I Am Louis XIV

M. Breland, a well-dressed and respectable man who had left the Richelieu, returned in a state of distress, with his boots missing, his sleeves alone, his coat buttons orphaned, and his skirts and shirt-collars stained with blood. with dirt.

He would not have been allowed to see the king, but Louis merely stood at the window and told Bontang to bring him up, for he recognized the gentleman who had saluted him at the corner of the street.

Bontang, with some servants, washed Mr. Brayland's face and hands, put him in clean clothes, and brought him before the king.

"Ah, it is you," said the King, "I saw you salute me at the corner, sir, and you say I employ you, but I don't seem to remember it."

Breland was a little uneasy at first, but seeing Louis being so kind, he calmed down a lot: "Excuse me for being rude, Your Majesty," he said, "My memory is wrong, I am not hired by you, but your relatives , hired by the Duke of Cornwall in England, he has a few cronies who stay in Ireland and asked me to bring him a letter."

"So you've done the job, or haven't you?"

"It has been done, Your Majesty," said Cleland, "but Your Majesty, I have encountered terrible things not far from you, and I had to flee back and seek your protection."

"This is Paris," said Louis. "It is my domain, sir. If you are indeed a loyal servant of the Duke of Cornwall, I would be willing to give you some help, but I can know what happened. ?"

Cleland looked around, Louis nodded, so Bontang and some servants retreated, but there were still six reliable musketeers and Mary who did not leave.

"I have met a vampire, Your Majesty," Brayland said.

——

Speaking of which, Breland is also quite unlucky. As a werewolf, he runs far faster than the best Serra French horse, so he never relies on horses on land-today he is going to walk out of Paris first, and then walk in the forest. He took off his clothes, turned into a werewolf, and rushed back to the port. Unexpectedly, the originally smooth road was blocked by a blazing carriage. Some opponents of the king were shouting hysterically near blasphemy. Wanting to confront those irrational mobs, he turned and walked towards a dark alley.

And in this dark alleyway, a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat is cuddling intimately with a "famous lady", and the narrow alleyway is occupied by their tightly entangled bodies In the second, Breland hesitated for a while, sighed, and decided to change the road again.

"Sir," said the man whose face was almost covered by a wide-brimmed hat, "are you going to pass here?" He said kindly, "Oh, that's our fault. I hope you will forgive us, love is always blind when it comes, but we have opened our eyes now, please please, we will make room for you, don't waste your time."

Breland really didn't want to waste any more time. He wanted to rush back to Scotland as soon as possible, lest the members of the Presbyterian Church start to waver between the Duke of Cornwall and the Lord Protector again. He looked up at the sky, and if he moved enough Soon, he could still catch the last ship to England, so he nodded to the other party, expressed his thanks, and walked over.

This kind of alley is only dirtier than the streets. Besides feces, there are many rats and dead bodies of cats and dogs. I don’t know who threw the internal organs of sea fish here. Nausea.

Breland couldn't help holding his breath. The werewolf's keen sense of smell almost split his head. He turned sideways and walked past the pair of men and women. Just as they passed by, Breland bumped into The woman's hand hanging by her side - a cold and stiff hand, without a trace of life.

The werewolf turned his head in astonishment, a deformed face rapidly expanded in his field of vision, and sharp fangs protruded from the split lips.

A vampire who dared to come out to hunt for food in the daytime, this idea flashed through Breland's mind. The stench of the alley numbed his perception of the smell of blood, but for that vampire, his The real identity has probably been exposed long ago.

They immediately wrestled together. The vampire was not as powerful as a werewolf, but Breland dared not directly transform into a werewolf in the Parisian neighborhood, which put him at a disadvantage.

At this time, I don't know whether it was luck or misfortune, a girl walked into the alley, she found the dead woman, and immediately screamed, more people came, and the face of the vampire that was twisted like a hairless bat never People would mistake him for a human being. The vampire was flustered and wanted to escape, but Breland seized the opportunity and dragged him directly into the sun. He immediately burned up and turned into ashes amidst howling.

The problem is, at this time, the priests that Breland least wanted to see and the ascetics of the Inquisition arrived. The Inquisition had an army that belonged only to them. People are assigned, and they start vetting people on the block one by one.

