to him... The Duke thought with regret.

"Philip." While the Duke was still daydreaming, the King finally noticed the Duke's arrival, and then greeted him cordially, "It looks like we are in a very bad situation now."

"Yes, Your Majesty." There was no need to deny such an obvious thing, so the Duke nodded frankly, "We are now in danger, and the guards suffered heavy casualties. However... the loyalty of the guards did not change. No matter how shaken they are, they are still willing to serve you until they die in battle..."

The king suddenly waved his hand and made a gesture to indicate to the duke that he did not need to say the next part of the scene.

Of course, he has been watching the battle around him these days, so of course he can see that the enemies besieging the palace have been approaching him, and now the area controlled by the guards has become increasingly large. Small.

At this time, he was only a hundred or two hundred meters away from the front line. Fortunately, the people besieging the palace did not use siege guns, otherwise he might have become another victim on the throne.

During this period of time, he has been meditating, sometimes melancholy, sometimes excited, and sometimes immersed in incomparable melancholy. As a king, he and he as a mortal collided everywhere in an aging body, which made his spirit The pain was extremely painful, and the despair of "sitting in a city of sorrow" and being alone and helpless was even more unbearable for him.

After so many days of suffering, he already knew that his dynasty was destined to collapse again, and he would lose the throne like his brother Louis XVI.

God once again abandoned the Bourbon family. Although he was very sad and resentful, the only reason he had left at the moment made him understand that this was a destined outcome.

With a heavy heart, the king once again touched his grandson beside him, and Prince Henry buried his head deeply in the king's arms, perhaps out of fear or to comfort his grandfather.

Even though Duke Treville had already developed a heart of stone, he couldn't help but feel sad when he saw his grandfather and grandson hugging each other for warmth.

After all, he is also an old man and has grandchildren. He can understand the affectionate mood of the elderly.

"This child is so cute..." The king suddenly sighed.

Then, he shook his head again, "Such a cute child should not have to experience the disaster we are experiencing. This should all come to an end."

The Duke was suddenly startled.

"What do you mean...?"

"It's time... Philip." His Majesty the King sighed again, "In the past few days, I have been praying to God to let the Almighty Lord save me and allow those warriors who are still loyal to the dynasty to rush in. Paris, come to the palace to rescue us... However, my wish was ruthlessly mocked by fate after all, and no one came to rescue me, which also means that fate has abandoned me."

Then, the king quickly glanced at the Duke, seeming a little unwilling, but seemed to have accepted his fate, "In order to delay time, in order to combat the ambition of the Orleans family, we have resisted for a long enough time, and we have done everything we should do." I did it...my reason tells me that if we continue to fight, not only will we pay more innocent lives, Henry will also be in danger, so I think it is time to stop."

When you talk about cherishing your children and grandchildren, you are obviously afraid of death! Duke Treville cursed in his heart.

He was really furious at the moment.

Because he didn't know the situation outside, he just wanted to continue to hold on, delaying it for one more day. However, now, the king took the initiative to say that he wanted to give up...

How could you give up on your country before me? !

Alas, after all, he is still the same prince's brother back then. He has not changed after so many years. He always wants to escape when things happen, the Duke sighed in his heart.

However, after thinking about it, since he has lasted for so many days, he has done his best. The king did not back down until this time, which is considered a good performance.

All kinds of thoughts came to him, and the Duke suddenly felt weak and dizzy. He was already exhausted and just relied on his willpower to hang on. Now when he heard that the king was about to give up, his will also dissipated. , so the physical exhaustion instantly overwhelmed him.

The Duke was shaken, and finally could only answer the King in a weak voice, "Your Majesty, I obey all your orders..."

Then he staggered and collapsed.

"Philip!" The king anxiously walked to him and supported him, and then assured him, "No matter what, I will keep you... No matter what happens in the future, our family will always be grateful for your loyalty."

Fuck you... The Duke cursed quietly in his heart, and then fell asleep with a relieved smile.

If he succeeds, then he will be the undisclosed number one hero of the Bonaparte family; if he fails, then all efforts will be meaningless and will be just a desperate struggle in vain.

But since he is now playing the role of a loyal minister, the royal family's gratitude can also be regarded as a resource.

Hope it's all worth it...

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Outside the palace, there was a group of people who were also suffering, and they seemed to finally see the light.

When they saw the royal envoy coming to see him with a white flag, the Duke of Orleans and his cronies all gave out fierce and exhausted cheers.

The long ordeal seemed to be finally over.

"Your Excellency, while the king surrenders, quickly control his whole family!" Gao Dan quickly advised his benefactor.

However, the Duke's face was solemn. He stared at the palace not far away and fell into tangled contemplation.

"Can my family be convicted of regicide twice?" Then, the Duke of Orleans asked Gaudan with a solemn expression.

Gaudin was stunned for a moment. He knew that for the Duke, there was another taboo past that was unspeakable - that was his father, the Duke of Orleans of the previous generation.

In order to shake the authority of the royal family, the Duke had been advocating Enlightenment ideas and fanning revolutionary fanaticism before the Great Revolution. After the outbreak of the Revolution, he became even more comfortable and changed his name to Philippe Equality to show a clear line with his royal bloodline.

In 1793, in order to cater to the fervent revolutionary atmosphere at the time, or in order to protect himself wisely and avoid becoming the target of the horrific massacre, the Duke of Orleans chose to vote in favor of Louis XVI's death sentence, and this vote also became the name of Orleans. The family was an eternal stain in the hearts of the nobles. Those members of the National Assembly who voted for the death penalty were called "regicides", and the Duke of Orleans was particularly bad in their minds.

After all, in the eyes of the nobles, the Great Revolution was a rebellion of mud-legged people. They used the guillotine to kill the nobles. It was a life-and-death class struggle. Although it was cruel, there was some "reasonableness" after all; but the Duke of Orleans was a royal family member and a dignitary. I have been favored by the country and favored by the royal family for several generations, but for my own selfish interests, I "complicit" with the mud-legged people, and even committed the crime of regicide. This is really intolerable.

Although the Duke of Orleans actively showed his tendency to be revolutionary, no one had forgotten his noble origin. No matter how hard he tried, he was still unable to please both sides. In the end, Robespierre regarded him as a "revolutionary traitor" and was guillotined. , only ten months later than Louis XVI.

Because he knew this past event, Gao Dan didn't know how to comfort his benefactor.

Before he could speak, the Duke of Orleans had already continued with a wry smile. "Before he was arrested by the revolutionary government, my father had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. He knew that he could not escape, so he secretly asked me to escape from France. As a result, he was arrested while I was fleeing... and then died. On the scaffold, he told me the truth at the cost of his own life—that I could never be a revolutionary."

Gaudin nodded silently, "But you can be the restorer of France."

"Yes, the restorer...or the balancer, or maybe the owner of nothing." The Duke nodded with a wry smile, and then regained his energy, "Okay, the matter is over, there is no use in talking more, let us first Go and see what the king is thinking."