Versailles is worse than being queen

◎Are you ready to accept my gift in return? ◎

At the same time that Nicholas' letter was delivered to Vienna, another letter departed from the White Country at the northern end of the mainland, crossed the long wind all the way, and was delivered to the king of Prussia in Berlin.

"Hey, the female bandit actually replied to the letter." Frederick shook the letter twice, wondering if there might be some murder weapon inside.

"Let me see, what else does she have to tell me besides telling me to step up my game against my old friend Theresa?"

Several years have passed, and the empress of the Russian coup d'état has killed all those who could threaten her throne, and firmly holds the power in her own hands.

She is truly a woman of the Germanic nation.

He opened the letter.

Sure enough, Catherine mentioned that Austria had not long ago occupied part of the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom, threatening Russia.

Frederick sneered: "She didn't mention herself before she sent troops to Poland and Ottoman, occupying a large piece of land on both sides."

Moreover, the indecisive Polish king is still her old lover who helped her to the throne, and I am afraid that he still has no memory of the charming female tsar.

"Let me fulfill the previous agreement and support Russia... She will definitely not know my style. If you ask me, what opinion do I have?"

Of course it is... let me join you!

Frederick then looked down.

The second half of the letter was a reply to the Austrian-French marriage - not long ago Frederick wrote to her, talking about the indirect threat of France's standing in line with Prussia.

"My dear Frederick," wrote the empress, "France is the common enemy of Prussia and Russia, and its strength is a disgrace to Russia."*

The following content is rather strange, "But don't attack that little princess."

Looking at the unrestrained handwriting, Frederick couldn't help raising his eyebrows: "That female bandit still has a day of mercy?"

He folded his hands and propped them under his chin: "... This makes me more curious about her."

Although Frederick was very disgusted with the flashy and intriguing atmosphere in the French court, this did not prevent him from placing people there and reading the news from the courts of various countries every day.

——The one from Versailles is always the most chaotic and strange one, often eye-opening.

"Don't talk about others. Those Frenchmen, would they be happy to see an Austrian woman become their queen without a hitch?"

……

The wedding convoy of the French crown princess passed through the vast territory of the Holy Roman Empire, and there were warm and jubilant celebrations along the way.The huge team moved forward slowly, and finally arrived near Strasbourg on the border with France after more than ten days, and lived in the Schut Abbey.

As dusk draws near, the sun sinks slowly into the horizon.

This is Antania's last day in Austria.

Tomorrow, on the Rhine between Strasbourg and Kohl, she will be handed over by the Austrian entourage to the French entourage.

From that moment on, she will truly be "Marie Antoinette".

"Your Highness, I am your first maid in France." The middle-aged lady with her hair combed meticulously saluted Antanya.

Well, I saw this woman again.Antanya thought.

Her "lady of rules", the Countess of Noailles, had been her nightmare when she was young.

As for the Earl himself?

He was still arguing with Lord Mercy about the wording of a document - which he felt was an insult to the dignity of the court at Versailles.

The couple were like the embodiment of that decayed palace etiquette.

But fortunately, she could take advantage of the gap between their focus on tomorrow's ceremony.

Countess Noailles just met her once according to the etiquette, then joined her husband and continued to argue with the Austrians about "diplomatic etiquette".

The first floor of the monastery was very lively. Hundreds of diplomats and protocol officers came in and out, making final preparations for tomorrow's ceremony.But the third floor is very quiet - there are only the crown prince herself and the maids who are making the final confirmation of tomorrow's clothing accessories.

Antanya quietly left the room, looked around to make sure no one saw her, then quickly opened a small door and slipped down the spiral staircase.

In her previous life, she found this hidden spiral staircase during her stay in the monastery for only a few hours, but before she could explore it, she was called back to get her hair done.

This time, she had to hurry up.

However, before she reached the first floor, she heard angry arguments from below.

"What does this mean?! If Her Majesty the Queen finds out, she will be very angry! This is a diplomatic accident! This is a conspiracy!"

It was Ambassador Mercy's voice, and he sounded very excited.

"Oh my Mr. Earl! Can you keep your voice down? If it's really a conspiracy, why should we tell you? It's because we discovered it, so we can remedy it in advance! Just take it down!"

"Did you guys discover this? It was obviously discovered by the German college student!" Mercy did not back down, "If he hadn't discovered it, Her Royal Highness would have passed by there in ten hours! Such a terrible meaning, With so many art experts who have dealt with you, no one has discovered it?"

The other party sighed, "You also know how complicated this wedding is, everyone is so busy and dizzy, and the tapestry was borrowed from the archbishop's mansion, the patterns are so beautiful, everyone I didn't bother to look carefully..."

"What didn't you look at carefully?" The girl's soft voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

"Uh...Your Highness!" Ambassador Mercy was taken aback.

The young French counselor staggered and turned around stiffly.

"I'm just wandering around, you go on and say, don't worry about me." Antanya smiled and nodded at them, "Is someone trying to curse me?"

The French counselor turned pale.Even Ambassador Mercy couldn't help heaving a long sigh, and explained what was going on as concisely as possible - and trying to play down the emotion as much as possible.

Originally, in order to fully reflect the status of their countries in this wedding ceremony, France and Austria had been arguing endlessly about the specific handover ceremony of the crown prince and concubine on the border, until the crown prince herself provided a surprising but miraculously meeting the needs of both parties. The idea - to build a hall on the border between France and Austria, on a small island in the Rhine between Kohl and Strasbourg, in which the handover ceremony will be held.

Naturally, the hall was decorated by the best architects and designers from both countries.The University of Strasbourg lent a radiant canopy, the wealthy citizens on both sides lent the most magnificent furniture, and Gobelin tapestries made after Raphael's drawings hung all over the wooden walls. .

