Shadow of great britain

Russia is not a country, but a harsh trial. Every free thought and every heart that desires independence is ruthlessly suppressed. In the third round, the shadow of the empire precisely reflects the essence of the Tsar - a monarch who fears the truth.

—— Alexander Ivanovich Herzen

Dumas sat on the sofa with a smile and listened to Herzen's story of Napoleon's expedition to Russia.

Although he liked to listen to those grand war epics when he was young, for some reason, since he entered his thirties, he has become more and more fond of trivial stories outside of these war records.

Perhaps because he participated in the July Revolution in France and experienced the riot night of the London Parliament Reform, Dumas finally began to recognize himself. Although the epic was magnificent, he felt that it would be difficult for him to leave his name in such a place.

Many years later, Mr. Alexandre Dumas' name may not necessarily appear in historical records, but his life story may be talked about by young people like Herzen who have never seen the wind and rain, and become a character like "my uncle" and "my uncle".

Of course, this does not mean that he does not like heroes. He worshipped heroes all his life and was an out-and-out heroist. He also created many heroic characters in his novels.

But...

Compared to those heroes who were born great, Dumas prefers outstanding leaders who come from common people.

A person who can stand firm in the storm, a person who climbs to the pinnacle of power with extraordinary courage and wisdom, a person who still holds faith and is indomitable in desperate situations, a person who can reverse the tide of fate with his own strength, is also a great soul who dares to fight against fate.

His faith is as indestructible as steel, and his determination is as inextinguishable as fire.

He walks firmly and shoulders his ideals. Even if the road ahead is full of thorns, he will never take a step back.

He is a guide who ignites light for others, willing to be swallowed by the undercurrent but not giving up saving. He is the one who would rather fall into the abyss himself than let the fire of order continue...

Dumas thought of this and suddenly frowned. He always felt something was wrong.

He was obviously thinking of General Napoleon, but the portrait of Napoleon in his mind inexplicably overlapped with the portrait that Mr. William Turner had drawn for someone.

The ridiculous "icon" has now been given some kind of mystical meaning by the Royal Police of Scotland Yard, and is hung high at the most conspicuous entrance of the Royal Metropolitan Police Headquarters at 4 Whitehall Street.

In fact, these London policemen did not want to play so much at the beginning, but the continuous and high-intensity "bombing" of Scotland Yard by the Fleet Street media obviously annoyed them.

Due to the orders of the Ministry of the Interior and the constraints of Parliament, they could not do anything to these British reporters. And at such times, bringing up the legendary police officer Sir Arthur Hastings, who won the "Royal" crown for Scotland Yard, is undoubtedly the safest way to protest.

Yes, Scotland Yard did not admit their fault for firing, and there were many people in that place who missed the old chief Arthur Hastings.

At least when Arthur was there, their salary level increased by 25%. Even though the old boss is no longer there, he still cares about his old unit. Arthur has even considered the new police uniforms for his old colleagues.

However, if these policemen like to hang portraits so much, Dumas suggested that the French and Russian police could also put up such a portrait.

The French police hung up the portrait of Fouché, the Russian police hung up Benckendorff, and with the British Hastings, they just made up the trio.

This is like the new novel he is preparing now, "The Three Musketeers". Maybe he should write a book someday, called "The Three First Spies".

Of course, compared with Fouché and Benckendorff, Dumas thinks Arthur is still the kind of person who can be saved. His attitude towards Arthur is the same as his attitude towards Napoleon.

The greatness of a nation should not be built on the ruins of another country. Napoleon's conquest was a costly gamble, the stakes were the lives of others, but the gamble was his personal glory.

What is the difference between Arthur and Napoleon?

Perhaps he lacks a little talent than Napoleon, and his stage is not that big.

Is this a kind of luck or a kind of misfortune?

Look at the current France, and the current Russia...

Perhaps Arthur can't go up, which is more lucky for the British.

