monarch

The clock struck midnight when Cecil, Baron Burleigh, and Sir Walsingham rode from the Home Office to the Tower of London with their report.

Edward felt someone pushing his shoulder while he was half asleep, and he looked at him sleepily, and in the dim light, he recognized the face of one of his servants.

"What's your business?" The king shook his head to wake himself up.

"Lord Burleigh and Sir Walsingham have come to see you, Your Majesty."

Edward was silent for a moment, as if he was trying to remember who these two people were.

"Yes. Yes, I'm waiting for them. Let them in."

The servant bowed, and disappeared quietly through the door like a ghost, hardly making any sound of footsteps.

Edward turned his head to look at the center of the room, where Robert was lying quietly on the bed.The doctor gave him some sedatives and let him fall into a deep sleep, and Edward just sat on the sofa for a while, and was brought into a deep dreamland by the huge tiredness that flooded in like a tide.Two candles were lit on the bedside table, and the dim light of the candles only illuminated a camellia in a small vase beside it. It was blooming because it had absorbed the clear water in the vase, and the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness. In the twilight, only shadowy shadows remained of the cabinets, tables, chairs and fireplace.

The king stood up and walked in front of Robert, looking at the face that was somewhat pale due to blood loss. Under the dim light, his eye sockets appeared more sunken than during the day.Compared with a year ago, Robert looked much thinner, and the bruises around the corners of his eyes were hidden in the dark shadows and were not obvious, but the exhaustion between his brows was still lingering no matter what.

"You must be very tired." Edward muttered to himself in a low voice, "Take a rest."

"You shouldn't get involved." He stared at Robert's sleeping face, as if he was speaking to the other party, and seemed to be speaking to the darkness in front of him, "Politics is such a dirty business, it doesn't deserve you, You are much better than me... If it wasn't for me, you would have the freedom to choose and live the life you want instead of..." He closed his eyes slightly, lowered his head, and kissed her gently Kiss each other's broad forehead, "I'm sorry."

There were a few light knocks on the door, and the servant who had just gone out poked his head in and wanted to say something, but was stopped by the king's gesture.

Edward walked out of the door softly, came to the small living room outside, and closed the door gently behind him.

"Are they here?" After finishing all this, he turned to look at the servant.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Lord Burleigh and Sir Walsingham are waiting for you in the little study."

"Very good." Edward nodded, and went straight to the other corner of the room, where there was a tapestry, on which the Harvest Goddess was plucking her horn, and behind her was a harvest of vineyards and wheat fields.

The king reached out and pressed somewhere, and pushed open a secret door hidden in the tapestry. He passed through the secret door and entered a small study room connected to it.

Cecil and Walsingham were sitting in arm-chairs, and rose hastily when the King entered the room.

The king waved them to sit down, while he himself walked around the desk in the middle of the room and sat in a chair behind.

"How is it? Gentlemen, are you here to submit your investigation report to me?" He tapped the table lightly, looking first at Cecil and then at Walsingham.

Cecil and Walsingham exchanged glances, and finally Sir Walsingham, who presided over the investigation, said: "Your Majesty, after checking the members of the House of Lords present and the staff, we are currently roughly grasp the following situation."

"A guard at the gate recognized the assassin entering the Houses of Parliament through the Members' Entrance about one o'clock in the afternoon. He was wearing a black robe, which, you know, is favored by many clergymen and squires, so he did not attract any extra attention. After the guard checked his identification papers, he was let in."

"He has identification papers?" The king frowned. "Then who is he?"

"The identification shows that he is Lord Mercer Tydfil, from Port Talbot in Wales, but..." Sir Walsingham had an embarrassed expression on his face.

"But that's not his real identity." The king guessed what the other party meant at once.

"You guessed right." Sir Walsingham sighed, "Lord Mercer Tydfield has long since fallen into poverty, and has no estate or power, and his two sons are Your policy of expanding the administrative agency has entered the local administrative agency, and according to our previous understanding, he is one of your biggest supporters in the local area."

"So no one recognized that it wasn't him?"

"Unfortunately, Your Majesty, this baron is not a well-known figure, and he has no friends in the House of Lords. As I said, he has no power, so he is looked down upon by his colleagues, or ignored. He has never had any There is a sense of presence, only a few people still vaguely remember his appearance, that is, they recognize that the corpse is not Baron Tydfield's."

"So what happened to the baron?" the king asked again, and suddenly he seemed to understand something, and knocked on the table again, "I'm such a fool, what else can I do? I must have been somewhere in the wilderness, Sleeping under three feet forever."

