Two days later, in the evening of January 7, the calm Seine River flowed westward slowly, and the silver mirror-like water surface reflected the orange-yellow sunset glow.
A few ravens that have not yet returned south are hovering on the roofs of the houses on both sides of the river, making a noisy chirping sound.
No. 28, Via Tigas, by the river, the residence of Colonel Giovanni.
"Hey! Honey, come downstairs for dinner." The colonel's wife placed a large pot of fragrant potato and beef stew on the dining table, took a satisfied taste of her superb cooking skills, and then called out softly: " Today is your favorite beef stew, Giovanni!" However, there was no response from upstairs. It was not until the wife frowned that she heard a long and decadent cry: "I won't eat it. Honey, burp...just leave me some white bread." Listening to this thick nasal voice, the wife immediately realized that her husband was probably drunk again.
She cautiously went upstairs, opened the study door, and saw empty wine bottles all over the floor. Even the air was filled with a faint smell of alcohol, which was the smell mixed with the stench of alcohol exhaled by drunk people.
Rum, champagne, brandy, gin...these empty bottles were so complete that they could run a tavern, and the drunken Colonel Giovanni poured them into the pile of bottles in a delirious state. In the middle, there was an unopened bottle of Scotch whiskey in his hand.
"Oh my God! How much did you drink?!" The wife covered her mouth in shock and screamed reproachfully and distressedly: "My dear, what's wrong with you? In the past two days, you have either been talking nonsense or drinking. Even if you don’t go to the army, my God, if this continues, I’m going to find a psychiatrist for you.” Colonel Giovanni muttered something incoherently, turned over and burped, but still wanted to put the whiskey in his hand. Also open it and put it in your mouth.
The wife couldn't stand it any longer, so she stepped forward and snatched the bottle from his hand, bit her lip, then frowned and said, "Giovanni, what's wrong with you? You've been like this since you came back the day before yesterday. !” In my wife’s impression, it was the afternoon before yesterday when Colonel Giovanni returned home as if he was a different person.
As soon as he got home, the brave and strong colonel commander couldn't stop crying loudly, and kept repeating to his wife and son: "I'm going to die, my dear, little Jack, I'm going to die." After crying, Colonel Giovanni began to order his wife to do some unbelievable things like a lunatic. Sometimes he asked her to get paper and pen for him to leave a suicide note, and sometimes he asked her to immediately pack up her belongings and prepare a suicide note. Leave Paris.
Less than half a minute after issuing these instructions, he would withdraw them on his own: "Forget it, what's the use of writing a suicide note now? There's no need to pack up things. If you can't escape, where can you escape?" There's no way to escape." After saying these crazy words, Colonel Giovanni started drinking, just like today. God knows how much wine he drank in the past two days. His wife only knew about the soju that was stored at home for the winter. He was drunk by Colonel Giovanni on the first day.
At this time, Colonel Giovanni, who was drunk and unconscious, was lying on the ground, covering his forehead and sobbing, shaking his head and saying: "There is no need to explain, dear, I don't want to involve you and the child."
"At least I have to know what happened to you, honey." The wife said worriedly.
"What happened..." Colonel Giovanni was still sobbing, but he still had a self-deprecating smile on his lips: "In the final analysis, I was too stupid. I was involved in a storm. I was like a driver. The fishermen in the small boat fell headlong into the terrifying waves where the Norwegian Kraken and the Kraken were fighting." The wife obviously had no feelings for these metaphors. She shook her head, knelt down and sighed: "Stop talking nonsense, my dear. , let's go get something to eat..." Just as his wife was about to help Colonel Giovanni get up, he heard two knocks on the door suddenly coming from downstairs.
The wife was still stunned, wondering who would come to visit at this point. But Colonel Giovanni was extremely sensitive to the knock on the door. He sat up suddenly and said to himself angrily: "It must be the Duke of Aiguillon! He actually dared to send people to find me. This Damn it! I, I'm going to shoot that damn beast!" After saying that, Colonel Giovanni stood up unsteadily, rushed to the desk, opened the bottom drawer, and took out a well-maintained knife from it. silver plated pistol.
