I Am Louis XIV

The triptych of Hierrominis Bosch has reached the last one, which is the small painting on the right, and the second one, which is the main picture, has been completed. Rubens added golden brilliance to the picture, Birds and flowers, the picture is so cruel, but everyone’s faces are so happy, especially Saint-Denis, it can be said that he is almost dancing-the last sketch has been drawn, no need to repeat, of course It is not how ordinary people will describe and see how the saints manifested the holy miracles. On the picture, Saint Denis and his attendants are calm, and the executioner's ax has fallen. Rubens felt a little confused, because the heads of the three people Also stay well on the shoulders.

"It will fall when it should," said Bosch, sitting at the drawing board, staring at the main picture for a long time before starting to color the third painting-"how beautiful, how brilliant , what an honor."

—————

After Captain Vauban sent the king back to the palace, he still did not feel tired, partly because he was still young, and partly because of the stimulation given by the upcoming battle, he knew that such a battle would last for a long time or tomorrow. It was unfavorable, so he went back to the tent, and told the servants around him to find an empty tent for him, and he wanted to take a bath.

It worked as a whole. After the king expressed his strict requirements for cleanliness, his ministers and generals also got used to soaking themselves in warm water. However, on the battlefield, only the king may be able to carry a bathtub with him. It is very difficult to vacate a tent. It's easy, but it's not so easy to find a suitable bathtub - but those clever children quickly moved a water tank for horses. The weather is hot, and if it's in the daytime, the water temperature can be guaranteed by drying it in the sun It was appropriate, but fortunately the preparation of the meal was just finished, the fire had not been completely extinguished, and it was not difficult to boil a few tin buckets of water.

In the rising mist, Vauban lay down comfortably. The wooden thorns at the bottom of the sink made him laugh and curse involuntarily, but he didn't want to blame his attendants. His skin was not delicate enough to be covered with silk. but suddenly the splinters were gone, replaced by a velvet-like touch - the king's captain submerged his hands - where he dropped a dagger where he had been laughing at himself before Too sensitive, but now it comes in handy.

"I mean no harm, sir." A man came out from the shadow of the tent. When Louis was in the other world, he had seen wizards come out of fire, water, and sea of ​​flowers, and Bohemia The witches did not give up much, but they could only move from the shadows and swamps, giving people a much worse impression.

Apart from this, Manit is still a woman with a certain charm. She is different from the ladies Vauban is familiar with. Her eyes are shining in the fire, and she is aggressive. Fringing, or tearing the edges into strips, Manit is no exception. This kind of ragged dress reveals her smooth light brown skin, and her waist, thighs and arms are looming, which makes people want to explore after all.

"I'm not in the right position to receive a lady," said Vauban, moving his hands across the water. He still doesn't have the qualifications to know about the inner world and the outer world, but he also vaguely heard about them, especially these Bohemian women—the soldiers said that they would perform witchcraft and heal under their witchcraft There were quite a few people, but some were grateful, and more whispered, wanting to ask the priests to see if their bodies were controlled and cursed by witches—because of this war, the king dispatched many doctors, But you also know that in the seventeenth century, there was not much difference between doctors and monks, and there were not many crazy people like Andrea Vesalius,

"Just little splinters," said Manit, twirling his fingers. "No fuss, sir."

"It feels like velvet," said Vauban.

"A small spell." Manit walked behind Vauban, and saw the man's shoulder muscles visibly tense. She slowly put her hands on him, sliding on the skin. Vauban's skin was no worse than a witch's. They are shallower, he likes the battlefield more than any nobleman, and he can take the lead in both training and combat. "We sometimes use it when we want to sit down."

"Are you witches?" asked Vauban.

"Wizard." Manit said: "You should be aware of it, we didn't hide it much."

Subconsciously, Vauban wanted to ask the king if he knew? But he immediately answered this question in his heart, how could the king not know, he would never put an uncertain factor in his army, "Do you have any orders? Ma'am? Ms. Wizard?"

Manit smiled. She held Vauban's shoulders and slowly pushed away those tangled muscles: "I think you need to relax," she said, "I have a better way than hot water."

"I will not act rashly until the price is determined." Vauban said, panting a little at the same time. Although the army will inevitably be followed by the "famous lady" that people talk about, he has devoted himself to the king these days. He didn't think about it at all when it came to the important task of delivery. Now—he also read the "Hammer of the Witch", although he sneered at it, but now he has to admit that some of the contents in it are really right—witches want to When it comes to seducing a man, it is very difficult for men to get rid of and refuse.

"I can give you gold." Vauban took the hand that was moving underwater.

"I don't want gold," Manit said.

"Do you still want me to marry you?" Vauban asked jokingly.

"I don't want a husband like you," Manit's other hand also fell below the surface of the water, her breath was close to her ear, her curly hair was soaked in steam, and the soft touch was transmitted from Vauban's bare back Come: "Your loyalty belongs to your king, not to a woman."

"No doubt," whispered Vauban, "so you can say, what else do you want if you don't want gold? Is there anything more ridiculous and absurd than our marriage?"

"A little thing," Manit said. "When do you think this war will end?"

——

"When will this war end?" Louis picked up his coffee and took a sip. His coffee has always been filled with milk and sugar is strictly prohibited. This habit is really inclined to the Puritans—Bontang brought it for Captain Vauban Next to the coffee was a plate of neatly stacked sugar cubes, so Captain Vauban poured them all into his coffee calmly, "I don't know what she wants to do, Your Majesty."