When Dumas thought of this, he suddenly found that the door of the box was gently pushed open. Standing outside the door was Mr. Hastings, who was closer to the title of "Little Napoleon" than Louis in his mind.

The two old friends looked at each other, and no one spoke tacitly.

After the incident in Young Italy, Dumas was already well aware of Arthur's way of dealing with the world. This guy did like to ask around, but at least he was not like the French police who would put people in jail whenever they heard something.

However, you can't trust him too much, otherwise he might shoot you in the back at any time-if you are not his friend.

Young people are still venting their excess energy from adolescence, and after drinking a little, their excess self-awareness tends to increase.

'Lightsaber' Mr. Bertrand smashed the empty wine bottle. His messy shirt and messy hair made him look very depressed: "You are Russians. Your czar killed so many people in Poland, but when you are When the students at Moscow State University sympathize with Poland, they can win the favor of the Poles. But we German students treat Poland so well, but why do the Poles not like us Germans? "

Heine, who was sitting next to Alexandre Dumas, crossed his legs and began to tease the students: "Oh, this is not difficult to understand. You might as well ask, who likes us? Or why everyone hates us. "

Bismarck, who returned with Arthur, was surprised when he heard this: "Why does everyone hate us?"

Heine made full use of his rich experience from traveling in Europe and counted on his fingers: "At least the countries neighboring us are like this, the Italians, Danes, Swedes, Poles, Russians..."

When Herzen heard this, he quickly raised his hands and said: "Russians don't hate you, at least I like you very much. You are a bunch of good friends."

Heine glanced at this guy and straightened the fingers that represented the Russians: "Okay, except for the Russians, you are the exception."

Alexandre Dumas, who was sitting next to Heine, laughed and said: "The French and the British are also exceptions."

Heine nodded in agreement, but then he turned and said, "Yes, France and Britain are exceptions, but do you know why they are exceptions?"

"Why?"

"This is because the French are not afraid of the Germans, while the British look down on the Germans. The sad thing about Germany is that we are in a second-rate position politically, but we always want to play a first-rate role. Of course, I am not talking about France. National arrogance is good, but at least they can boast that France has shed blood for the progress of all mankind to a certain extent, but Germany has only shed a lot of ink. As for the British..."

Heine's eyes turned to Arthur by the door. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to restrain himself a little: "The British look down on every country in the world equally. They even look down on their next door neighbors and themselves. Therefore, for "The British, I have nothing to blame. British liberals do more to blame the British than the rest of the world combined."

After Heine finished speaking, he stood up and prepared to go out. Unexpectedly, Arthur planned to stay him to drink: "Heinrich, this is your reader meeting, and you, the protagonist, are planning to leave the show so soon?"

"My readers' meeting?" Heine frowned, turned around and asked, "Aren't Heine's books banned in Russia?"

"Heine's books?" Herzen was stunned for a moment: "Although there is no circulation in the market, as long as you want to do it, you can still get it if you find a way. I have secretly collected many of Heine's works. Even when I came here We were all still reading his works on the way to Leipzig.”

Heine didn't say much after hearing this. He just took off his hat and whispered softly: "Russia's hope lies with you, young people."

"You are?"

"Heinrich Heine, thank you for liking my work."

After saying this, Heine smiled and then turned around and walked out, leaving only a bunch of Russian students who were still in a daze.

Arthur stretched out his head and looked outside the door, only to see Heine walking down the corridor without looking back while still punching the air.

Seeing this, Arthur didn't want to damage Heinrich's image in the hearts of the students, so he had to smile helplessly and shrug at the students: "Don't worry, that's just the way Heinrich is."

The Russian students finally came to their senses. They suppressed the excitement in their hearts, but the smiles on their faces while whispering had betrayed all their emotions.

"Heine, it's really Heine!"

"God! I...I didn't know it was him, damn, I should have said more to him!"

"Sasha, did you hear, Heine said we are Russia's hope!"

