shadow of britain

Chapter 599: Talleyrand's Legacy
"What kind of person is the man I am going to marry?"

"You know my character. I haven't had much communication with him, so I can't make a conclusion about his character, nor can I deceive you through subjective assumptions. I can only tell you what I saw: his hair color and big blue eyes are roughly the same as yours, his nose is handsome and straight, his mouth is gentle and touching, his teeth are white and neat, and whenever he smiles, his expression is particularly charming, which always makes people believe that he must be kind, lovely, and intelligent."

"Is he a handsome man? Is he more like one of the medieval knights of Sir Walter Scott's novels, or your iron mask in the London fog, or the dashing young duke of Mr. Disraeli's novels?"

"Only a noble knight from the Middle Ages is worthy of the Queen of England. This is the happiness you deserve."

——"The Resolution of Empire: The Letters of Queen Victoria"

Arthur was in a bad mood, and his conversation with Fiona reminded him of his last meeting with Talleyrand before leaving.

God knows why this French cripple, who has never told the truth in his life, would suddenly be honest with him.

Perhaps he was jealous that the name of Arthur Hastings appeared more often in the London newspapers than that of Talleyrand-Périgord, or perhaps he was old and felt that he had lived enough, or perhaps he simply wanted to tease the young man who had caused him to lose a lot of money playing cards.

This last representative of the 18th century, the leader of French politics, the elder of European diplomacy, the world-class butcher, Mazarin's monkey, the incarnation of Cardinal Dubois, the monk who couldn't help himself, the ridiculous people's bishop, Voltaire's spiritual illegitimate son, Mirabeau's mouthpiece, Aesop in official clothes, the lame devil's envoy, the Pope's mustard bottle, the defender of England, the agent of Emperor Napoleon, the guide of Tsar Alexander, the evangelist of the Hundred Days Restoration, and the umbrella bearer of Louis Philippe...

God knows how many nicknames he has, and God knows why he envies and admires a little person like me!
Perhaps it is because he has experienced 13 governments and changed masters 13 times, so he also wants his younger generations who have barely retained a little conscience to follow the same path as him.

Arthur stood under the stage and looked at the male and female protagonists who were as dazzling as the sun and the moon on the stage. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the audience who were excited, happy, sad and moved by the actors' wonderful performances.

He seemed to smell rich fruity and herbal aromas, and the sweet aroma of ripe black currants and black cherries lingered on his tongue. That was the red wine that Talleyrand handed him - Margaux dry red wine from 1825. Somehow, Talleyrand's voice also rang in his ears.

"When a play is being performed and the actors are still on the stage, it is not appropriate to reveal the plot, the techniques and the true face of the protagonist, because the mask is more beautiful than the real face. Today, for some people, the truth is quite dangerous. For others, it is simply a scandal. For everyone, the truth is useless."

"You say these things, do those things, don't you worry about criticism?"

"For my part, I am not afraid of critics or fools, you know what I mean. I have anticipated how the generation after me will judge me, but I don't care. Because I am an umbrella, bearing the heavy rain for half a century, and for me, one more drop or one less drop is nothing."

"Mr. Talleyrand, do you mean to say that you have forgiven your enemies?"

"Forgive? I have forgotten nothing, and I will forgive no one. If there are some faults that can be forgiven, and some passions that can be forgiven, they are my own faults and my own passions. As for my enemies? I have no enemies anymore, because I have sent them all to my grave.

The government of Louis XV, the government of Louis XVI, the government of the Revolution, the government of the Republic, the Directory, the Consulate, the Imperial Government, the Government of the Hundred Days, the Provisional Government of 1814, the two Restorations, the government of Charles X - they have all gone to their graves, and I am still serving the government of Louis Philippe.

I am proud of myself because I have transcended some people and some events, even beyond suffering, and my heart is hard enough to endure everything. No one can humiliate me, no one can make me suffer. This pride, this hardness of heart, makes me no longer vain and no longer excited in my life. Once I die, I will never hear the bell again. Life is nothing more than this. "

"Hasn't there ever been a time when you wanted to earn the respect of others?"

"Respect? Oh, young man, in France, people respect nothing except power. In the palace of favor, everything is great except the low hole that makes people bend over to enter the palace."

"I... I may not be qualified to judge your idea, but I just want to ask you, do you think this is... right?"

"Are you asking yourself this question, or are you asking me? Right and wrong, true and false, these are the simplest and easiest words to say, but they are also the most difficult to understand. I know that you feel that you have done something stupid, so you feel conflicted and blame yourself. But I must tell you, young people, don't feel bad for doing stupid things, because many people don't even have the opportunity to do stupid things. Follow your own feelings and never regret it, whether it is a good thing, a bad thing, or a stupid thing.

I know how you feel, because I have done the same stupid things and felt the same regrets as you. But, Arthur, you have to understand that everything starts out beautifully, but it gets tiring halfway through, and ends up in a pitiful mess. Don't believe in the saviors of your country, and don't try to be them, because these people always make a mess of their careers.

On the other hand, sending you to Hanover may not be such a bad idea. The weather in London is cold, but the air here makes your blood boil. It is better to experience the truth once than to be told to you ten thousand times. You finally believe what I said before: it is rare for people to be rewarded for their noble character and punished for their evil deeds. There is only one condition for it to happen, that is, the government needs the public to believe that the rules are still valid.

You were able to become a police inspector from an ordinary patrolman because you met this condition. This is both your luck and your misfortune. Fortunately, you did not go too far on the road of believing in this fallacy. Politics is different from science. There are few unchanging theorems here. How to interpret political theorems depends mainly on who is Michael Faraday today.

