Fox of France

At almost the same time, in the Palace of Versailles not far away, King Louis XVI was also discussing similar topics with his queen.

"Your Majesty, do you know that someone is already publicly advocating rebellion?" His queen Marie Antoinette asked her husband with widened beautiful eyes.

"In the Royal Palace, which day did no one advocate rebellion?" Louis XVI replied disapprovingly.

Queen Mary glared at her husband, and then said: "Mr. Lavoisier's nephew has also become a rebel! He staged a rebellion drama in the Royal Palace, promoting rebellion! Especially that The song in it is not only promoting rebellion, but even blasphemy-don't you care about it at all?"

"What do you want me to do? Order a ban on performances and have them all arrested?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically, "Now the whole of Paris is in chaos and rumors are everywhere. If we do this, it will easily cause a riot." A real riot."

"Isn't the current situation a real riot?" Queen Mary asked unwaveringly.

"At least they haven't taken arms to attack Versailles." Louis XVI replied.

"You are the king, how can you say such a thing!" Queen Mary was enraged by her husband's weak reply.

"Queen, we have to face reality." Louis XVI lowered his head, as if he was a little ashamed of his situation, "The police system in Paris has basically been paralyzed, and because of financial problems, the army has been there for a long time They are not paid. They are also very dissatisfied with the kingdom, so they have become less reliable. Also, the army around Paris has been infiltrated by those who oppose us. We can't rely on them now. It's really hard to say who their guns will be aimed at. But the army in other provinces is a little more reliable. What do we use to suppress these rebels now?"

"What about the mercenaries? The Swiss, the Germans? They take our money, don't they work? And aren't there more reliable troops from the provinces?"

"Mercenaries, and more reliable troops are not yet fully in place. Now they can only be used to protect us, not enough to calm the situation."

"Then how long will it take for them to be fully in place?"

"It's hard to say, because it needs money first, and second, we can't move too fast, or we are urging them to rebel. They have really moved, and our current strength can't stand it Yes." Louis XVI said hesitantly.

"So, if we stay in Paris now, we are going to become hostages instead?" the queen asked again.

"Not yet, but our strength here does not prevail." Louis XVI said with a sigh.

"Then what are we still doing here? Why don't we go where our strength prevails? We go to the provinces, where our strength prevails. Why do we stay here?"

"Because once we leave, it means that a civil war will definitely break out." Louis XVI said rather embarrassingly, "Even if we win in the end, our country has been destroyed by the civil war. Therefore, in order to avoid civil war, At least to avoid a devastating civil war, we must now stay at Versailles."

"But what on earth can we do in Versailles?" asked Queen Mary.

"Stabilize them first, and then slowly adjust our strength." Louis XVI said, "We must paralyze them, and we cannot make them despair immediately. Until our strength is concentrated, we will form an advantage."

"Maybe..." said the queen, "maybe, if there is anything, I can get in touch with my family."

"It has not reached such a point yet, and it is not necessary for the time being." Louis XVI said, "Even, you and your family members must pay attention to the normal correspondence, do not increase or decrease."

"This is ridiculous!" said the Queen. "Does anyone want to check our letters?"

"I'm not talking about this. But the messengers going out from Versailles will be noticed by interested people. Then, there may be rumors." Louis XVI said with a frown.

"Rumors," Queen Mary sneered, "can rumors be eliminated by such actions? No, because rumors don't need any basis at all. On the contrary, my lord, the more you indulge them, the more powerful they become. I I think it is time for you to issue an edict now that the play is sacrilegious and forbids its performance. If you hold back, they will have their own way, and soon they will grow beyond our tolerance. So, if you really If you want to delay time, then don't indulge them too much."

However, Louis XVI just shook his head.

"Your Majesty, if you continue to allow these behaviors, even the Church will be disappointed in you." Felsen, who had been standing silently, also said.

"Then, let's order a ban on performances. But don't enforce it." Louis XVI said after thinking about it.

"If it is not enforced, then it is better not to order." The queen said, "If the order is issued but not implemented, it will only make others look down on us even more, and even encourage them to commit further chaos."

"If it is enforced, what if there is a conflict?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically, "We sent the Swiss Guards around us to suppress them? We don't have enough power to suppress them. Once a conflict occurs, then will really expose our weakness! So now, my queen, we must avoid any direct conflict. Even if we have to suffer humiliation like Henry IV."

Henry IV was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the eleventh century. He was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII because of his power struggle with the Holy See. At that time, the Holy Roman Empire was unstable. After Henry IV was excommunicated, theoretically all his subordinates' allegiance to him was also lifted at the same time. Some princes in the country, led by Duke Rudolph, declared that if Henry IV could not be forgiven by the Pope, they would not recognize his monarchy.

Under internal and external troubles, Henry IV had to bow his head to the Pope. He took the queen and the prince to Canossa Castle, where the Pope stayed, to confess to the Pope in person, hoping that the Pope would withdraw his decree of excommunication. He and his wife stood in the snow for three days and three nights before being summoned by the Pope. After being humiliated by the Pope, he was pardoned by the Pope. Later, Henry IV finally quelled the civil strife, and then led his army into Rome, expelled Pope Gregory VII, and installed another false pope, which can be regarded as revenge for Canossa.

Now that Louis XVI mentioned this story, he hopes that everyone can follow the example of Henry IV and endure the humiliation for a while for the future. So, after hearing this, everyone fell silent.

After a while, the queen said, "In that case, let's just pretend we don't know anything. I've heard people say that if we don't do something, we must do it to the end. If we don't act, the king will Your Majesty is at least mysterious. If we act weakly, it will be contemptuous."

Louis XVI nodded quickly and said, "I think what the queen said makes sense."

"However, Your Majesty." The Queen suddenly said in a mocking tone, "I think everyone should have their own bottom line. Actually, I have always been curious and wanted to see where your Majesty's bottom line is?"

...

Although the king did not make a decision to ban "Spartacus", the rumors that "Spartacus" will be banned soon are still getting more and more outrageous. At the beginning, these rumors only said that the king wanted to ban the performance of this play, and then said that the king had issued a secret letter to arrest the author and all the actors, and then all those who dared to participate in the performance of this play Actors will be excommunicated... In short, all kinds of rumors are constantly emerging, which makes people dizzy.

At this time, Amon showed some wisdom like his uncle. He took these rumors as free advertisements. Taking advantage of these rumors, he took the opportunity to publicize: "This may be the last performance, if you don't watch it again, you won't be able to see it in the future!"

Just like Adam and Eve were helpless in the face of the temptation of the "forbidden fruit". The children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve always have extra energy when they face things with words like "forbidden". So the gimmick of "soon to be banned" is indeed very effective, and now every performance of the Dragon and Rose Troupe is full, and some other troupes have also followed suit. For this reason, the blasphemous "Battle Hymn of the Slave" was also spread throughout Paris.

In the beginning, when such rumors spread, the actors in the troupe were a little nervous, but the sold-out performances brought them more income. Especially in today's environment of wildly rising food prices, these incomes are even more convincing. So now, those actors have fallen in love with all kinds of rumors, and they even create all kinds of rumors themselves in order to attract more audiences. For example, rumors that a certain actor was attacked by unknown people or something kept coming out of them.

Because during this period of time, various conflicts, large and small, continued to occur in Paris. A few days ago, even the French Guards and the German Dragoons fought. Rumors that the king planned to massacre the citizens of Paris became more and more popular. Many people believed the rumors created by Amon and the others.