monarch

When the court announced its withdrawal, the king was the first to stand up and walk out of the hall under the watchful eyes of everyone just like before.However, unlike other spectators, His Majesty and his party did not walk towards the carriage parked in the courtyard, but passed through a corridor that was not open to the public, and entered a lounge specially prepared for His Majesty.

A silver tray has been placed on the small coffee table in front of the Turkish-style couch, which is filled with various drinks and snacks.The king went and sat down on the edge of the sofa, leaning on a silk cushion upholstered in satin embroidered with gold thread.He waved his hand, motioning the attendants to step back.

Soon the king and Robert were alone in the room.

The king gestured to Robert to sit beside him.

Robert hesitated for a moment. He didn't know when he had become a little cautious when facing the king.The change in status between the two was naturally reflected in their daily relationship.

He came forward at last and sat down beside the king.

"I didn't expect Bishop Gardner to be so capable," the king seemed to be talking to himself, and seemed to be speaking to Robert, "The testimony of those two doctors completely nailed the Lord Protector on the pillar of shame." ...Now I also believe that he poisoned my father." He sighed, "Whoever plays with a sword will die by the blade, this is God's will!"

"Now that the murderer has been brought to justice, His Majesty the King must rest in peace in heaven." Robert replied.

"Do you think he's going to heaven?" Edward smiled, a bleak smile reminiscent of a pale new moon just rising in the winter sky.

Robert lowered his head and did not answer.

Edward sighed again, "It's better to leave these matters to the priests to worry about." His serious expression returned to his face, "Is there any investigation result about the maid who poisoned the first queen?"

Seeing that the king started to talk about serious matters, Robert also put on the serious expression that a courtier should have when he sees the king, "That Miss Barton is indeed having an affair with Sir Thomas, and this matter has been confirmed by many people. I will send someone to Tried to look for her family, but they all disappeared."

The king frowned, "Everyone is paying attention to my father's death, but in my opinion, the death of the queen first is much more confusing. I understand that the Lord Protector wants my father to die. He committed a crime." The purpose is to remove the last stumbling block on the journey to supreme power."

"But what about the queen first? I don't understand why he must put her to death. You once went to Scotland as an adjutant of the Lord Protector. What kind of person do you think he is?"

"Calm, smart, and watertight." Robert did not hesitate to praise the powerful minister, "And I must honestly say that he is a good commander and a talented minister."

"Yes." The king sighed, not minding Robert's bluntness, "It's a pity that the young monarch and the regent are natural enemies, just like the gladiators in the ancient Roman Colosseum, only one of them can survive. "

"What you just said is quite right. He is an extremely rational person." The king continued, "so he will not remove the first queen just because of impulse, because the risk of doing so is far greater than the benefit. The two brothers and Mr. The queen is a grasshopper on a rope. Unless she is completely insane, she also knows the seriousness, and there is no need to use her life to die with their brothers. Even if Sir Thomas' derailment made her angry, she would use this at most It’s all just a threat, even Sir Thomas, a fool, can see this, otherwise he wouldn’t be so confident.”

"Do you think there was someone else who killed the first queen?"

"People are staring at my father's death, and Catherine Parr's death is not cared about ... I think if there is really a so-called mastermind, I am afraid this is what he wants to see of."

"However, in the eyes of almost everyone, these two crimes must be blamed on Brother Seymour." Robert reminded, "And this is not only what you mean, but also what other members of the Privy Council mean. This is just talking nonsense."

"Oh, no, there are." The king smiled slightly, "and that's why we're here."

"A few days ago I received a letter of petition from a prisoner in the Tower of London accused of being part of the Lord Protectorate. To my surprise, however, he was not writing for himself in that letter. Redress, but for his old master."

"That's interesting." Robert was also a little surprised, "Nowadays, whoever is around the Duke Protector is not in a hurry to get rid of him, such foolish and loyal people are really rare.

"It's not accurate to say that he is foolish and loyal. In that letter, he said that he had no objection to the crime of regicide against the Lord Protector, but what he suspected was only the charge that he and his younger brother conspired to kill the first queen. You know, just killing the king is enough to make the Duke Protector immortal, and the remaining lives are meaningless, so I can't tell if this is a letter of petition or a letter of denunciation."

"This is really interesting." Robert was also a little surprised, "I don't know who this person is?"

"His name was William Cecil, and he was an adviser to the Lord Protector. His family was a sort of bureaucratic family. His grandfather was Sheriff of Northumberland and his father was Magistrate of Rutland. Sheriff, he studied law for a while after graduating from Cambridge, and later became an advisor to the Lord Protector, but it is said that his opinion is not taken seriously." The king stood up, "now he is in the Tower of London , we happened to go see him."

