In the splendid main theater, as Lawrence and Duke Aiguillon entered, the attention of all the guests instantly focused on these two people.
Although almost none of the wealthy businessmen present had the pleasure of seeing the Duke of Aiguillon in person, the clothes and family crest on the Duke's body made these keen guests immediately aware of his distinguished status: "That Duke... red on a white background Inverted triangle coat of arms... Is he from the Richelieu family?"
"A Duke of the Richelieu family in his prime, you can't go wrong, he must be the Duke of Aiguillon."
"He actually came to this auction. His Excellency Bonaparte is really full of energy."
"Hiss...that's not right. Isn't His Excellency Bonaparte quite at odds with Duke Richelieu? As the heir to the family, Count Falcone was beaten into an eunuch by him. Why would Duke Aiguillon come to attend Bonaparte?" Lord Ba’s auction.”
"That's right... Could it be that the Duke of Aiguillon is here to deliberately cause trouble? But in that case, why would Monsieur Bonaparte let him enter..."
"I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out."...Groups of whispers instantly echoed throughout the Paris Comedy Theater. The guests carefully observed the uninvited guest, the Duke of Aiguillon, from his unkind and vicious words. Judging by his appearance, almost no one believed that the Duke was here to compliment Lawrence.
What made the guests even more curious and worried was how could His Excellency Bonaparte allow this sworn enemy to blatantly participate in his auction.
Lawrence, who was attracting the most attention, seemed not to have heard these comments. He took Duke Aiguillon directly to a seat near the front row and pointed him to an empty seat: "Please hurry up and take a seat, Your Excellency, the auction." The meeting will begin soon." The Duke of Aiguillon frowned and glanced at the sofa chair with great disgust. Regardless of the frightened expressions of the surrounding guests, he said in a cold voice: "Monsieur Bonaparte, you are humiliating me. Do you want me to sit with these moles that smell rancid?" In this pampered Duke's understanding, only those lowly citizens would sit in the theater seats, no matter which theater he entered in France Everyone should have their own box. Sitting with these untouchables is simply a shame and humiliation.
Several guests around heard this straightforward insult, but they dared not speak out in anger. They could only lower their heads timidly, for fear that the Duke would vent his anger on them.
Lawrence shrugged, pointed to the only box above the theater that was covered with a crimson curtain, and said, "I'm sorry, there are no more empty boxes. You just have to suffer a little."
"No more? Huh, here comes someone!" The Duke of Aiguillon curled his lips, waved to call one of his personal attendants, pointed to the box upstairs and ordered: "Tell them, the Duke of Aiguillon of the Richelieu family We need to borrow their box and let them pack their things and get out within a minute."
"Yes!" The attendant responded without hesitation. This was not the first time he had done this. But Lawrence had no intention of stopping him, he just crossed his hands on his chest and smiled as he watched the attendant climb up to the second floor with ease.
The Duke of Aiguillon looked at his subordinate with pride, watching him swaggeringly lift the curtain and burst into the box, just like a commanding tax official inspecting his tax area.
In his past experience, the middle class or small nobles in the box would quickly roll out humbly and respectfully invite themselves into the box. Some of the brighter ones would even take the opportunity to say a few words. As a flattery, it was their greatest honor to have the great Duke Aiguillon use their box.
The guests in the theater couldn't help but look at the arrogant attendant with complicated expressions, and they all sighed that he was indeed a distinguished Duke. Not everyone can have such privileges and power.
The Duke of Aiguillon couldn't help but have a proud smile on his lips as he listened to the guests' comments mixed with envy and fear.
However, in the next second, the smile on Duke Aiguillon's face completely froze. Less than twenty seconds after the attendant entered, he was pushed and beaten out by the people inside, without even leaving any sympathy.
And because the attendant was running away in such a hurry, his feet were unstable and he rolled all the way from the second floor to the first floor. After he got up, he was still swaying, like a drunkard who couldn't even tell the difference between east, west and north. Cleared.
Seeing the embarrassment of the attendant and the dumbfounded expression of Duke Aiguillon, I don't know which guest was the first to not hold back and couldn't help but laugh twice.
