From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

Lawrence followed Pauli to the northeast corner of the Governor's Mansion, the door of a two-story mansion with a quiet environment.

Standing at the door were two armed guards in bright red uniforms. In Lawrence's impression, no Corsican armed forces uniform had this style. They seemed to be Pitt's own guards.

Lawrence glanced at the guard at the door, and from this detail, he also saw that Paulie really attached great importance to Peter's visit.

Guests who normally stay in the Government House, even if they have their own escorts, are not allowed to be brought into the Government House, because such behavior is a naked expression of distrust of the security of the Government House.

And Pete's guards can not only enter the Governor's Mansion, but can even walk in the mansion with guns. It seems that Paulie did give Pete and his party a lot of preferential treatment.

Paulie greeted the guard at the door, and then took Lawrence into the mansion.

After walking into the house and closing the door, Lawrence casually took a look at the decoration in the house. It was obviously in the style of an English palace, very similar to the decorations he had seen in movies.

The exterior of this house was clearly an Italian Renaissance-style building. Lawrence glanced at Pauly and guessed that Pauly had changed the interior decoration specifically for Pete.

In addition to Peter and a few servants responsible for daily living in the house, Captain Morris also lived here. When he saw Lawrence and Paulie entering the door, he stood up somewhat unexpectedly and said hello:

"Governor Pauli, Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, you are here."

Paulie nodded, frowned and asked:

"How is the situation with Mr. Peter?"

Captain Morris smiled bitterly, raised his head and pointed to the closed master bedroom on the second floor, sighed, and said in a low voice:

"It's getting a little better now. When the attack was at its worst, you could hear his groaning voice standing outside."

Paulie nodded solemnly, motioned for Lawrence to follow him, then walked gently to the second floor and knocked on Peter's door.

"Who is it? I told you not to disturb me."

An old and weak voice suddenly came from inside, and it could be heard from the tone that Peter was already exhausted from gout.

Paulie held the door handle, but did not open the door rashly. Instead, he stood outside and said in a deep voice:

"Sir Peter, it's me, I brought the doctor for you."

"doctor?!"

Peter's voice immediately became sharp and angry, and he shouted at the top of his lungs:

"You brought that bastard Mariana? Get him out! Get him out with his bloodletting!"

Lawrence outside the door looked at Paulie awkwardly, shrugged and explained:

"Maria should be his personal doctor, but it doesn't seem to satisfy Lord Peter."

When Paulie saw this, he could only say "Excuse me" first, then directly opened the door and walked in with Lawrence.

The furnishings in the bedroom are very simple, with almost no furniture, only a bed, a set of tables and chairs and a wardrobe. The old man on the bed is leaning weakly on the bedside, squinting at the visitor.

Peter's eyes were quite sharp, and he seemed not to be affected by the pain at all. Just scanning Lawrence's body made Lawrence feel that his body temperature had dropped several degrees.

Lawrence also looked at Peter with some curiosity. Apart from the young Napoleon and Nelson, this was the first historical celebrity that Lawrence had seen in person.

"As recorded in later generations, he was not tall and thin, but he had a dictatorial and domineering temperament all over his body, and his every word and deed revealed a unique sense of pride."

Lawrence put away his gaze and silently combined the little old man in front of him with the image in history.

Peter wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his hand, frowned and looked at Lawrence for a while, and then said coldly:

"Pauly, who is this?"

Paulie did not answer, but gave Lawrence a wink.

Lawrence also took a step forward with understanding, bowed to Peter with impeccable etiquette, and then introduced himself:

"It is an honor to meet you, Your Excellency Count Tatum, Lord Pitt. I am Laurence Bonaparte, Knight of Florence, loyal subordinate of Governor Paoli."

Paulie on the side couldn't help but glance at Lawrence secretly after hearing this. In the last half of the sentence, Paulie didn't even believe a single punctuation mark.

But thinking about having to rely on Lawrence to treat Peter, Paulie could only smile and nod in approval.

Peter glanced at Lawrence again, then turned his head and closed his eyes, leaning on the bed, and said without interest:

"Are you one of Pauli's subordinates? What's wrong?"

Lawrence knew very well that anyone would become impatient and irritable under great pain, so he said straight to the point without saying any polite words:

"Sir, I have a way to alleviate your condition."

Upon hearing this, Peter immediately opened his eyes, turned his head and looked at Lawrence carefully up and down, and said with a sneer:

"What? You want to bleed me too?"

Lawrence scratched his head in embarrassment, thinking that it was no wonder that Maria, as a personal doctor, was not taken by Peter by his side. The bloodletting every day had left a psychological shadow on Peter.

However, one cannot blame Peter for being so resistant to bloodletting. This outrageous treatment was actually too popular in Europe in the eighteenth century.

Even Washington, the founding father of the United States, was bloodletted four times by three doctors after he fell seriously ill, and finally passed away peacefully that night.

It can be seen that even high-ranking officials may not receive such formal medical treatment.

"No, no, no, I won't use a knife at all."

Lawrence shook his head and said.

Although in later generations, severe gout did require surgery, there were no qualified sanitary conditions and tools in the eighteenth century, not to mention that Lawrence did not know how to perform surgery.

"Oh? Don't use the knife?"

Only then did Peter become somewhat interested. He sat up with his arms propped up on his body and asked:

"Tell me, that Lawrence? What can you do?"

Since Lawrence was brought by Paulie, Peter had some trust in him. After hearing that he didn't have to endure the pain of bloodletting, Peter had more expectations for Lawrence.

"Excuse me for being rude, Mr. Peter, please let me see your feet." Lawrence said politely.

Peter didn't waste any time, directly lifted the quilt off his body and waved for Lawrence to come over.

Lawrence walked to the bed and squatted down, looking at Peter's right foot.

I saw that the big toe of his right foot was somewhat deformed, and there was a conspicuous protrusion in the middle of the joint, which was the size of a pigeon egg. This was the so-called tophi.

Lawrence observed for a while, stood up and said solemnly:

"Please forgive my remarks, Your Excellency, but your condition is indeed more serious than imagined."

Peter waved his hands nonchalantly and said:

"Of course I know whether my illness is serious or not. I just ask you if there is anything you can do."

"Yes." Lawrence said firmly.

"Really? Not bad, then."

Peter nodded with slight satisfaction when he heard Lawrence's answer, and was about to continue speaking, however.

Peter's face suddenly became distorted, large beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead, and the words on his lips stopped abruptly.

Peter, who had just sat up, fell directly onto the bed without any struggle. He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice:

"Damn! Here we go again!"

Lawrence was startled at first, but quickly calmed down and knew that Pete had another attack of acute gout.

The name gout comes from its onset characteristics: it comes quickly and goes away quickly.

Lawrence turned around and patted Pauli, who was still stunned, and said quickly:

"Governor, I am going to prepare a potion for Mr. Pitt now. You go to the cellar to get ice and apply it on Mr. Pitt!"