As a result, just now, a few German college students who secretly bribed the guards with a few silver coins slipped into this hall before the Crown Princess, and looked around—then a student with exceptional knowledge and keen observation found out that A tapestry with patterns tells the story of Jason, Medea and Croesa.

Jason, a hero in Greek mythology, captured the Golden Fleece with the help of his wife Medea.However, when he passed Corinth on his way home, the king asked him to marry his daughter Croesa, and Jason agreed.

Betrayed Medea heard the news and gave the bride a dress as a wedding gift-the person who wore this dress would be burned alive.

Both the bride Croesa and the king were burned to death, and even the two children born to Medea and Jason were killed by Medea in order to avenge her husband.

Obviously, such a disastrous marriage story is definitely not suitable for the handover ceremony hall where the French crown princess came to France from Austria.

"Please forgive me, Your Highness," the French counselor was embarrassed, "We will carefully check all the decorations in the hall tonight, and we will also make the responsible designer pay the price..."

"It's okay," Antanya replied, "Everyone has worked hard, I know it wasn't intentional."

She herself admired those tapestries in the archbishop's house later—to be honest, those brocades were so densely packed that they looked extremely exquisite from a distance, but they were actually dazzling.

Who would really recognize what story the pattern above is telling?

"Ah, you are so kind and wonderful!" The counselor couldn't help but took off his hat and bowed to her, "We all said that His Highness was able to come up with such a flawless handover ceremony, it is the embodiment of wisdom—I I will definitely tell them that His Highness is not only wise, but also tolerant, kind, and has an angelic soul!"

"I'm ashamed." Antanya smiled. "By the way, where is that college student? What's his last name?"

In fact, this is the focus of her attention.

There are many biographies written about her, among which Zweig, a later compatriot, is the most famous.There was an episode in the biography—an episode, she was surprised, that didn't seem to have been made up by the writer.

"Oh, he was taken away by the police and his companions. He was charged with disturbing public order. Now I guess he just paid the fine at the police station and was released. His surname... surname..."

"Goethe." Earl Mercy coughed lightly.

"That's right! It's Goethe." The counselor clapped his hands together, "Your Highness, he was yelling in that hall at that time, it was very inappropriate..."

He glanced at the mysterious expression of the crown prince, and tentatively said: "If you feel that the fine is not enough, I will immediately find someone to go to the police station and detain him for a few more days..."

"Oh, sir," Antanya resisted the urge to almost laugh, "I really want to trouble you—find someone to go to the police station to clear his charges and avoid his fine."

"Also, I hope you can send him a note for me. I hope to invite him to Versailles as my guest."

……

Shortly after the sun rose on May 1770, 5, Antalia once again set foot on a small island in the middle of the Rhine River at the junction of Austria and France.

In her previous life, she was shocked to learn that she had to take off her clothes in front of all the members of the Austrian entourage until she walked into this handover hall, and then the Countess of Noailles handed her a silk petticoat made in France .

At that time, at the age of 15, she couldn't wait to curtsy to the countess, so she snatched the petticoat from her hand, put it on herself indiscriminately, and almost cried and threw herself into the countess's arms.

But now it's finally gone.

This time, after all, Antania was the first to propose the handover ceremony herself—it turns out that when people make plans, they are often influenced by the original plan, and it is more unconstrained to imagine one.

This time, after the ceremony she proposed made her go to the French side of the border, she dismissed everyone except the servants, and calmly changed into French-made clothes.

As for changing clothes in front of the waiters, even if she wasn't used to it in her previous life, she would have felt nothing after more than 20 years of experience.

The ceremony on the border was finally completed, and the next step was to gallop towards the forest of Compiègne.

Although the celebration ceremony along the road was lively and jubilant, because the king was still waiting, the team of the crown prince and concubine would naturally run towards the king at the highest speed——

On May 5, the golden carriage carrying the French Crown Princess finally arrived at the edge of the Compiègne forest.

The carriage stopped slowly, and her knight of honor walked to the side of the carriage, opened the door and extended his hand to her.

Facing the hand stretched out in front of her face, Antanya took a deep breath.

In her life, she finally came to this moment again.

In the Compiègne forest, she will meet for the first time the young and clumsy Crown Prince, the future Louis XVI.

The roulette wheel of fate starts irreversibly at this moment, and there is no turning back.

She took the hand to get out of the carriage and walked towards the edge of the forest.

In the bright forest, the court team is huge.

King Louis of France stood in the middle of the procession in splendid attire, and beside him were court nobles and their wives, officers, soldiers of the Guards, and a court band playing a symphony.

In the gorgeous melody, the girl's light steps seem to be floating under the gorgeous skirt like clouds.

Accompanied by knights of honor and first aide-de-camp, she walked towards the king, her ballet-trained figure dancing gracefully like a swan.

When she walked in front of the king, she glanced lightly, and saw the 16-year-old French crown prince behind the king carefully looking at her.

The young crown prince's gaze collided with her, he was slightly taken aback, and immediately lowered his head again.

The river under the Bern Bridge has clear ripples under the bright sun.

Time stood still at this moment, and the whole world shone like a huge mirror.

This dreamlike scene reminded Antanya of the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, the place she had walked into for centuries because of a young man who hit her by mistake.

It also reminded her of the famous saying she quoted countless times when she heard people talking about her during her centuries of ghost career in the Palace of Versailles——

"All the gifts given by fate have already been secretly priced."

Antanya smiled.

With impeccable grace, she curtsied slowly to the king.

——Fate, are you ready to accept my gift in return?

The author says:

The vignette about the tapestry refers to Zweig's "Biography of Marie Antoinette".