The king walked out of the gate, and Ponsonby, who was standing outside the gate, hurriedly bowed to His Majesty, "Your Majesty, where are we going?"

"Go to Mr. William Cecil's cell." The king caught sight of Sir Gadge, who was standing behind Mr. Ponsonby, bending over and laughing. "Ah, you are here. That's just right. Please take us a little way." .”

"I feel extremely honored." Sir Gadge seemed to be 20 years younger, trotting ahead, looking like a tour guide waiting to sell souvenirs to tourists after the visit.

The king and his party entered the tower where the prisoners were held. The air in the tower was filthy, and a few beams of faint light shone through the narrow transom, making people feel like they were in a tomb.The leading jailer hastily lit a torch to illuminate the path under His Majesty's feet.

Under the leadership of the Sir, His Majesty went up to the second floor along a damp staircase. The wet steps were already covered with mildew. Robert hurried forward a few steps and followed His Majesty closely. If the king accidentally slipped and fell, He was able to support His Majesty in time.

Passing through the same gloomy corridor on the second floor, Sir Gage stopped in front of a rusted iron door, "This is it." He turned to the jailer and shouted, "What are you waiting for, hurry up!" Open the door!"

The jailer hurriedly took out a bunch of keys from his waist, found the correct key with the torch in his hand, and inserted it into the lock.

The door opened, and Edward looked inside curiously.

It was a reasonably neat room, looking like a clean country inn room.The room was furnished with simple furniture - a wooden bed with a white sheet, a few chairs, a dining table and a few chairs.In one corner of the room stood a writing desk full of books and papers. A young man was sitting at the desk writing hard.This person looked about 28 or [-] years old, with dark brown hair, and looked like a young scholar.If readers remember, they will surely remember this young man who wore a black cloak before the coronation ceremony and went to listen to stories with an old man in the crowd.

Hearing the door open, the young man frowned slightly. He raised his head to glance at the bright and beautiful people in front of the door, and then buried himself in his pile of papers again.

"William Cecil!" cried the Warden in displeasure. "What are you doing? Your Majesty is here."

"Please wait a moment, I'm doing an important calculation, please wait a moment." Without raising his head, he quickly scratched the quill in his hand on the paper.

The warden was about to go into a fit, and the king glanced at him, and he immediately died down and stepped aside like a frost-beaten eggplant.

"What a good Archimedes." The king said with a touch of sarcasm in his tone, "but I think we are more patient than the Romans, so let's wait for this gentleman, and don't mess up the circle he drew rashly." .”

Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to answer.

After about 5 minutes, the young man finally let out a breath of satisfaction.He dropped the pen in his hand, stood up, walked in front of the king, and knelt down on one knee, "Your Majesty's presence will make this cell of mine flourish!" He grabbed the king's hand and kissed it Souvenir.

"You must be Mr. William Cecil?" The king's voice was rather cold.

"It's down."

"What were you calculating just now? We have been waiting for you for a long time."

"Ah, I'm listing the balance sheet of the Spanish court. According to my inference, Spain will declare a default on its debts in the second half of this year. It seems that Fugger Bank will make another bad debt provision." He walked back to the At the desk, pick up a stack of papers and hand them to the king.

"Can you calculate these in prison?" The king flipped through the papers with a suspicious expression on his face.

"These are all information obtained from the public. Several treasure ships from the Americas returned this year, the price of cloth in Antwerp port this year, the exchange rate of Spanish pesos... these data are enough for me to draw conclusions."

With a smile on his face, the king returned the stack of blank papers to Cecil, "I have been thinking about what kind of person you are on the way here, are you a loyal and honest person, or do you want to attract attention? My attention is smart; when I first saw you, I thought you were a pedant, but since you stood up, your demeanor and demeanor are like a courtier who has been immersed in the court for decades. "

"Then what kind of person does Your Majesty think of me now?" Cecil laughed.

"I now think you are a madman," replied the king dryly.

The smile on Cecil's face froze. Contrary to him, the followers behind the king had long been dissatisfied with this person's posturing, and now they all laughed amusedly.

"I'll give you 10 minutes to change my mind, and if you can't, I'll think you're really a madman and lock you up in the Tower of London until you die, lest you go out and endanger society." The king's voice sounded as calm as he was describing today's weather.

Cecil's face turned pale, "I...I..." He faltered and couldn't even utter a complete syllable.