"That's our guess too, Your Majesty. The baron was probably attacked on his way to London, and his identification papers were probably taken away at that time."

The king nodded, "What else?"

Sir Walsingham blushed with embarrassment, "Unfortunately, Your Majesty, this is all we have at present."

"Any low-level police detective can find out these things." The king patted the table angrily, "What I want to know is who is planning all this behind the scenes!"

"There is no doubt that there is a conspiracy behind this, Your Majesty." Sir Walsingham wiped the sweat from his brow, "However, it is still a mystery who is manipulating all this behind the scenes..."

"Well, that's great." The king clapped his hands, with a sneer on his face, "this is what you call an investigation, and the final conclusion is--it's a mystery! It's so creative, I congratulate you Congratulations."

Sir Walsingham immediately stood up, his legs trembling, "I am sorry, Your Majesty... However, allow me to argue that such an investigation will take time..."

"And what we need most now is time." The king interrupted him impatiently. "You are a smart man. I don't need to explain the current political situation to you. Someone is plotting to assassinate me, and they almost succeeded. If it weren't for the heroic actions of the Earl of Leicester, I would be lying in the grave now. To be able to do this, this person or these people must have huge resources in their hands, and after this enemy missed this blow, Like a poisonous snake waiting for an opportunity, it will withdraw into its cave, waiting for the most favorable moment to strike again, maybe tomorrow! And the next time may not be just daggers, but coups and civil wars. I also want to I will give you plenty of time to investigate, but under such circumstances, you must find out who is behind this cabal as soon as possible, and then," he said through gritted teeth, "I will cut off the snake's head, Hanging from the tower of Westminster Abbey, do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, yes!" replied Sir Walsingham hastily.

"Excellent." The king nodded.

There were several knocks on the door again, and the king frowned displeasedly, "Come in."

It was the same servant from just now. He walked into the room tremblingly, "Your Majesty, the Chief Minister is waiting in the waiting room."

"Did he also just come out of the parliament?" The king looked at Cecil who was silent.

"Yes, Your Majesty, together with other councilors." Cecil nodded. "It seems that he came directly from the council. After all, his son was injured."

"His son?" said the king with a mocking smile. "If you say he came to see Robert's wounds, you are very mistaken." He looked at Sir Walsingham again, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

"No more, Your Majesty."

"Then you go, just remember to hurry up, the time is very tight, I am waiting for your report."

Cecil and Walsingham bowed to leave, and the king looked at the servant standing in the corner of the room, "Go and ask Your Excellency the Chief Minister to come in."

After about half a minute, the chief minister's gloomy face appeared at the door of the study.

He bowed to the king, and stood there without a word, like a tall oak tree.

The king pointed to the chair opposite, and the chief minister followed the king's finger to look at the armchair, hesitated for a moment, and sat down according to the king's instructions.

"Hello, Your Excellency." Seeing the other party take a seat, the king said, "I didn't expect you to come so late, but I am still very happy to see you."

"Your Majesty, for a father to see his son injured with his own eyes, he would naturally be very anxious. If I hadn't been obstructed by some rude orders, I would have rushed here early in the morning."

"For an ordinary father, yes." The king replied coldly.

"I don't think I understand what you mean." The chief minister frowned,

"I mean, generally speaking, for a father, his son is the most important work in his life, it is the continuation of his life, and for many people, it is probably the only thing in their life. But not with you, you have only one son, and that is your power."

"For a politician, he will always keep his power in mind. When something happens, the first thing he thinks of is how it will affect his power? Or how can he get out of it? Increase his power? When he thinks about his own countermeasures, he will immediately start to do it. And the first thing you came out of Parliament tonight was to come to see me, so I can't help but feel a little surprised at your purpose Curiosity: What are you trying to avoid? Or what are you trying to gain?"

"Your Majesty must have misunderstood me," replied the First Minister, "I thought I had clearly demonstrated my loyalty by my conduct all these years."

"We all know," the king sneered, "loyalty is unreliable. If a person really possesses such a character, then he has no chance of climbing to a high position. The species of loyal people has become extinct in the court. It's endangered anywhere else in the world."

"I'm sorry Your Majesty thinks so." The chief minister lowered his head, "If I can do something to offset Your Majesty's doubts about me, please do so."

"Then please tell me everything you know about today's assassination," said the king.

"I have already told your spies that I know nothing about this farce. Perhaps the scum you have found is too simple-minded to understand such a straightforward answer, then I Would like to reiterate once again that I have nothing to do with this ludicrous incident," the First Secretary replied sarcastically.