"Oh my god, Giovanni, don't be impulsive!" the wife stopped in shock: "Maybe he's not the same person last time, maybe... just a friend of yours in the army? After all, you haven't been to the army in the past two days. Here, it’s normal for them to be worried.”
"I don't have friends like that," Colonel Giovanni muttered, inserting his pistol into his belt and starting to look for bullets and gunpowder.
"Hey! Honey, listen, I'm going to open the door and see who is here, okay? Put the gun away and don't do anything stupid." After that, the wife hurried downstairs and came to the entrance. , carefully opened the door to a slight gap, and looked out through the gap.
Standing outside the door was an old man with gray hair on his temples. He was waiting politely six feet away from the door, standing elegantly and firmly.
The clothes on his body are also quite decent. The black wool trench coat is solemn and elegant, and on his head is a well-kept high-top round hat. In his right hand, he is holding a peach pine cane with a gold end, which seems to be customized. shape.
In my wife's impression, with such an elegant and dignified temperament and dress, she is almost like the personal butler of a certain Duke.
Seeing that the door was opened a small crack, the old man outside the door took off his hat slowly, bowed slightly with the support of his cane, and greeted: "Good night, madam, is Colonel Giovanni at home?" The wife hesitated. He licked his lower lips and asked warily: "Colonel... he is at home, but it may not be convenient to receive visitors at this time. Can you leave your name and contact address?"
"No, madam, please tell the colonel that I am from No. 10, Champs Elysées, and I hope to meet him."
"Champs Elysées...? Okay, I'll go ask him. Sorry, please wait here for a moment." The wife closed the door in confusion, wondering where No. 10 Champs Elysées was.
She returned to the living room, only to find that the drunken Colonel Giovanni had rushed down with a pistol raised, shouting: "Is it the bastard that day? Is he outside the door?!"
"No, it's not! Giovanni, put down the gun!" His wife quickly tried to dissuade him: "I don't know who he is, I just said he came to see you, but he looks like a gentleman." Colonel Giovanni was stunned. After a moment, like a deflated rubber ball, he sighed and put the pistol back into his belt, walked upstairs while waving his hands and saying: "Let him go away, I don't want to see anyone."
"By the way, he said he was from No. 10 Champs Elysées," his wife reminded.
"Hmph, I haven't seen him even if he comes from the Palace of Versailles...wait?" Halfway through his words, Colonel Giovanni suddenly froze on the spot. He suddenly turned his head to look at his wife, and his eyes that were numbed by alcohol instantly changed. It became clear: "You mean No. 10, Champs Elysées?! That's... His Majesty Bonaparte's residence... His Majesty Bonaparte's people?!" Before his wife could react, Giovanni The colonel immediately rushed down the stairs. He didn't even have time to change his clothes. He ran to the door in his pajamas and opened the door.
The old man outside the door looked at Colonel Giovanni's pajamas and the pistol stuck in his waist with some surprise, and couldn't help but greet him: "Hello, Colonel... I'm sorry, did I disturb your rest?" "Colonel Giovanni swallowed hard. He recognized that this old man was the butler of His Excellency Bonaparte's mansion. He had met this old butler when he broke into the Corsican Embassy: "No, No, sir, come in quickly." At this time, even the drunken Colonel Giovanni knew very well that since His Excellency Bonaparte sent someone to see him, it meant that he still had a chance of survival.
Otherwise, the person who knocked on his door would not be the old housekeeper, but the officials and executioners of the Paris High Court.
Thinking of this, he quickly and enthusiastically invited the old housekeeper into his home, as respectfully as if he were serving a king.
The two of them sat face to face on a sofa next to the fireplace in the living room, and the wife thoughtfully brought scalding hot tea and placed it on the coffee table in front of them.
There was a blazing fire in the fireplace, stretching the shadows of the two people on the floor. The living room was very quiet, and the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of firewood.
"Sir, are you here under the entrustment of His Excellency Bonaparte?" After pondering for a moment, Colonel Giovanni asked uneasily: "I'm really sorry... I didn't mean to offend His Excellency Bonaparte. , But the matter has come to this, if that gentleman wants to punish me, I can only accept it willingly."
