Chapter 2408

At every ball there is always a focal point of attention, usually those "young women" who are simple, natural, beautiful, and at the same time vivacious and lively, and generally come from the bourgeoisie. In fact, they don’t need to package themselves specially. Jewelry and clothing are used by rich old women to cover up their age and wrinkles. No matter how carefully they take care of themselves, they are not as good as freshly bloomed roses.

But this time the focus was not on a grown woman with skirts flying on the dance floor, but on a dark-skinned girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen, and who was being talked about even more than Georgiana.

She came with the fifth Duke and Duchess of Jerica of Spain, and beside her was a little boy under the age of ten, with a Golden Fleece hanging around his neck.

This little boy is the 14th Duke of Alba, one of the richest nobles in Spain. The 13th Duke has no heirs, not even a girl. The dark-skinned girl was originally the daughter of a slave, but was adopted by the thirteenth duchess and named her Maria.

Although she is an adopted daughter, it is impossible for Maria to inherit the title of Duke of Alba, and the father of the little boy who inherited the title, Duke Jerika, is an offshoot of Stuart. He has two sons, the eldest son in 1795 He died young, which means that the little boy will inherit his father's title in the future.

In addition to talking about how this big pie fell on the head of this family, some people are also discussing the thirteenth generation of the Duke of Alba. The Duke of Alba also had a female heir. Her husband, the wealthiest couple in Spain, supported many artists, including Goya, who was already a famous painter before the duke's death.

After the Duke's death, he created many paintings, including two oil paintings, Maha with clothes and Maha without clothes. It is said that the model is the Duchess of Alba.

Although many years had passed since the Renaissance, it was widely considered shameful to paint such "disdressed" paintings in Spain. But the heroine of these two oil paintings is called "Maha", and Goya never said who she is. In July 1802, the Duchess died of tuberculosis and fever at the age of 40, but some people said that she was poisoned, because shortly after her death, the Inquisition summoned Goya.

In order to seek protection, Goya painted portraits for the family of King Charles IV, and whether he could escape was also one of the contents of the discussion.

Compared with Mechelen, there are significantly more Spanish and Italian nobles in Brussels. Austria did not use all the money in its own treasury when repaying the war bonds. Some people, such as Count Charles de Merode, were engaged in the arms business. Joseph II once asked him to replace the Governor of Austria. As minister plenipotentiary to the provinces, he donated 40,000 florins to pay for that bond, and there were others like him. When the Austrians withdrew, they also immigrated to Germany with their industries, so Brussels is currently facing serious unemployment problems, and only the Free Masons Union is still providing jobs.

At this time, it can be said that Belgium has nothing, and it can also be said that all industries are waiting for prosperity. Some of these people come to buy high-quality assets, and some come to see if there are new opportunities, or come out to "see the world" like the 14th Duke of Alba, so that everyone Know that he is the new heir.

Although the young duke is under 10 years old, there are already families of girls of "marriage age" discussing the possibility of marriage. As stated at the beginning of "Pride and Prejudice", there is such a universally recognized truth that any single man with a large fortune must lack a wife.

That scene made a "single person" like Georgiana want to roll her eyes, but if she really did that, she probably wouldn't be like Napoleon who publicly said that other people's hairstyles were ugly, and someone would come to her rescue.

She had searched the ball for a long time without seeing Padma, and now Georgiana regretted not letting Padma wear that striking blue dress.

At this moment, there was applause at the door, and the applause became louder and louder. When she followed the eyes of the crowd, she found that Bonaparte in the green marshal uniform had appeared.

Being struck by lightning is not enough to express Georgiana's shock at the moment, she watched him walk in front of her helplessly.

"you are not……"

"I've been in Brussels this morning." He interrupted her. "Where do you think I've been?"

She really has nothing to say.

Then he bent his arm so that she would take his, and the two of them walked to the middle of the dance floor, and the others dispersed as if they were doing the opening dance.

They waltzed to the music, making her dizzy.

For a moment she thought she was dreaming, then she thought carefully, hey, isn't she dreaming?

While dancing, she looked for Padma in the crowd. Whether she herself was going to get lost in this dream, she would send Padma back to the original world, because she still has a younger sister.

But Georgiana didn't find Padma, but found that the dark-skinned girl who was talked about was looking at her. The girl's eyes didn't look like a teenager.

"What are you looking at?" Bonaparte asked her.

She shifted her gaze to him.

"Did you know that Henry VIII was also good at playing the flute?"

He didn't answer.

"For a time he suddenly ordered all the court to wear green, because he fell in love with a woman with green sleeves, which was generally believed to have been created by him for Anne Boleyn."

"But?" he said.

"That's his imagination. No woman is perfect, and she will have shortcomings." Georgiana said, "And what they are good at, just like Plato said, the lover in the sky and the lover on the ground."

He looked straight at her.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked dissatisfied.

"I must be dreaming." He whispered "That's why I saw you."

She wanted to say something crueler, but said nothing.

"I hear you have seen the manager of the Royal Opera House. What did he tell you?" asked Bonaparte.

"He told me that he wanted to perform "The Magic Flute" in the concert tomorrow night."

"Where is the performance?"

She froze for a moment, then said, "Isn't it the Royal Opera House?"

"If you're talking about the Opéra Monnay, it's already been demolished," said Bonaparte. "It was badly destroyed in the war. It was completely demolished in 1795. Remember the Opera Comédie in Paris. Well, it is modeled after the Opera Monnay, the most beautiful theater in all Europe."

"You want to build a new opera house?" she asked disapprovingly.

He smiled, his eyes glowing and his white teeth showing.

"Don't spend money on unnecessary things, you should pay more attention to people's livelihood."

But he completely ignored what she said, and led her to continue dancing. If the music hadn't stopped, he would have led her to dance until she died of exhaustion, just like those ordinary people who broke into the veela dancing circle.