This joy soon spread to the entire theater. For a time, the whole theater was filled with a happy atmosphere. Those who didn't know it thought an improv comedy was being staged here: "Hahaha, I really didn't expect it to happen on the face of a duke." See that expression, have you seen it, how fast it changes, hahaha!"
"I really wish there was a painter here, it would be great if I could record that scene."
"But who is in the box upstairs? There will probably be no good consequences for offending the Duke of Aiguillon like this."
"Who knows, they must be the richest bankers. I don't know how they had the confidence to throw out Duke Aiguillon's attendants." Duke Aiguillon, who was treated as amusement, immediately felt a surge of anger in his heart. , he stepped forward, grabbed the attendant's ears and growled: "You loser! Didn't I ask you to tell me my name!" The severe pain in his ears immediately made the attendant grin, He could only respond without tears: "I... Your Majesty the Duke, I said, I will tell them when I go in, the Duke Aiguillon asked them to get out immediately, and then..."
"What are you talking about?!" Duke Aiguillon laughed angrily, let go of the attendant, and looked at the box upstairs with a ferocious face: "Okay, I really admire those people who dare to let me accept this great shame and humiliation. I think Did having a few silver coins in their pockets make them lose their minds, thinking that they can run rampant in France if they have money? I want to teach them a lesson." After that, the Duke of Aiguillon was ready to go upstairs in person to give him a good lesson. The wealthy businessmen in the box, who didn't know the heights of the world, learned a lot and made them kneel in front of their boots and cry for mercy.
"That's all, Your Excellency the Duke." Lawrence then took action to hold Duke Aiguillon's shoulders, shook his head and said, "You'd better sit calmly. As the organizer of this auction, I don't want to see anyone making trouble here. ." The Duke of Aiguillon suddenly exhaled a breath of evil, and shook off Lawrence's hand. Then, he looked at Lawrence, then glared fiercely at the box upstairs, and said fiercely: "I'm just going to give you some face. Laurence Bonaparte, well, after the auction is over, it won’t be too late to deal with those rebellious idiots.”… As the Duke of Aiguillon took his seat, the thick dark curtains on both sides of the theater were slowly pulled up, The crystal lights on the stage also light up simultaneously under the control of the mechanical ignition device.
The guests also focused their attention on the glamorous stage again, watching Lawrence walk out from behind the curtain again and stand solemnly in front of everyone.
"Good evening, kind-hearted gentlemen and ladies." Lawrence bowed slightly and said skillfully: "I am extremely honored to welcome you to the Paris Comedy tonight to participate in this event for our compatriots in need. Charity auction held; I am very happy to see that even in this cold winter, Paris has never lacked warm and beating hearts..." The Duke of Aiguillon, who was sitting at the table, was obviously aware of this hypocritical cliché. Feeling sick, he wished he could go up and expose the true face of this brat who was just trying to gain fame.
However, the Duke of Aiguillon's reason told him that he had a better way to turn this auction into a disaster for the Corsican boy.
After a burst of thunderous applause, Lawrence officially announced the start of the auction and signaled the theater assistant to bring the first lot to the stage.
Soon, a beautiful woman with a voluptuous figure walked up with a beautiful officer's sword held in red silk. Then she raised the sword high and placed it under the light so that the guests could clearly see it. Detail of a dagger with a gold sheath.
"This is the sword used by Lieutenant General Jacques Philippe during the Seven Years' War." Lawrence also explained in a loud voice: "According to the general himself, this long sword accompanied him on the Eastern Front for several years. During the military campaign, the general personally used this sword to slit the throats of twelve British guys; aside from its commemorative significance, the sword itself is also an extremely outstanding sword, made by the most outstanding swordsmith in Vienna. It is made by a master and has no shortcomings except that the solid gold scabbard is a bit heavy, but I think its powerful new owner will not care about this small flaw." The guests in the audience were immediately attracted. The look, I have to say, is an officer's sword from the former Austrian marshal and current French lieutenant general. This is undoubtedly an excellent collection and ornament for the men present, especially those young men with strong blood: "Jacques ·General Philip’s sword? It’s really nice, I kind of want to bid on it.”
"Well... the sword itself is worth a thousand livres, not to mention that it is the battle sword used by General Philip."
