Chapter 196 The death knell of the husband

Chapter 197 The death knell of the husband

Although Louis XVI's birthday has passed, the dress code in Versailles Palace Square has been temporarily lifted these days, so many Parisians still come here to sing, dance and have fun, or watch free plays.

Small vendors also gathered here, hoping to seize the last opportunity to sell for a few more cents.

People chatted about what they had experienced in the past few days, and the lively laughter kept the celebration warm.

Royal families and dignitaries from various countries were freed from the previous cumbersome ceremonial activities, and finally had some free time to have a good time in Paris. Places such as Eden Playground once again saw a peak of tourists.

At 8:40 pm, Mrs. Garland came to her concert hall with a relaxed and joyful expression, ready to start today's music salon.

Taking advantage of the influence brought by the King's birthday, she has become a popular music master in the Palace of Versailles. Her salon is a "holy place" for music that aristocrats and celebrities are eager to seek after. No one with any ability can enter the door of this music room.

Although Godoy's status was low, fortunately, he joined the salon relatively early and had solid musical skills. In addition, Louisa spent hundreds of livres to help him, so he had a place in the salon.

When several servants in charge of placing musical instruments saw the Spanish Crown Princess entering the hall with her guards, they looked at each other secretly and nodded, then turned back to confirm the location of the balcony, and slightly adjusted the guitarist's half-height chair.

Godoy followed Louisa, bowed respectfully to Mrs. Garland, and said some compliments. Then he was led by a footman and walked towards his seat, which was the performer's position. Louisa was taken to the VIP seat on the opposite side.

Since there were too many nobles coming to the music salon, Mrs. Garland often borrowed some servants from other places to help, so she didn't pay much attention to those unfamiliar faces.

At 9 o'clock sharp, the salon officially begins.

As the hostess, Mrs. Garland went against the rules and gave a long speech on music theory after welcoming the guests, which won everyone's admiration.

Immediately, several more music masters from the Palace of Versailles talked about some music theory, and then entered the routine performance session.

The soothing music sounded, it was François Couperin's "Floating Hair Ribbon", but after Mrs. Garland's rearrangement, the overall style seemed more lively.

The performers melted themselves into the instruments, and the audience closed their eyes in ecstasy and enjoyed it.

Just as the music was gradually reaching its climax, an unused double bass sitting on a chair seemed to have lost its center of gravity and suddenly fell sideways.

Godoy is located just below the head of the violin.

The double bass is a giant among musical instruments, as tall as a person and weighing nearly 180 pounds. Godoy was startled and hurriedly ducked backward to avoid being hit. Unexpectedly, the foot of his chair seemed to have been touched by something. It did not move backward, but tipped under his push.

Godoy immediately fell backwards.

His position was at the edge of the balcony. At this moment, his body hit the balcony railing heavily, but he heard a "click" and the wooden fence, which was thicker than an adult's arm, was shattered by him like paper. It became several pieces.

The Crown Princess of Spain was watching her lover play handsomely with a face of fascination, when she was shocked to see the cello fall, and then Godoy broke the balcony railing and fell downstairs.

Immediately there was a faint "crash" sound from downstairs.

The sudden change caused everyone to stay on the spot until Louisa screamed: "Godoy——"

The nearest musicians quickly stood up and carefully poked their heads out from the broken balcony fence. In the darkness, they could only vaguely see the guitarist lying motionless on the ground. There was a manservant next to him who was so frightened that he backed away. .

Louisa also hurried to the balcony and found that she could not see clearly what was going on below. She hurriedly turned and ran downstairs with the help of the maid, her face turned pale. The nobles attending the salon immediately followed downstairs to check the situation.

At this moment, two palace guards who happened to be passing by downstairs saw someone falling. They hurriedly came to Godoy and squatted down, calling anxiously: "Sir! Sir, how are you?"

When they saw that Godoy had obviously fainted, one of them raised his head and glanced at the people on the balcony on the second floor. Only vague figures could be seen in the dim night. He immediately turned over his hand and took out a knife, and quickly slashed Godoy's face.

