Shadow of great britain

In the 1830s, the Apennine Peninsula was still far from unification.

Like Germany, Italy is more of a geographical concept than a country.

Just like the many small states in Germany, Italy at this time, after experiencing the baptism of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Napoleonic Wars, still has six countries, including the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Modena, the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetian and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Among these six countries, except for the theocratic Papal States and the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Savoy Dynasty, the other four countries are basically directly or indirectly controlled by the Austrian Empire.

For example, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies mentioned by Heine, although their king came from the Bourbon family, after the restoration of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the Napoleonic Wars, two consecutive generations of queens came from the Austrian royal family, the Habsburg family.

As for the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena, they all came from branches of the Austrian Habsburg family.

The Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetian was directly under the Austrian royal family.

Half of Italy was occupied by the Austrians, and the Young Italy led by Mazzini and others regarded the unification of the entire Apennine Peninsula as their ultimate goal, so they were bound to clash with the Austrians.

This was also the fundamental reason why Austrian Prime Minister Metternich was very dissatisfied with the French government's tolerance of this group of Italian nationalists.

However, for French King Louis Philippe, he was able to take office by virtue of the title of "People's King" and the tricolor flag symbolizing freedom, equality and fraternity.

Therefore, he tolerated the Young Italy not specifically for Austria, and the Poles, the thorn in the eyes of the Tsar, were not they also rooted in Paris?

Moreover, even if we put aside Louis Philippe's need to survive, France has a long tradition of accommodating political prisoners from various countries.

This even includes the Jacobites who have always been eager to regain the British throne, restore the Stuart dynasty and the Catholic faith.

In order to prevent Catholics from inheriting the British throne, Britain launched the Glorious Revolution. Parliament announced the abdication of King James II and supported James II's eldest daughter, Mary II, who believed in the Anglican Church, and her husband, William III, the Dutch ruler, to jointly govern the country.

Under the operation of Parliament and William III, the 15,000 Dutch troops commanded by William III landed smoothly in Tor Bay without any resistance. After hearing the news, King James II of England had to give up the throne and flee to France overnight.

But most English people opposed James II, which did not mean that the Scots and Irish people thought so.

After the king fled, the Scottish Highland nobles refused to be loyal to the new king, and Ireland, as the traditional sphere of influence of Catholics, passed a bill to directly declare that the English Parliament's abdication of James II was unconstitutional, and James II was still the King of Ireland.

James II also landed in Ireland with the support of France and was cheered by the king.

Under the banner of James II, the Scottish Highland nobles and the Irish soon formed an alliance, calling themselves the "Jacobites", and began to besiege Londonderry, the stronghold of the Church of England in Ireland.

However, they were eventually defeated by the army of William III and had to withdraw to France, while the French army reorganized this unit and included it in the French battle sequence, called the "Irish Brigade".

This Irish Brigade has undergone hundreds of years of historical changes, and was later expanded by Napoleon into an Irish Corps with five battalions and a total of 2,000 people, and made great achievements in the Peninsular War. Due to its outstanding military exploits, the Irish Regiment became the only foreign unit awarded the Imperial Eagle Flag by the Emperor.

Of course, after the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, in view of the excessive enthusiasm of the Irish Regiment soldiers for the Napoleon family, although these guys never fired a shot at the orthodox, they were still ordered to disband.

However, compared with the experience of the Irish Brigade, the succession problem of the Jacobites was obviously more troublesome, because after they fought for 150 years, the old problem of the European nobles appeared. The Stuart dynasty, the orthodox British dynasty in their minds, was extinct.

In order to solve this problem, the Jacobite heraldry experts carefully read the inheritance law and the king's family pedigree, and believed that the succession to the British throne should belong to Carlo Alberto, the king of the Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy.

Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia?

As soon as Arthur thought of this name, he immediately thought of a document he had read in the embassy before.

Last year, the leader of the royalist party, the Duchess of Berry, seemed to have stayed in the Kingdom of Sardinia for quite a long time before launching the Vendée Rebellion.

And according to the information found by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the passport held by the Duchess of Berry when she landed in Marseille was also from the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the ship she took was the "Carlo Alberto" named after the King of Sardinia Carlo Alberto.

The sponsor of the royalist party is the Kingdom of Sardinia, not the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies of the Bourbon family?

If Arthur remembered correctly, at the beginning of this year, Young Italy, led by Mazzini, had just launched an uprising in Genoa, Sardinia. However, due to poor planning, the uprising was extinguished as soon as it had just started.

Linked to the Kingdom of Sardinia's sponsorship of the royalists to launch the Vendée rebellion and Louis Philippe's act of sheltering the exiled young Italians, Arthur suddenly felt a subtle feeling in his heart.

Taking these things apart, they seem to be independent events, but if you look at them separately, you always feel that they are inextricably linked.

The Kingdom of Sardinia wanted to overthrow the rule of the July Dynasty in France, and the July Dynasty used Young Italy to provide eye drops to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

If this is the case, Paris Police Chief Gissoquet's rhetoric about strictly investigating young Italy is actually a cover-up. The French are just taking this opportunity to clear up their own doubts, and by the way, let the Kingdom of Sardinia and Austria The empire is just being careless.

When Arthur thought of this, he immediately subconsciously took out the pen in his breast pocket and prepared to write a diplomatic report and give it to the secretaries of the legation to take back to London. Although this information is of little value to Britain, if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses it properly, it can allow Austria, France and Italy to fight for a while, so that they have no time to distract Britain's growing power in the Mediterranean.