"Heine! Why is Heine here! Oh my God! This decision to come to Leipzig to watch the theater is such a good decision! Although the travel expenses are very expensive, everything is worth the price!"

Although Arthur had known that Heine had a reputation as a 'young mentor', the enthusiastic pursuit of him by Russian students still exceeded his expectations.

It cannot be said that there are no European poets of the same level as Heine, but in terms of popularity, no one of his contemporaries seems to be able to match him.

Although in the eyes of those who hate Heine, this is a sharp-tongued firecracker.

But most young people seem to prefer Heine's acerbic writing style, and their favorite is such a controversial figure.

Through Heine's mouth, they said everything they dared not say, and they said it heartily and with great literary talent.

"We should invite Heine to Russia. He can give a lecture at Moscow University!"

"I bet that's the craziest thing I've ever heard! What would Nikolai think?"

"Why should we care what Nikolai thinks? If we do things according to Nikolai's opinion, we shouldn't be friends with the Poles!"

"Speaking of Poles, do any of you know there's a chance dear Klitsky will come back?"

"Kritsky?"

At the mention of this name, the students fell silent.

Alexandre Dumas asked curiously: "Is there anything special about this person?"

Herzen smiled reluctantly: "He is a Polish student in our department, and he studied abroad with government funding. However, at the end of last year, we found that he did not come to class one day, and he did not come the next day either. We looked around After inquiring about his whereabouts, other government-funded students told us that someone knocked on the door at night to look for him, took him to the office, and then sent someone to take away his letters and personal belongings. Moreover, the school also took advantage of the government-funded students. There was a gag order and no discussion of Kristsky’s affairs was allowed. That was the end of it, and there was no news.”

Others also echoed sadly: "What a good person that is! He is humble, with a trace of melancholy in his eyes. No one has heard a single harsh word coming out of his mouth, but he has never said a single word. Weak words.”

The taciturn Ogarev suddenly said: "Maybe that's the reason why he disappeared. He is too upright. He doesn't like to force others, and he doesn't want to be forced by anything."

Someone asked in a low voice: "Were Kostenetsky, Korleev and Antonovich also arrested last semester?"

Herzen nodded slightly: "Someone broke into their residence at night. Yurich said that he saw their names on the military court trial list."

"Then let's..."

Some people hesitated to speak after hearing this, and everyone couldn't help but cast their eyes on Ogarev.

Everyone knows that he may be the most dangerous person here.

"Is nothing going to happen to you? I heard that the Moscow military police summoned you before, about Sungurov?"

Ogarev didn't speak much, but he was far more steady than others: "Don't worry, it's not a big deal. When we called for donations of money and materials for the exiled Sungurov, I was the one who took the lead, and the military police only This can be used as an excuse. I was not involved in Sungurov’s group, so they can’t accuse us of treason. At most, they can accuse me of misbehavior.”

Herzen said with lingering fear: "You are too careless. We are not the only ones donating to Sungurov. Kireyevsky also called for donations in his group. But he is more thoughtful than us. Instead of delivering the things in person, he gave the money to the city defense commander Staal and asked him to help deliver it. He was a kind old man. He did not refuse Kireyevsky's request, and he did things better than the rest of us. The student was more tactful. He burned the farewell letter with the donation list in front of Kireyevsky, and you, my dear Ogarev, sent the money to the barracks yourself. The summons must have been because he was discovered by the agents of the Third Bureau who were ambushing and watching around."

Ogarev comforted: "Don't worry, Sasha, I was very careful. They summoned me, but there was no evidence in hand. Even if I refuse to admit it, they can't do anything to me."

Arthur saw the worried looks of these young people and felt deeply that it would be a shame for his police quality not to make good use of such an atmosphere.

Especially when the great poet Heinrich Heine had given him a good preparation.

Arthur asked: "Do you know a guy named Sergeyevich Shubinsky?"