This is the routine operation of churches and courts. Once vampires or werewolves appear in a certain place, the area must be cleaned up several times like a comb, and this kind of cleaning is indeed quite effective——When he saw the priest When they checked everyone's fingers under the protection of soldiers, Breland knew that something was wrong... Although only vampires appeared here, the churches were not immune to the suspicion of werewolves.

Although werewolves in various countries and regions have their own characteristics, they have one thing in common, that is, the middle finger and ring finger of each werewolf are the same length. Although it is difficult for anyone to notice this in normal times, but The priests can immediately detect the clues as long as the people under inspection put their fingers together.

Breland's hesitation outside the crowd had already caught the eyes of several vigilant ascetic monks. As soon as he turned and left, they chased after him.

"They're probably hanging out the door now," Brayland said.

"You stretch out your hand." Louis said, and Brayland had to stretch out his hand under the eyes of the musketeers, so that the king could see his hand clearly. His hand was indeed as he said, with the middle finger and ring finger being the same length.

"You are wrong, Mr. Brayland." The king said: "The church and the court acted very quickly. They should be asking to see Bishop Mazarin or me now."

He looked at Mary: "Marie, I have a request for you now, and I don't know if you can do it."

The king quickly made his proposal, and Mary ran back to the room and brought a bottle of potion.

"Drink it now," said Louie, "if you will trust me."

"Of course I would like to believe you." Breland said, he had observed Louis for several days, and asked him to say that the young French king was not the kind of corrupt person that people often see, even if he didn't want to Protect Breland, and will not deceive him with lies.

After the werewolf finished speaking, he drank the whole bottle of potion.

———————

A few minutes later, Bishop Mazaran came before the king with two priests in black and two ascetics, asking the king to allow them to hunt down a dangerous werewolf here.

Louis agreed, but: "Don't disturb my mother, my brother, and my guests."

One of the priests immediately stated that they would only take a look, recite a few scriptures, and sprinkle a little holy water, not only not to disturb the Queen Mother, the Duke of Anjou, but also the guests of England, and to bring them blessings. Yes.

"That would be very good," said the king, "and perhaps you will dine with us."

The priest was even a little flattered, and thanked the king for his kind invitation. Although he and his colleagues probably couldn't escape from the heavy work for the time being, he had to praise the king's pious and tolerant heart, and asked him to say, Even if it's not a king, but just an earl or a general, the meal has to be interrupted just because a person suspected of being a werewolf ran into the courtyard, even if they won't be angry, they will definitely not show them any good looks Woolen cloth.

That being the case, the priests and ascetics could not be too ostentatious. They walked quickly through every room, and even the Queen Mother's bedroom was not spared-after all, they had to avoid fatal dangers to the royal family members. For that, but to their disappointment, the werewolf really didn't seem to be here.

While inspecting the room of Bontang, the master of the chambers, an ascetic saw a giant wolf and couldn't help but screamed, but the wolf didn't move and was obviously dead. Bontang told them that it was Condé. The human wolf skin presented by the Prince to His Majesty the King has been placed at the foot of the throne for many days, but because it frightened a maid a while ago, the King ordered him to collect it and make a specimen, which will be placed in his hunting grounds later. hall.

The priests inspected the giant wolf. Although its fur still maintained its original richness and thickness, its eyes were dull and its muscles were stiff. The matter of the wolf fur was indeed registered in the referee, and they gave Bontang a few words and were ready to leave.

But at this moment, a priest stopped suddenly: "By the grace of the Lord," he said with a smile, "We should not forget this." He brought out the holy water, sprinkled a few drops on Bontang, and A few drops were sprinkled in the slightly opened mouth of the giant wolf. As soon as the holy water fell into that ferocious mouth, a puff of smoke immediately rose up. The priests stared at the giant wolf, which closed its mouth without reflex. , and there was no muscle twitching or fur tightening—it was dead, and they really walked away.

It wasn't until the next day at noon that the witch's fake death potion lost its effect. Brayland fell to the ground and regained his human form, panting heavily. His tongue was bloody and bloody. Fortunately, it was only a few drops of holy water, and he would soon recover. get well.

He hid in the Richelieu mansion for several days, until the monks of the court thought that the suspected werewolf might have escaped from Paris, and he left in the dark, but the stay during this period was not fruitless, at least The duke of Cornwall already had the support of King Louis of France, and although both Holland and Spain had made some kind of agreement with the traitor Cromwell, at least he could have a strong supporter.