Louis held up a piece of parchment and looked down from the top: "It seems that you had a good time last night."

"Very well," said Vauban, "but I did not utter a single word without your consent."

"Then I can tell you," the king said, "she just wants to use your mouth to test my thoughts." These Bohemian witches must be very disappointed. They thought that after abandoning the royal family for nearly a hundred years, Well, the king of Bourbon will be eager to welcome them back to the court, but this is simply their fantasy and self-comfort, just like they always describe the life of wandering and wandering as "freedom"-but for Louis A group of unscrupulous and unscrupulous wizards can't even compare with a group of refugees. The refugees can be managed, educated, and shackled by laws and beliefs, but what about witches? To put it bluntly, if something, someone, or what words make them feel uncomfortable, the most likely thing they will do is to vent hysterically and then run away.

They even refused before, that is to say, they guessed that the king might let them fight the dark wizard-and they were willing to surrender in front of a mortal, but they could not face those terrible kind-if they knew the truth of this war If there is a time limit, then if things change, they can also guess the king's intentions.

But why would Louis put his life in the hands of these untrustworthy women? Therefore, although the king still ordered them to serve and gave a considerable number, he also promised not to let them appear in the inner world On the battlefield—Louis had planned to set up military doctors and nurses in the army a long time ago, but in this era, people's moral concepts are really strange. Married men and women can find their own fun as they like, but unmarried women Even if it is just a step beyond the thunder pool, it will be covered with dirt that cannot be washed off—especially the army. The people have already acquiesced that all the soldiers who follow the soldiers are women who earn money, so there will be no girls and soldiers from good families Together, let alone looking at their bodies, dressing their wounds, swabbing them and dealing with more intimate issues.

It should be said that there are not many such women in the army, and they do hold several positions, but the problem is that they are too few and too loose.

Using witches was just an attempt, and if they couldn't be placed here, then Louis would have to try to find another, more precisely, the final solution.

Unexpectedly, the witches did a good job, but Manit, Louis thought in his heart, just as he thought before, even if these witches were available, the members of the witch order would still have to be purged, just like removing The bones in the stewed chicken have no master and leader, and the rest are easy to manipulate——Louis unconsciously fiddled with the quill in his hand. The feathers on it were blue-blue with metallic luster. It is a feather plucked from a big raven. In fact, it comes from the other world, a bird from Gajola Island. It never sings. It has only three such feathers on its body. It was plucked from the same bird. The three feathers are divided among the three wizards. No matter who has an accident, as long as they are broken, the other two will also be broken. This is a gift from the Duke of Colonna to his father-but the reason why Louis The purpose of keeping these Bohemian witches is to ensure that the palace will not be completely occupied by wizards from Gajola Island.

"I hope these Bohemians can change people's thinking." Louis said, "Captain Vauban, you have also seen that the presence of nurses sometimes even surpasses doctors," said the doctors on the battlefield at this time. , is best at amputation. Although amputation can indeed prevent injured people from dying of high fever after infection, blood loss and pain still keep the mortality rate during and after surgery at a high level, not to mention that some doctors are determined not to wash their hands. (This wastes a lot of time) Just perform surgery, and it happened that one operation killed three people (here, a doctor performed an amputation operation on a patient, and the knife used for amputation first cut off the patient leg, then injured the assistant's arm, and ended up on the doctor's foot, causing wound infections that killed them all at once), so when the soldiers saw the doctor, it was like lambs seeing the butcher.

But it's different with female nurses, think about it, just when you think you are going to fall into hell, when you open your eyes, you see clean tents and rooms, wearing white aprons (this is the king's Requirements) young girls look at you with smiles, holding boiling hot soup or milk in their hands, their voices are so pleasant, their gestures are so light, even if you wash the wound with salt water and spirits, let the lovely girl It doesn't seem to be that painful anymore.

"But those, Your Majesty, they are not ordinary people."

"Can't mortals do the things I said before?" said the king, "and I sent these bohemian women here to serve my soldiers so that they would know that not all men in the army Women are despicable and despised by others, this is the most important thing, and when they have this understanding, it is possible to recruit the daughters of ordinary people." Otherwise, even if someone is willing to let his sister, daughter and wife If they come to do things, they will be frightened and humiliated by the rude behavior of the soldiers, and then refuse to continue to do things for them.

This is also a helpless thing, it is too difficult to change people's minds overnight, not to mention others, even Bohemian witches must marry a soldier, and then take care of the husband, take care of the husband's brother, take care of the husband Only with this kind of reason can you convince yourself that your own people exist.

"Speaking of which." The king asked: "How effective is it?"

"Very good," said Vauban. "There are some bastards who are so envious that they even want to get hurt."

The king laughed, "That's right," he said, "You don't have to answer Manit's question. If she asks again, just tell him that the king hasn't changed his mind, and that's all right."

———————

Manit didn't ask Vauban again, maybe the king's reaction explained everything, and one-third of the witches were left in Lille together with the wounded, and the king didn't call them to go elsewhere, but she Still feel uneasy from time to time.

But in this war, there was really not much she could do. At about ten o'clock the next day, the siege of Brussels began.