Fox of France

The trip in Italy came to an end after a visit to the University of Naples. During the trip, Joseph and others received a warm welcome no matter which city or country they were in. Every city or country gave Joseph various medals representing the highest honor. Even the Papal State, which is busy with the death of the Pope and the enthronement of the new Pope, gave Joseph a precious gold medal. Rose.

The golden rose is the highest-level gift specially given by the Holy See to the royal family who believe in Catholicism. Each golden rose is made of pure gold and is usually decorated with precious jewelry. What's more, each golden rose is a reliquary containing a fragment of the True Cross.

The Holy See often presents such gifts to royal nobles who have supported Catholicism in recognition of their patronage and service to the Church. Now Napoleon is already the emperor of Rome, and Joseph is also the vice-lord of the Roman Empire. Therefore, it is considered to be in compliance with the standard to award this kind of thing to him.

Theoretically, there are fragments of the True Cross in the golden rose, which is limited in number and of great significance, so those who get it should be in a state of trepidation. But in fact, it may not be the case. For example, King Henry VIII made a fuss about divorcing the wife of the Spanish princess. The request for divorce was rejected by the Pope at the time, but in order to appease Henry VIII, the Pope sent him a golden rose. As a result, after Henry VIII got the Golden Rose, he created an Anglican Church.

Although Joseph would not also get out of the Anglican Church, (to be honest, the French Church is much more hateful than the Anglican Church.) But like Henry VIII, he did not pay too much attention to the so-called highest honor of the Holy See. He packed the gold rose, and all these other medals, into a little box, and gave it to little Alice as a toy.

It is said that later, a friend of Joseph’s came to his house as a guest and found that little Alice was playing with the golden rose of the Holy See as a toy. Can it be used as a toy for children?" Joseph replied disapprovingly: "I want children to know that honor is like a toy, it can only be played with, and it must not be guarded forever, otherwise nothing will be achieved."

Of course, it is not certain whether this legend is reliable or not. Anyway, there is no relevant record in Napoleon's memoirs or those of Joseph's students. But the story is still widely circulated.

After resting in Naples for a few days, Joseph and his party boarded a French steamer and returned to Marseilles under the escort of a steam-powered cruiser of the French Navy.

When he arrived in Marseille, Joseph noticed that little Alice was a little tired after a sea voyage, so he rested in Marseille for another day, and then boarded the train collectively and returned to Paris.

Napoleon took Lucien and some other nobles of the Roman Empire to the train station to greet Joseph and his party, but neither Napoleon nor Joseph made any speeches at this time. It was just that when Joseph walked up to Napoleon, he said in a low voice: "You, and Lucien, come to me at night."

Napoleon's movements paused slightly, but he quickly stabilized his emotions—this was originally planned—and whispered: "Okay."

That night, Napoleon brought Lucien to Joseph's house.

"Oh, Napoleon, Lucien, Joseph is in the study," said Fanny to them. Her lower abdomen has visibly bulged.

"Sister-in-law, brother..." Lucien hurriedly inquired.

"Joseph is trying his best to pretend to be angry, but in reality, he's not that angry." Fanny laughed.

After hearing this, Napoleon hurriedly said to Fanny, "Thank you."

Fanny smiled slightly and said, "Okay, go quickly, Joseph is trying to find the feeling of being angry, you go early, maybe he hasn't found the feeling yet."

Fanny knew that Joseph was really not very angry, but just out of face considerations, so she tried her best to look angry. To be honest, Fanny often found this kind of brotherly respect among the Bonaparte brothers very amusing.

Napoleon stopped talking, and led Lucien to the study with the determination and momentum of Julius Caesar to cross the Rubicon River.

Napoleon knocked softly on the door.

"Come in!" Joseph's voice came from inside. The voice was already very calm, and Napoleon's heart trembled: Trouble, Joseph is ready.

But at this time, no matter what, he could only bite the bullet and rush upwards. So Napoleon stretched out his hand and opened the door, and led Lucien into the small living room.

Joseph was sitting on the chair behind the desk, and there was a document on the desk in front of him, and Joseph was flipping through the document under the light of the desk lamp.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, he glanced up at the two brothers, and said, "Sit down."

Napoleon and Lucien sat down in their respective chairs.

"Napoleon, if you really wrote this paper, then you should indeed be awarded the position of an academician." Joseph said, "This paper on complex variable functions is indeed worthy of the words 'extreme importance' and 'a few words. Promotional' evaluation."

Napoleon smiled awkwardly and remained silent. The main part of the thesis was completed by Laplace, with the assistance of Monge and M. Lagrange. Remember that they spent a lot of effort to let Napoleon understand all the ideas and derivations in this paper for Joseph's inquiry. Napoleon originally thought that after such full preparations, he would be able to insist that this paper was written by himself. But now, when Joseph directly suspected that he asked the gunman to write this thing, he didn't immediately refute it.

"With such a paper, it is not completely impossible to put your name in the list of academicians. However, this paper should be written by several people with the help of you, and it is also considered that it should be made like You wrote it yourself, so although there is no problem with the argumentation of this thesis, the ideas in some places are not coherent, and the methods used are a bit cumbersome, not concise enough, and lack aesthetic feeling." Joseph continued, "I have targeted this issue here. Some suggestions for this thesis. Take it and have a look, and then revise it yourself. Don’t go to the gang of sycophants at the Paris Ecole Normale Supérieure. Urgent things. Well, no problem, right?"

"No problem, no problem." Napoleon said quickly. Since Joseph was willing to give him this step, of course he had to go down this step. Moreover, he has done a lot of research on this paper. Joseph gave the revised outline, and Napoleon felt that he should still be able to complete this task with his barely passable talent in mathematics.