"It's worth almost five thousand livres. As long as it's lower than this, I will definitely buy it." The guests enthusiastically estimated the value of the lot and their own wallets, ready to bid for such a rare collection at any time.
After waiting for a moment, Lawrence announced: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, there is no starting price for General Philip's sword. Let's start bidding now." Just as Lawrence finished speaking, all the guests were still hesitating to bid. At that moment, a powerful but somewhat joking voice was heard throughout the theater: "I'll pay you a hundred livres."
"One hundred? It's better not to scream, who is this?"
"That's right, one hundred livres can't even buy a sword hilt."
"Wait... the person bidding seems to be...!" The guests subconsciously looked at the speaker, and were shocked to find that this was the Duke of Aiguillon who had just arrived at the auction.
The Duke of Aiguillon sat on his seat with his legs crossed, glared at Lawrence as if provoking, and then scanned the other guests in the theater with his frightening eyes.
The guests who were planning to bid just now were stunned for a moment. Go raise the price with Duke Aiguillon? The reputation of this Duke is not very good. If he is thought to be deliberately going against him... At this time, a visitor who didn't seem to understand the situation saw that no one accepted the price, so he casually said : "I'll pay five hundred..." However, he didn't finish his words.
The Duke of Aiguillon unabashedly turned his head and stared at the bidder, just like a wolf staring at a weak and fat rabbit.
Although the Duke hadn't said anything yet, his fierce eyes had already made it clear what he meant - anyone who dared to raise the price with him would have to be careful after walking out of the Paris Comedy.
The atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point. The slow bidder finally reacted and was so anxious that he was sweating all over his body. He shouted to Lawrence: "Sorry, sorry, Your Excellency Bonaparte! I haven't decided yet." !" Lawrence didn't say anything, just nodded slightly.
Upon seeing this, the guests became even more silent, for fear of making any noise that would offend the notorious Duke. Small businessmen like them could not withstand the revenge of a Duke of the Richelieu family.
For a moment, the Paris Comedy Theater was completely silent. People could only hear the whistling wind outside and their own heartbeats.
At this moment, in addition to fear and worry, the hearts of the guests were also filled with endless doubts: Why did Your Excellency Bonaparte bring this notorious Duke to the theater? Didn't His Excellency Bonaparte know that he would Ruined the entire auction?
"Fifty thousand livres!" At this moment, a melodious and loud bidding sound suddenly came from the second floor of the theater, instantly breaking the silence.
People looked at the box on the second floor covered with crimson curtains in shock. It was an attendant outside the box who shouted out the high price of fifty thousand livres on behalf of his master: "Fifty thousand? This sword has the most Is it worth five thousand?”
"Could it be that that person is really here for charity?"
"The key point is that he accepted the price offered by Duke Aiguillon. He is really brave."
"Who on earth dares to treat Duke Aiguillon with such contempt?"...
"This! Damn it!" Duke Aiguillon was stunned at first, and then punched the armrest angrily.
The Duke knew very well that the value of the sword was only a few thousand livres. He did not expect that the owner of the box would dare to accept his price, and even shouted out the worth of 50,000 livres. Provocative high price.
"How dare you... dare to make such a provocation to me... I really want to see how you are going to walk out of the Paris Comedy tonight." The Duke waved his sleeves, gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. I vowed to show this ignorant guy the power of the Richelieu family tonight.
Soon, after Lawrence symbolically confirmed twice that no one would raise the price, the bidding for the first lot came to an end.
What was brought to the stage next was a women's bracelet made of gold wire. It came from the collection of an earl and is a cultural relic with a history of hundreds of years.
Although the ladies on the court were all fascinated by this gorgeous jewelry, no one of them dared to speak out first this time. They all remained silent and stared closely at the Duke of Aiguillon in the front row.
Sure enough, as soon as Lawrence's introduction ended, Duke Aiguillon immediately quoted the same extremely low price as last time: one hundred livres.
The owner of the box on the second floor seemed to be in conflict with the Duke of Aiguillon, and still quoted an obviously inflated price of 50,000 livres.
This time, Duke Aiguillon said nothing more, but his purple face and clenched fists showed that the Duke's anger was still rising.
