I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1419 Best Drama Award
As for the festival's Best Play and Best Screenplay awards, they were naturally and unanimously awarded to the French Royal Theatre Company's production of "The Count of Monte Cristo".

It received the highest score of 19 points at the drama festival!
The Queen of France played the middle-aged version of the lead actress, Mercédès, in this play. Of course, this wasn't the only reason the judges gave the play high marks.

The plot of this play absolutely crushes all other scripts at the theater festival!
Even at 3 a.m., the audience was so excited by the scene of the Count of Monte Cristo escaping from prison and rising from the ashes that they shouted themselves hoarse.

Well, Queen Mary did not appear on stage for this event—her health condition did not allow her to stay up all night.

The Best Actor award went to Saviano, the lead actor in "Braveheart".

For days after the theater festival ended, people could be heard shouting "Freedom!" on the streets of Paris from time to time.

Those were the last words spoken by William Wallace, the leader of the Scottish Rebellion, before his execution. The language used on stage was English.

The Best Set Design award went to "Thirty Days of Iberia," a play depicting the French and Spanish forces' rescue of local farmers persecuted by the British army's "scorched earth" tactics in Portugal.

Well, the play ends with the British fleeing Porto in disgrace, and tens of thousands of Portuguese people tearfully welcoming the French and Spanish "heavenly troops" into the city.

In total, of the 42 plays that participated in the festival, 15 won various awards.

Only four of these are relatively traditional plays; the rest are for the purposes of French propaganda.

On the closing day of the festival, more than 90 theater companies from across Europe signed licensing agreements with the festival committee.

They will then perform these plays repeatedly throughout Europe, at least twice a week.

This also includes three British theatre companies—although Britain did not participate in the festival, it did not stop their theatre companies from coming to Paris to observe.

That evening, at the ball held at Versailles Palace to celebrate The Count of Monte Cristo's award, Queen Marie Antoinette danced one song after another with great joy.

Joseph felt a sense of relief seeing that his mother's waist had thinned out considerably—this was the result of his efforts to encourage her to exercise over the past two months. Previously, his mother's weight had been far beyond normal, which was likely a significant contributing factor to her diabetes.

Fortunately, after dietary control and exercise, her high blood sugar has been initially contained.

He then remembered that he was about to go to the Brest shipyard, so he went to his mother, who had just finished dancing, and whispered, "Dear Mother, would you like to go to the beach to relax for a while?"

"The seaside?" Queen Marie Antoinette sighed. "Of course I want to go. The last time I saw the sea was almost 30 years ago. But you know, I can't just leave Paris."

The "presence rule" is the core of French court etiquette and political rules, which means that the Queen must be in the capital at all times, and, barring unforeseen circumstances, should stay in Versailles Palace as much as possible.

Joseph whispered in her ear, "It's alright, just say you went to Merdon Castle for treatment. Everyone knows you're sick."

The Château de Meudon is not far from Paris, and the surrounding area is beautiful with fresh air. Joseph and Therese both recuperated there when they were young.

Queen Mary's eyes widened immediately: "Is this really possible?"

"Of course. But if you're going out, you'll probably need to dress up a bit. Hmm, like a certain countess."

Queen Mary paused for a moment, then blinked and whispered, "I'll pretend to be your guard."

"Well, if you want it this way..."

Well, Joseph wouldn't tell her that he was worried she'd secretly eat too much cake after leaving Versailles.

In an old guild hall on the western outskirts of Vienna, musicians were playing popular tunes with great effort, but the audience was sparsely populated, indicating that business was not very good.

In a dimly lit corner, Lucas von Scherer looked irritably toward the gate, silently calculating that those people must have been more than 20 minutes late.

The two aristocratic-looking men sitting in front of him seemed to dislike the classical music being played and started chatting without any regard for concert hall etiquette.

Have you heard about what's happening in Switzerland?

"Yes, it seems there was a riot. But in such a poor place, it won't escalate much, just like what happened a few months ago."

The brown-haired man sitting on the left said, “This time it’s different. I heard from my uncle that the rioters in Basel exchanged fire with the army in front of the city hall and defeated the troops maintaining order.”

"Oh God! Is this real?"

"Of course, you know, my uncle can see the reports to the diplomats. It's said that more than 20 soldiers died, and a Basel parliamentarian announced the dissolution of the 'Committee of Seven.' But that guy named Boyce something has already fled to Zurich."

"That's terrifying! Where did those people get their weapons?"

"There are rumors that Württemberg provided it, but who knows?"

"These damned bastards, they've betrayed the Empire!"

The brown-haired man lowered his voice so much that Lucas could only hear fragmented words: "...His Majesty has...accepted...the request...for the army to...suppress..."

Lucas clenched his fists angrily and said in a deep voice to the middle-aged man with a high nose next to him, "The tax farmers have taken away the last loaf of bread from the Austrian people's table, while our emperor is using tax money to help the Swiss nobles suppress their people!"

The middle-aged man sighed: "The empire was defeated by the French, and even the Polish army made a trip to Erzgebirge. His Majesty the Emperor probably wants to achieve some victories in Switzerland to regain the empire's confidence."

“Emperor?” Lucas scoffed. “An empire that relies on paying ‘tribute’ to its vassal states to maintain itself should not have its ruler called an emperor, but a ‘disgrace’!”

The “tribute” he referred to was the large sums of diplomatic money Austria spent to maintain its influence in the German region.

As the two were talking, a figure quietly came and sat down next to them.

Lucas glanced at the man in the dim stage light and said with displeasure, "You are at least 25 minutes late, Mr. Pagani."

The middle-aged man with brown hair looked around and asked, "Why are you alone? Where are Baron Impellato and the others?"

Pagani was silent for a few seconds before whispering, "They're not coming."

Lucas frowned: "What happened? Did we run into the secret police?"

“No,” Pagani said, “they’ve decided to withdraw. Actually, I’m just here to deliver this message. I will no longer participate in your events.”

(End of this chapter)