"Why, are you scared?" The king finally had a smile on his face again, but that smile made Mr. Cecil tremble, "Then please hurry up, the only thing left is to hurry up." 9 minutes."

Cecil took a long breath, and put the previous smile on his face again, but this time the smile seemed much stiffer. "Your Majesty just asked me what kind of person I am?"

The king nodded.

"I'm a Cassandra, that is to say, a person who predicts disaster." Mr. Cecil sighed, "At least that's what other people think."

The king raised his eyebrows, motioning for him to continue.

"When I was ten years old, I predicted that my father would lose all his money on an investment, which turned out to be a huge loss for him; when I was studying in Cambridge, I once told one of my professors that his wife would die Leaving him before Christmas, and the third day after that, his wife ran off with a Frenchman with the money, and it was two full months before Christmas."

"Later, I became an advisor to the Lord Protector. I once said that the position of Lord Protector is a hot potato. Instead of sitting on your own, it is better to give it to Bishop Gardner. Your Majesty, your wings are growing. If you want to be in charge, you must do something to the regent. Why bother?" Let him be that villain, but unfortunately he was blinded by the halo of the regent and ignored my proposal."

"Later I objected to him letting his brother marry the first queen, and I told him the marriage meant nothing but making the Seymours a target. But he was anxious to quiet his brother, and he didn't want to bleed himself, So we can only use the queen first to compensate him."

"You don't seem to be held in high regard by him," said the king.

"Your Majesty, those who predict disasters are often unwelcome."

The king nodded, "That's true, but since you are not valued by him, why did you write a special letter to help him? Besides, even if what you said is true, he will still die."

"Cassandra predicted the fall of the city of Troy. Didn't she also stay and die with the city? Aeneas escaped from the city-state when the city was attacked by the Greeks and sailed to Italy. His descendants became The ancestor of the Romans. If Cassandra wanted to, she could do the same, but she didn't, but stayed and became a slave with her mother and sisters, and was taken back to Argos by Agamemnon, Ultimately died in a plot by his wife to murder her husband."

"So you're going to live and die with the protector of the country? If that's the case, I'd be more than happy to give you a place on the guillotine."

"That's not the case, Your Majesty." Cecil quickly waved his hand, "I'm just looking for the truth. The Duke Protector is more than guilty of death, but I don't think he killed the first queen. I think you must be right to see me today. If you have doubts about this, I just hope that you can continue to investigate this matter, after all, if there is a mastermind behind this matter, then you may not be able to sleep well at night."

The king looked at Mr. Cecil, watching his face gradually change from pale to flushed because of his eyes.

"It seems that you are not a lunatic. Maybe you are indeed a smart man, and I need a smart man now." When Mr. Cecil was already a little desperate, the king finally said, "I am in need of a smart man now." Secretary, I think that since you have served as an advisor to the Duke of the Protectorate, you must be qualified for this job."

"I'm very honored." Cecil took a long breath, this time he looked much more sincere than when he said the same thing before.

"As for the investigation you mentioned, you can do it yourself in your spare time. For funds and personnel, you can contact Mr. Ponsonby." The king pointed to the strong man beside him, "He will give you proper support."

"Then I would like to ask for your assistance." Mr. Cecil bowed to Ponsonby.

Mr. Ponsonby just nodded, apparently looking down on the other party's slick tongue.

"Well, if that's the case, you can pack up your things and move out." The king glanced around the cell, "Although this room is fairly clean, it always smells musty."

The king walked to the door, and suddenly he seemed to remember something again, "Write your calculations today into a report, and put it on my desk the morning after tomorrow." After speaking, he turned around again and walked out of the room.

His Majesty walked out of the prison the same way he had come, and when he returned to the outside, everyone took a deep breath of fresh air in satisfaction.

"You scared him a lot just now." Robert said with a smile.

The king also laughed, "I'm not trying to scare him. If he can't prove that he is the one I need, then it will be cheaper for him to lock him up in the tower for the rest of his life based on his connection with the Lord Protector."

"I don't know why you value him so much? Frankly speaking, I don't know whether what he said is true, or if he is just talking big and trying to grandstanding."

"I don't know either." Edward shrugged nonchalantly, "But what does it matter? I sow a handful of seeds in the spring, and he's just one of them. Among so many seeds, I'm afraid there will always be a few of them." One will germinate."

"But what about the seeds that never germinate?" Robert asked.

"It doesn't matter, isn't the Tower of London always here?" Edward said calmly, not noticing the look on the other party's face because his words became more reserved.

The two boarded the carriage waiting in the courtyard together, the coachman waved his whip, and the carriage galloped towards the Whitehall Palace.