The king's eyes widened slightly, "How dare you talk to me like that."

If it was daytime, the other party would definitely be able to see the murderous intent in his eyes.

"If I offended Your Majesty, I apologize to you." The chief minister seemed to feel that he was going too far, "However, please believe that the reason I said that just now was because my loyalty was questioned. I cannot accept it." allegations like that."

"I have always respected you," the king's voice rose several degrees, "and please don't take me for a fool, my lord."

"You called today's unfortunate event a farce, well, you are right, it is indeed a farce... an assassin pretended to be a member of the House of Lords to sneak into the parliament, and even participated in the vote, and after that It is unheard of to try and almost succeed in assassinating a king! However, I don't think it's a farce, quite the contrary, it's a mystery."

"Who is this guy? Where did his identification papers come from? Who were his collaborators? Who planned this and what was their purpose? What are they going to do after this failure? It's all hidden in the fog, and I desperately want to know the answer."

"If Your Majesty is implying that I am behind this despicable act, then I regret it and take it as an insult to me." This is not the first time the Chief Minister's perfect courtier's mask has surfaced today Cracked, in fact he was pale with rage.

"You needn't be offended, as I said, I never thought you were a fool, so I know very well that you would not do such a fool," said the King.

"Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty." The Chief Minister replied dryly.

"However, I am sure that you are not entirely in the dark about this conspiracy."

"If you are suspicious of someone, please tell me." The chief minister held the armrests of the chair tightly with both hands, and his muscles were tense, as if he was charging forward on a war horse.

"I think there are some basic rules like Euclid's axioms in geometry, and the first one is who can benefit from the conspiracy." The king picked up a quill on the table, Looking thoughtfully at the sharp nib.

"Please don't forget that it is this overly simple and crude principle that has created countless unjust, false and wrongly decided cases in the world."

"Perhaps," the king shrugged, "but most of the time, this principle holds true. So after today's assassination, I naturally began to consider who would benefit from my death."

"I think this list must be very long." The chief minister's tone was tinged with teasing.

"Indeed." The king nodded.

"Aren't you frightened by this? It seems to me that you have too many enemies today and too few friends, and you keep pushing them in the direction of your enemies."

"Only mediocre people have no enemies." The king said disdainfully, "but let's go back to the topic just now: many people hope that the knife will be inserted into my chest today, including enemies at home and abroad. .”

"The first to bear the brunt is of course my blood relatives. This is easy to understand. When the king dies, the heir becomes the monarch, just like a township employee who hopes that his boss will die of lung disease soon so that he can give up his position."

"Of course there are nobles, they resist my reforms, and naturally some of them will think about things like death and government. And you are also a noble in the final analysis, even the most prominent noble in the country, if you say you have nothing to do with it If you know it, I’m afraid it’s too dishonest.”

The chief minister stared at the king, his eyes flickered, and after a long time, he finally spoke, "The only thing I can say is the proverb: Those who play with the sword will die by the sword."

"It was you who pulled out the knife first. When you moved the knife at others, you must have thought that others would fight back, didn't you? You are also a smart person. I don't think the nobles will wait to die, and sit back and watch your privileges as early as the morning. Let it disappear like dew. You have foreseen this day, but you have made such a choice, so what is the point of saying these words now? You have already planned to show your cards, and your enemies have planned to fight you Showdown, this is not something incomprehensible."

"You are right." The king nodded. "I have one last question."

"I will tell you everything, Your Majesty."

"If there was a real showdown at some point, which side would you be on?"

With an inexplicable smile on his face, the chief minister looked at the king without saying a word.

After a while, the king also laughed, "See what I'm asking, of course you will be on the winning side."

"If you have nothing else to do," the chief minister pushed back his chair and stood up with a smile still on his face, "I won't waste your time any longer."

"Well, then I wish you good night." The king yawned slightly.

"Good night to you too, Your Majesty." The chief minister said as he walked towards the door.

When the other party came to the door, the king raised his eyebrows slightly and spoke again.

"If you want to ask about Robert, he's asleep and the doctor says he'll be all right."

The chief minister paused, and he turned around slowly, "I am very happy about this, Your Majesty."

"If you want to go and see him, he's next door."

"I believe you have taken good care of him. Besides, he is already asleep, so I won't bother you." The chief minister looked uninterested, bowed to the king, and walked out the door.

"What a good father." The king sneered, and threw the quill in his hand back onto the table, leaving a long scratch on the smooth surface with the pen tip.

He stood up and took a breath, then walked towards the secret door he had come in just now.