Another person happened to see the golden cross pendant worn by Godoy, pulled it out completely, wiped some blood on it, and placed it squarely on his chest.

When Louisa ran downstairs like crazy, and with the help of the torch in the servant's hand, she saw Godoy lying on the ground with many glass fragments around him, like smashed goblets.

Two guards were trying to wake him up with anxious faces, and another servant was standing aside tremblingly.

Louisa carefully moved closer, and now she could see more clearly. There were two wounds on Godoy's face, which should have been scratched by broken glass. One of them extended from the corner of the eye to the corner of the mouth, and white fat was revealed. , looks extremely terrifying.

And his cross pendant was lying on his chest. Against the white of his shirt, you could clearly see that Jesus on the pendant was soaked in blood, as if it was foreshadowing something.

A nobleman who came from the salon saw this and murmured while crossing himself:

"God bless! God bless!"

The sound reached Louisa's ears, but she was struck by lightning, and a thought suddenly emerged from her heart: This is punishment, God's punishment for being unfaithful to me!

She also hurriedly crossed herself and said in a trembling voice:

"Lord, please forgive me for my sins. I was wrong. Forgive me..."

"He's still alive!" A nobleman stepped forward to test Godoy's carotid artery and shouted back.

More than ten minutes later, the palace doctor arrived and asked his servants to carefully lift Godoy onto a stretcher and move him back into the house for rescue.

It was almost early in the morning, and the palace steward of the Palace of Versailles came to the residence of the Spanish Crown Prince. He knocked on the door and entered, but saw that the Crown Prince was not here, so he had to salute Luisa and said:

"Your Highness, the doctor said that your guard's life should not be in danger, but he broke his right hand and had some scratches."

Louisa didn't look at him at all, she just looked nervous and muttered something to herself.

The chamberlain continued:

"It's a pity that such an accident happened. I have sent people to conduct a detailed investigation. The balcony fence of the concert hall was hollowed out by termites. Because the hole was so hidden, it was not discovered... You know, the Palace of Versailles was built a long time ago Yeah, those little bugs are always destroying wood everywhere.

"Mr. Godoy hit the termite-eaten wooden fence and fell down. At that time, there was a valet downstairs who was delivering wine to the fountain. Mr. Godoy hit his tray. so……

"Well, do you want to go see him?"

Seeing that Louisa didn't respond, he could only sigh, bowed and exited the room: "Please don't worry too much, Your Highness."

…

The Spanish Crown Prince drank too much wine the night before, so he didn't learn about Godoy's fall until the next morning.

He was still lying on the sofa with his eyes dazed as he listened to the last word spoken by the palace official. Suddenly, as if he had found his soul, he jumped up suddenly, grabbed the visitor's shoulders and said excitedly:

"Are you talking about the Crown Princess's bodyguard Godoy? He broke his arm? His face was scratched?!"

"Yes, yes, Your Highness, please don't be too sad."

"Sad?" Antonio felt that the uncomfortable feeling of hangover disappeared without a trace in an instant, and his whole body felt as if he could fly. "Thank you for reminding me, I must not be sad! Haha!"

The palace official looked at him worriedly, and when he was hesitating whether to call a doctor, Joseph appeared at the right time and motioned for him to exit first.

Antonio stepped forward and grabbed him, as happy as a 150-pound child:

"Dear cousin, do you know that Versailles must be a place blessed by God! My wish has really become a reality!

"I love it here so much, I love France so much!"

Joseph made a sign of the cross on his chest in cooperation:

"God bless you, my cousin."

Antonio grabbed half a glass of wine next to him and poured it into his mouth, picked up Joseph and walked out the door:

"Let's go see that damn bastard! Oh, by the way, where is he now?"

Joseph turned to Eman and said, "Please take the Crown Prince to Mr. Godoy's place."

"Yes, Your Highness."

In the corridor, Antonio kept shouting selflessly:

"I love Versailles! I love it here! I'm going to stay here for a while!"

Joseph waited until he calmed down a little, then leaned over and whispered:

"My dear cousin, you must return to Madrid as soon as possible."

"Ah? Why?" Antonio grinned.