For those who were invited to the auction, this was definitely the most bizarre bidding event they had ever participated in.
Whenever a new competing item is brought to the stage, the Duke of Aiguillon will shout out a very low price, and the upstairs box will also shout out a very high price to directly win the lot. .
They, the guests, had no chance to intervene in the price increase, or in other words, they did not have the courage to increase the price.
This repetitive process lasted nearly twenty times before it came to an end. By this time, the auction has come to an end and is about to usher in its grand finale.
...
"Ladies and gentlemen, everyone must have known about the last treasure that will be on display in advance." Although the guests present had no sense of participation in the auction, Lawrence introduced it enthusiastically: "A tassel necklace inlaid with twenty-two diamonds. It is said that it took craftsmen three years to collect the materials. The entire necklace took seven years of polishing and processing before it appeared in the possession of Countess Du Barry. On the chest, I dare say that the brilliance of this necklace is enough to make it worthy of any princess." As this final competition item was carried to the stage in a crystal box, some tired guests were present. Only then did they cheer up again.
It can be said that most of the people present came here for this diamond necklace. After all, such treasures rarely come to the public, let alone appear at an auction.
For these shrewd profit-seeking businessmen, if they can buy this necklace at a suitable price, even if they lose everything, as long as they can find a buyer willing to take over, whether it is a princess in Austria or someone in Italy. Queen, this can make them a lot of money.
In front of this auction, even if the Duke of Aiguillon still bids, they don't care anymore. When naked interests are in front of them, these bourgeoisie can even regard the guillotine as nothing.
As for Duke Aiguillon, who was now numb with anger, his eyes were also fixed on the diamond necklace.
He knew how much that crazy woman Madame Du Barry cared about this necklace. If she couldn't bring this necklace back intact, she might become crazy again in the future.
This time, the Duke of Aiguillon was even willing to pay for the necklace. Anyway, in the end, Madame Du Barry would not hesitate to pay for the necklace again. After all, she only needed to get the money from the royal family. Just a few strokes on the financial accounts.
Moreover, in the Duke's original plan, he only had to lower the sales of the remaining items and deliberately default on the payment for one or two years after buying the necklace, which was enough to make Lawrence's attempt to gain fame through the auction fall short.
The Duke of Aiguillon took a deep breath, glanced at the box on the second floor unconsciously, and taunted in a low voice: "Idiot, you almost spent a million livres on the garbage in front. This Do you still want to compete with me for the necklace?" Lawrence on the stage also finished praising the necklace and officially announced the start of the bidding: "I will offer half a million livres!"
"Don't be embarrassed and conspicuous, I have 750,000!"
"Another fifty thousand, eight hundred thousand livres!"
"One million, one million livres!" In just a blink of an eye, the price of this diamond necklace was raised to one million livres, which was still two million livres away from its estimated value. There is still a certain distance.
The Duke of Aiguillon couldn't help but feel irritated when he heard the noisy bidding sound like a vegetable market. He shouted directly and reported his psychological threshold: "Two million livres!" With the sound of the Duke of Aiguillon, He shouted, and the theater immediately fell silent.
People were surprised that the Duke of Aiguillon actually joined the bidding this time, and they were also surprised that this was a duke who actually quoted a high price of two million livres at once.
Enjoying people's surprised and admiring gazes, Duke Aiguillon suddenly felt much better.
Although the plan to reduce the auction turnover failed, the Duke of Aiguillon felt that being able to bring the necklace back to Madame Du Barry was already a good gain.
In the view of the Duke of Aiguillon, as long as Louis XV has a grudge against Lawrence under Madame Du Barry's persuasion, it will still be of no use to the Corsican even if he gets the support of the people.
In the theater, as the Duke of Aiguillon reported two million livres, the voices of competing bids immediately disappeared without a trace.
Firstly, this is because Duke Aiguillon’s price is already very close to the true price of this diamond necklace. Secondly, it is also because continuing to increase the price may really offend the Duke. After all, this Duke is already bidding seriously. , which shows that he is also determined to get this necklace.
"So, two million livres, from the gentleman in the front row." Lawrence smiled and raised the gavel in his hand: "Two million livres once...two million livres twice... ." Duke Aiguillon smiled confidently, waiting for the gavel to make a crisp and pleasant sound when it hit the table.