Go to Hanover, wait patiently when you are on the chopping block, and once you become a hammer, strike accurately. Arthur, be a wicked man, not a fool. You know, I don't make friends with fools, let alone play cards with fools. I can tolerate evil, because I can defend myself against an evil man, but I can't tolerate stupidity, because I can't do anything to an extremely stupid person.

After the London riots, you should have realized that what the masses accept as truth is often a prejudice or a stupid view. So, use them, but before using the people, you need to confuse their minds first. The only thing I want to remind you is that it is useless to incite one part of the citizens to hate another part of the citizens, because they are already smart enough to hate themselves. "

"Mr. Talleyrand, I don't have such ambitions." "Really..."

Talleyrand's action of gathering the playing cards in his hand kept replaying in Arthur's mind. His light tone, slightly raised eyebrows and teasing mouth seemed to be right in front of him: "If you are a person without ambition, then... why are you here today?"

Arthur actually didn't hate Talleyrand, the tumbler of French politics. It was not only because Talleyrand lost a lot of money to him, nor was it only because he persuaded the French government to pardon Dumas, nor was it because Talleyrand once offered to give him 100,000 francs to let Arthur help "escort" Louis to Paris.

It was because Talleyrand was a smart man, and in many cases he was too smart, even to the point of being frightening.

Arthur doesn't like being seen through by others, especially by someone who can see through many things that he himself cannot see through.

No one would be proud of having been enlightened in political science and diplomacy by Talleyrand, let alone use this as a source of bragging.

But the contradiction is that everyone admits that they absolutely do not want their opponents to be trained by Talleyrand.

A Talleyrand-like politician, he is neither wolf nor sheep, neither royalist nor republican, neither hammer nor anvil, neither minister of God nor messenger of the devil.

He was neither bound by public opinion nor by the constraints of kings, but was placed in the middle, standing in the center of the scale. When the balance between royal power and the cross was about to be broken, he sometimes exerted his weight on one side and sometimes on the other side to keep the scale balanced.

Play as if you are holding the strings of a puppet, and do as you please.

To be able to master all the secrets, to know in advance what the world will need afterwards, to consider what words to use to describe what is about to happen, to describe the facts.

Don’t be the creator of the drama, but become the most indispensable audience of this drama.

As Talleyrand said, a person without ambition will not take the initiative to appear in the audience.

Even if Arthur refused to admit it, what made him speechless was that no matter how tough his words were, he had actually been silently acting according to Talleyrand's teachings.

Agares squatted on the marble sculpture in front of the theater, looking at the flickering sparks in the darkness.

The Red Devil, who had just promoted himself to professor of anthropology and proclaimed himself the Special Duke of Hell on Earth, could easily judge from the degree of burning of the tobacco that the boy was upset, but getting better and better.

Agares proudly lit his pipe, imitating Arthur's example. The supreme enjoyment of nicotine spreading in his mouth brought his happiness to a higher level.

The Red Devil squinted his eyes and took out the "Faust" published last year from his bosom. He lighted the lamp in front of him with a snap of his fingers: "You run around in vain to seek knowledge, but people can only learn what they can learn. Those who can seize opportunities are real men. You have a strong body and you are not lacking in courage. As long as you believe in yourself, you will gain the faith of others. You must especially learn to manipulate women. Although they suffer from thousands of diseases, you can formulate medical policies from one point. As long as you pretend to be serious, you can control them all. You must first get a degree, make them believe that you are more knowledgeable than anyone else, and then, unlike others who have to spend years, you start by touching their magic weapons all over their body. You must know a way to feel their pulse. Feel free to touch their slender waists and use your clever and enthusiastic eyes to see if her belt is tight. Hmm... Goethe, it's really well written! The only flaw is that the devil in the book chose Mephistopheles instead of me. But this is not a big problem. After all, Mephistopheles is indeed a fool with a missing brain stem. He is not as good at fooling people as I am, and he can't cultivate a real big man. "

Just as the Red Devil was indulging himself and feeling secretly pleased with himself for committing the two sins of 'pride' and 'vanity' at the same time, the vibration of the carriage wheels broke the tranquility of the night, like a drop of water falling into a still lake, causing Agares to involuntarily look at the source of the sound with contempt.

The cobblestone road glowed with a faint golden glow under the dim kerosene lamplight at night, and the sound of horse hooves and the clatter of wheels echoed through the ancient alleys.

The majestic carriage was pulled by four sturdy horses. Their snow-white manes and shiny harnesses looked particularly dazzling under the light. The carriage was painted black and decorated with exquisite gold edges and green patterns. A dazzling noble family emblem was inlaid in the center of the door.

The black and gold horizontal stripes are like layers of historical rings, while the green diagonal bands running through them are like a vein of life.

Among the complicated shields, you can see the red lion representing Thuringia leaping high, with its silver stripes gleaming on the shield. You can also see the silver castle symbolizing Coburg standing on a green base, with the spire of the tower pointing straight to the sky. The bear claw emblem is rough and resolute, and there seems to be a smell of soil from the mountains and forests between its claws. It is the symbol of Anhalt and a symbol of strength and land. The black eagle emblem spreads its wings, and the wings seem to cross the border of the shield, symbolizing the inseparable and close relationship between this family and the Holy Roman Empire...

Of course, it wasn't just the Red Devil who noticed the carriage, Arthur was one of them as well.

The new diplomat, relying on the poor knowledge of heraldry that he had learned from Schneider, recognized the owner of the carriage with difficulty: "The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha?"

(End of this chapter)