Seeing Arthur's move, Alexandre Dumas joked: "Arthur, are you inspired? I understand how you feel. When you have an idea, you have to write something. However, at this time, let's enjoy the good wine and wine first. The food. The chefs at the Vejle are first-rate, not on the same level as the ones you meet in London.”

Arthur smiled and raised his glass to touch him and said, "Alexander, you are right. When an Englishman is inspired, it is usually not a good thing."

At this point, he turned the conversation to the reserved Andersen: "Hans, maybe we should talk about publishing."

"publishing?"

Andersen was caught off guard by this sudden development.

He had tossed and turned all night, counting the stars outside the window and carefully considering how to behave more appropriately in front of this big publisher from England, and what words to use to arouse his interest in his work.

But what he never expected was that Arthur didn't even ask him a literary question, nor did he talk to him about music and painting art. Instead, he directly expressed his willingness to publish his works.

I don't know if it was because of the alcohol attack, but Andersen just felt dizzy.

"I... thank God, my life is so lucky. Although my background is not good and I have encountered many difficult things, whenever I need help, there will always be noble people by my side. In Copenhagen, I met Madame Lesso and Mr. Colin, and in Paris, I met Mr. Heine, Mr. Dumas and you, Sir.”

Arthur smiled and asked: "Who are Mrs. Letso and Mr. Colin?"

Andersen replied: "Do you know our country's great poet Abrahamson? Mrs. Letso is his daughter and my landlord.

At that time, I had just gained a little fame in Denmark, so the composer Mr. Weiss approached me, hoping that I could collaborate with him to adapt "Kenilworth" by the famous British historical novelist Sir Walter Scott into an opera. , I felt very honored at the time, and I also needed money very much, so I agreed to his request for cooperation.

But what I didn't expect was that as soon as I was halfway through writing the script, the story spread all over the city, and there were harsh, ruthless and taunting voices everywhere. Several newspapers in Copenhagen published articles saying that it was an insult to Sir Walter Scott for a guy like me to adapt the works of Sir Walter Scott. I was not writing a script but dismembering the masterpiece.

Many people, whom I don’t know who they are, wrote anonymous letters to me, attacking and abusing me in the most rude and stupid ways. All of these became part of my life during that period. At that time, if Mrs. Letso and Mr. Weiss had not been encouraging me, I would not have been able to survive those years of cynicism and ridicule.

Just this year, in order to repay their trust in me, I boldly published a new collection of poems, "Twelve Months in a Year." Although the critics in Copenhagen continued to ridicule my collection of poems and rejected me as always, wanting to step me into the mud. The "Literary Monthly Review" took my poems apart one by one and found fault with the spelling and sentence usage in my text, but I always think that this is my best work so far. Fortunately, unlike those haters in Copenhagen, you appreciate it. "

Arthur couldn't help laughing when he heard Andersen's complaint: "I thought that only a rainy place like London could produce a literary magazine with such a bad nature as "Blackwood", but I didn't expect it to be the same in Copenhagen. So, just because of you Adapted Sir Walter Scott's novel, so they're targeting you?"

Alexandre Dumas raised his eyebrows and said: "It's probably because other people in the Copenhagen literary circle are also eyeing this adaptation business. You stole their work, so they became angry and regarded you as a thorn in their side. Hans, don't care about that. There are so many clowns like this in Paris, and I was slandered by them for plagiarism back then.”

When Andersen heard this, his eyes widened. He looked a little unbelievable: "Mr. Dumas, are you saying that people have attacked you like this before? How do you usually deal with it?"

"It's very simple."

Alexandre Dumas opened his coat and patted the holster on his waist: "If I find out who is attacking me, the duel letter I issued to him will appear on the newspaper headlines the next day. I want to engage in literary criticism of my works. , the primary ability is not how good his taste is, but how good his marksmanship is. Of course, if those literary critics are like Arthur, who can survive being shot, you see, Asia. If Se says something about my writing is not good, I will never refute it.”

After hearing Andersen's experience, Heine also sneered at the worms in the Copenhagen literary world: "You can make them so angry if you change a Walter Scott novel. If you change Shakespeare, wouldn't they immediately become angry?" Going to the grave?"

Arthur thought of this, blinked his eyes, and suddenly suggested: "It's a pity that the copyright of Sir Walter Scott is not in the hands of our "The British", and he himself unfortunately passed away the year before last. However, our "The British" "One of the most popular authors happens to be a successor to Sir Walter Scott. Hans, have you heard of Elder Carter?"

"Elder Carter?" Andersen recalled it carefully, but there was really no place for this name in his mind: "I'm sorry, Mr. Carter shouldn't have published any works in Danish or German, right?"

"Not yet, but there will be soon."

Alexandre Dumas didn't originally intend to help Elder brag, but when the fat man thought that the sour maggots in Copenhagen might scratch their heads over the rights to adapt Elder's works, he couldn't help but want to contribute to this prank. .

Alexandre Dumas said: "Hans, you don't know something. Mr. Carter's "Robin Hood" was personally praised by Sir Walter Scott himself. In addition, there is also a book "St. George's Flag Rises". " is also based on his own experience. If you are interested, I think Arthur can make the decision here on behalf of "The British" and hand over the Danish adaptation rights of these two books to you."

Arthur smiled and nodded: "Of course, but this is only part of our agreement. Hans, I am not only interested in your collection of poems, but your "The King's New Clothes" also made me see other shining points in you. , so I plan to let "The British" be the sole agent for the publication and distribution of your works in Britain. We can sign a five-year long-term agreement, what do you think?"