Suddenly, from the marble square in front of the main entrance to the Palace of Versailles, came the angry shouts of a girl: Continue your journey with m|v-l’-NovelFire
“The guards of France couldn’t even stop two bandits, they must be severely punished!”
The noble young ladies in the corridor, upon hearing this, nodded and agreed:
“Yes! It was because of them that the Crown Prince was injured!”
“I heard it was Besanval’s fault for the gaps in the security setup that allowed the bandits to slip in.”
“I wonder how serious the Crown Prince’s injuries are, and when he will recover…”
Joseph, hearing the loud condemnation outside, suddenly had a bright idea and hurriedly whispered to Eman to go and thank the noble young lady on his behalf for her “righteous words.”
Soon, the news that Miss Andreyan had been thanked by the Crown Prince for criticizing the French guards began to spread among the young ladies. So, more girls joined the denunciation.
By noon, two to three hundred young ladies had gathered outside the Minister of War’s office, loudly demanding that the guards of France be severely punished. Their brothers or male friends were soon pulled into the fray, bolstering the crowd further.
At that time, Dr. Lamark and his daughter were visiting the Crown Prince at his bedside.
The injuries to His Highness seem to be stable now,” Perna said, letting out a sigh of relief as she concluded her examination and turned to look at her father.
Lamark nodded, and as he was advising Joseph on some points to be careful of in his recovery, they heard the voice of a Ceremonial Officer: “Princess Maria has arrived—”
He hurriedly pulled his daughter aside, giving way to the crowd of nobles who had come to watch.
The two Sicilian princesses entered with red-rimmed eyes.
Perna, standing next to her father, glared fiercely at her, thinking to herself: If it hadn’t been for her insistence on some journey, the bandits wouldn’t have had their chance. Fortunately, with the protection of the heavens, the Crown Prince was not seriously injured.
However, she failed to realize that her anger stemmed more from the fact that she had been visiting His Highness but had to give way to this young girl.
And it was also because the girl with a lesser bust might one day become the Crown Princess, while she could only silently take care of his health from the sidelines…
Joseph, seeing Maria’s tear-reddened eyes, couldn’t help but feel remorse and guilt—because of his own efforts to bring down Besanval, she had unwittingly been frightened.
Maria curtsied, and with a soft, feeble voice asked, “Crown Prince, may I ask if you are feeling better?”
Joseph smiled and nodded, “Much better, thank you for visiting. Please sit down.”
Maria bowed her head, seeming to struggle to muster the strength to say, “Your Highness, it was because you came to meet me that you were attacked…”
Joseph quickly waved his hand, “No, no, this is not your fault, please do not blame yourself.”
Maria immediately felt a warmth in her heart—having been ready to be blamed, she didn’t expect the Crown Prince to be so forgiving, and her tears started to flow again, “I, Your Highness…sniff…”
“Hey, hey, don’t cry! I’m really okay!”
Comforting a crying girl was not Joseph’s strong suit. He rubbed his forehead, unsure of what to say next, when he saw the watching nobles suddenly step aside and take a respectful stance. Then Queen Mary, dressed in a pink and white gown without her hair done, came quickly towards them, waving her arms anxiously,
“Oh! My God! Why are you sitting up? Lie back down! The doctor said you need rest!”
Joseph smiled, touched his chest, and bowed his head, “Mother, I’m much better now, don’t worry.”
The Queen had her servants arrange a variety of pastries in front of her son, fussing over him with warm questions, and then her gaze fell on Princess Maria standing aside and her face darkened.
She had always thought her niece to be the most suitable daughter-in-law, and this Sicilian princess as an unwelcome distraction. Now that her son had even been attacked because of her, her dissatisfaction had grown even stronger.
The latter, upon noticing Queen Mary looking her way, hastily wiped away her tears and stepped forward to curtsy.
But Queen Mary turned her head away, deliberately saying to Countess Debreninac, “Please have the unrelated people leave, so as not to disturb the Crown Prince’s rest.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Countess Debreninac promptly turned to dismiss the others, and Maria bit her lip, took two steps back, completed her curtsy, and then walked away with her maid in tow.
Joseph, seeing the aggrieved expression on Maria’s face and suspecting that the Queen’s anger was directed at her, felt even guiltier and hastened to call out to her retreating figure:
“Princess Maria, I’m very sorry for affecting your travels. When I am better, please allow me to act as your guide and show you around Paris.”
Maria stopped in her tracks, turned her head sharply, and her previously dimmed eyes lit up again, thinking to herself: So His Highness is interested… Ah, no, no, at least he doesn’t have a bad impression of me!
That’s enough!
She immediately turned fully around, lifted the hem of her gown to curtsy, and smiled, saying:
“I appreciate your invitation and hope you recover quickly. I will pray for you every day.”
Perna found herself unexpectedly moved: she had known the Crown Prince for so long, and yet he had never invited her to visit anything…
She shook her head and quickly left the bedchamber, scolding herself: Perna! What are you thinking? Just being able to see the Crown Prince often and perform routine checks for him is already quite good. With your status, how could you wish for more?
…
Four days later, at the camp of the France Guards.
A gendarme officer with the rank of general handed over a stack of documents to the Justice Minister, courteously saying, “Baron Breti, does this review of these men seem about right to you?”
The latter nodded, signed the documents, and then stamped them several times with the seal on his ring.
The five officer names on the document from the France Guards, as well as the four reviewed the day before yesterday, were all on duty elsewhere on the day the Crown Prince was attacked, and were basically above suspicion, thus the review process was swift.
Another, older gendarme officer, his face caked with a thick layer of powder, took the documents from him and smiled, saying, “Then I will apply to Marquis Saint Priest later on to reinstate them – oh, and Colonel Obin and others from day before yesterday – to their positions.”
Breti and Wemorel exchanged glances and nodded, saying, “Alright, General Astou, I will also report to Her Majesty the Queen about the situation here.”
Just as General Astou was about to hand the documents to the clerk, Breti’s assistant, holding onto his hat, hurried over and whispered a few words to the Justice Minister, then handed him another stack of materials.
The latter frowned as he opened the materials and, after only a few pages, pushed them across to Astou, clearing his throat and saying, “General, it seems we can’t yet conclude the review of those men we were just discussing.”
Astou looked at the materials with puzzlement, and on the very first page he saw – an accusation that Colonel Paul Bertrand de Aubin, three years earlier, embezzled funds for military uniforms.
On the next page was an accusation against another officer who had completed the review, having accidentally crippled a soldier the year before.
For six or seven pages, there were accusations against the officers they had reviewed.
He turned to Breti with a frown, “Where, where did these come from?”
“I don’t know either; this morning, someone delivered them to my assistant. Regardless, we can’t pretend we haven’t seen these things.”
In a small office in Paris, over ten miles away, Mr. Demulan, the newly appointed head of the second action team of the Justice Investigation Department, watched Mala, who was furiously scribbling away, and said hesitantly:
“Mr. Mara, these things you’re writing about, there’s no evidence for them… Isn’t it rather inappropriate to make accusations without evidence?”