"While Godoy's injury is not healed, you set off immediately and leave him in France." Joseph said, "When you return to Madrid, report the recent events to His Majesty the King."

Joseph knew that although he had helped Spain get rid of one of the "disaster duo", it would be difficult for the other Luisa to be suppressed by Antonio alone.

At the moment, the only thing that can be done is that Carlos III is still there and he can try to suppress Luisa. I believe that this most powerful king in Spain in the past century has a way to deal with this woman.

Antonio was in a good mood at this time, and his mind became sharper. He nodded immediately after hearing this:

"You are right, I will go back right away!"

He looked at Godoy, who was lying on the bed moaning, and finally left with satisfaction.

After seeing the horrific wounds on Godoy's face last night, Louisa no longer wanted to look at him anymore. She later personally confirmed that the whole thing was indeed an accident - the broken wooden fence and the fence around the place where Godoy fell had been eaten away by termites and would break with the slightest touch. And before he fell last night, absolutely no one around him touched him.

She just wanted to leave the hell place of Versailles as soon as possible, so after Antonio proposed to return to the country, she agreed without thinking.

At noon that day, the carriage of the Spanish Crown Prince was ready to set off.

Before leaving, Antonio hugged Joseph tightly and said sincerely:

"I really want to continue talking about machinery with you in the royal workshop, Joseph, you will always be my best brother!"

Yes, in his mind, if it weren't for his cousin, he might not have discovered his wife's debauchery and filthiness. He was full of gratitude to Joseph at this time.

"Yes, we are the best brothers!" Joseph nodded and patted him hard.

Antonio whispered in his ear again:

"Dear cousin, I have left someone behind in Paris. Please send that guy Godoy to Paris at your convenience."

Although he is afraid of his wife and addicted to machinery, he is still a powerful prince of a country. After he calms down, how can he let go of the "mistress" who has fallen out of favor?

Joseph pretended to be shocked and said: "Are you going to...I'm afraid..."

"Please do me this favor!"

Joseph then reluctantly said: "Well, then, I will try my best..."

After the Spanish Crown Prince left, Joseph immediately wrote a letter to Carlos III, bitterly stating that his cousin was raped in front of him in his bedroom, and promising that he would keep it secret.

He gave the letter to the messenger, instructing him to wait until one day after Antonio arrived in Madrid before delivering it to the King of Spain.

In this way, the family scandal turned into a national scandal. I don't believe that Carlos III wouldn't be furious.

…

The popularity of Louis XVI's birthday celebrations did not completely subside until closer to September.

Joseph, wearing a brand new white custom-made military uniform, arrived at the Paris Police Academy by carriage to participate in the entrance ceremony of the second-term police academy students.

Today, in addition to the entrance of second-term students, it is also the departure ceremony for first-term students.

Yes, although the first batch of police academy students only lasted ten months in total, Joseph decided based on their training to let them participate in military operations in North Africa.

This group of students has been trained very hard and their military quality is not weak. If they are mixed into Berthier's Dauphin Guards, they should be enough to compete with the North African army.

Only after being soaked in the smoke and blood of the battlefield can we become a truly strong army!

According to Joseph's plan, the first phase of the police academy will produce 1,000 regular soldiers, plus 400 "combat police" people, mixed with 3,000 people from Berthier's two regiments. The total is close to three regiments of 4,400 people, transported by the French Navy. To participate in the war in North Africa.

This team is absolutely obedient to his orders, and there is no obstacle to their mobilization.

If the fighting situation in North Africa is more intense, then consider mobilizing Duke Villar's Mulan Corps, which is the army that Andre is responsible for training. There are also three regiments in total.

Although the combat effectiveness of this army is not as good as that of the Dauphin's Guards, which was reorganized from the French Guards, its loyalty is still guaranteed, and there will not be much problem in mobilizing them.

If the combat effectiveness of the Mulan Corps is satisfactory, Joseph will also consider equipping them with better weapons and equipment, and it is not impossible to even develop them into his own direct lineage.

As for the nearly 9,000-strong force cooperating with Joseph's strategic deployment, the possibility of still being unable to capture North Africa should be very small.