"Don't be so nervous, Colonel. Your Excellency Bonaparte is kind and has not punished you." The old butler slowly picked up the cup and saucer and took a sip of hot tea. Before Colonel Giovanni could be happy, he Then he said: "But... you led people to destroy your property and injured your employees. These are all conclusive facts. Therefore, Your Excellency Bonaparte hopes that you can do something for him to make up for these things." Loss. Monsignor Bonaparte has promised that after the event is completed, you will no longer owe him anything."
"Doing something? Just ask, I swear, as long as it is within my power, I will go through fire and water for Monsignor Bonaparte!" Before he knew what to do, Colonel Giovanni could not sit still, and he patted his chest repeatedly. Make a pledge of assurance.
"Very good." The old butler glanced at the colonel flatly, nodded, took out two envelopes from his arms, and placed them solemnly on the coffee table: "If you are enlightened, please open the envelope on the left. That is Bonaparte. Only you and your Excellency know the content of what Your Excellency wants you to do." Colonel Giovanni knew that he had no other choice, so he had no choice but to pick up the envelope on the left and open it.
Inside was a letter written by Lawrence. The letter contained only five lines. Colonel Giovanni read it by the firelight of the fireplace.
However, as he read further, the colonel's eyes grew wider, until by the time he had read the entire letter, Colonel Giovanni was too shocked to say anything.
After a long while, he raised his head and stared at the old housekeeper, and said with great embarrassment: "This... this, how is it possible that His Excellency Bonaparte wants to do such a thing?! And... isn't this... Will I also bring about the disaster of death! How could His Majesty the King spare me?!" The old housekeeper shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Please don't mention the content of the letter to me. I don't know, and I don't want to know. What does Lord Napa ask you to do? Now, if you have memorized the contents of the letter, please throw it into the furnace." Colonel Giovanni was stunned for a moment, and could only bite his lip, lowered his head and scanned the contents of the letter several times again , these five lines of text were quickly engraved in my mind, and then I threw the letter into the fireplace nearby.
Staring blankly at the letter being reduced to ashes in the roaring flames, Colonel Giovanni held his forehead and said dejectedly: "So Your Excellency Bonaparte still didn't leave a way for me to survive...?"
"Ahem..." The old butler looked at the depressed colonel, gently pushed the second envelope in front of him, and said: "No, this is your way out, colonel." Colonel Giovanni looked at this obvious It was a much thicker envelope, but I opened it after hesitation.
Three things were stuffed inside: a ticket from the United Shipping Company bound for Ajaccio, Corsica; and an identification card bearing the official seal of the Corsican government in the name of Grus Gu. Deman, a common and typical Corsican name; the last is an bearer deposit slip from the Marseille Industrial Bank, with a face value of fifty thousand livres.
"This is..." Colonel Giovanni looked at the thing in his hand and couldn't help but froze.
"Colonel, after completing your mission, His Excellency Bonaparte will buy you enough time. You will immediately leave Paris with your family and go to Ajaccio, Corsica." The old butler pointed to the three documents in turn and explained. Said: "After arriving in Ajaccio, you will be Grus Goodman. No matter how the king punishes you, all the crimes of Colonel Giovanni will have nothing to do with you. In the end, these fifty thousand livres should be enough." You will spend the rest of your wealthy and stable life in Corsica." Colonel Giovanni listened silently, lying limply on the sofa, his eyes unfocused, unable to say anything for a long time.
"I know that such a decision is difficult, Colonel, to give up all your current status and go to a foreign country far away." The old butler sighed, his voice was very gentle: "But since you intervened in the struggles between those big shots, From the beginning, this ending was doomed.”
"Yeah..." Colonel Giovanni smiled bitterly, and finally accepted his fate calmly: "I am just a grain of sand in the storm. Wherever the wind takes me, I have to go. Please tell me His Excellency Bonaparte...or His Excellency the Prime Minister, I, Gross Goodman, will not let him down."