It was at this moment that a loud price increase came from the box on the second floor: "Five million livres!" As soon as this voice came out, the entire theater seemed to be immersed in a state of shock. middle.
Five million livres? For this diamond necklace? The guests covered their mouths in shock and looked up at the box on the second floor. If it weren't for the determined expression of the attendant, people would have thought that a fool who didn't understand the auction was shouting and playing there.
"Are you kidding me?" Duke Aiguillon's face was filled with dullness. Even for him, the five million livres were a huge sum of money. No matter who was in the box, it was absolutely impossible for him to come up with five hundred livres. Wanlifu came to buy such a diamond necklace.
Before Lawrence could confirm, the Duke of Aiguillon stood up directly, pointed at the attendant outside the box who was bidding the price and scolded: "Ask your master! He really has five million livres to buy this piece." Necklace?!" The attendant glanced at the Duke of Aiguillon unhurriedly. He seemed not to be afraid of the Duke's reputation at all, but he still nodded, leaned into the box to confirm a few words, and then announced loudly: "Sorry, everyone, Your Excellency Bonaparte, our bid is not five million livres..." Duke Aiguillon breathed a long sigh of relief and cursed: "What an idiot, there is nothing wrong with making such a joke." The attendant Then he said: "...It's six million livres." As soon as he said this, not to mention the full house of guests, even Duke Aiguillon was speechless for a long time and couldn't say a word.
This was the first time they saw someone bidding against them at an auction. Could it be that the owner of that box really had too much money and no place to put it and needed to spread some of it into the slums of Paris?
But after all, who has the financial resources to spend 6 million livres to buy a necklace at once, let alone that he spent 1 million livres to take pictures of a bunch of second-rate collections.
Almost all the guests present were thinking about this question. There were not many people in Paris who could afford this amount of wealth. Who was the owner of that box?
And just as everyone was thinking hard, they heard a loud roar suddenly coming from in front of the seats.
"I understand, Laurence Bonaparte!" The astonished Duke Aiguillon suddenly came to his senses, his face filled with rage, and he pointed directly at Laurence's nose and shouted: " What kind of charity auction? This is just a show you directed and acted! You hypocrite!" The people sitting at the table were even more shocked. They didn't expect that this auction would be so twists and turns, and the Duke would actually He confronted Monsieur Bonaparte in person again.
Lawrence smiled without changing his expression and asked unhurriedly: "I don't understand what you are talking about, Your Excellency the Duke."
"Don't pretend to be stupid. I've already understood what you mean by donating all the sales to the citizens of Paris. I'm afraid you don't have that plan at all!" Duke Aiguillon sneered, as if he had seen through everything. Pointing to the box on the second floor, he said: "That box is actually yours. You deliberately directed and acted to inflate the transaction volume of this auction, so that the news could be released that you donated a huge amount to the poor. The money, and the so-called donating the diamond necklace for auction, is just a left hand and a right hand!" Listening to Duke Aiguillon's angry accusation, the faces of everyone present also became solemn.
After careful consideration, everyone discovered that Duke Aiguillon's words actually made some sense. There were only a handful of wealthy businessmen in Paris who could spend millions of livres to participate in such a charity auction. .
And those people don't seem to have anything to do with Mr. Bonaparte. Even Mr. Montmartre, who is closest to Lawrence, his assets are not enough for him to spend such a huge sum of money on a charity auction. At the meeting.
Thinking about it this way, it is possible that the guests in that box were not the guests invited to the auction at all, but Lawrence himself. Only in this way can we explain why the owner of the box did not give Duke Aiguillon any dignity at all.
After clarifying this set of logic, the guests looked at Lawrence with a slightly more complicated look. They were already 50% sure that this auction was a complete show.
Lawrence, who was at the center of the storm of remarks, still looked calm and asked with a smile: "Your Excellency, I really don't know what gave you that unrealistic idea."
"Humph, unrealistic? It couldn't be easier to verify my statement." The Duke of Aiguillon looked like he was sure of victory. He stood directly on the stage confidently and confronted Lawrence face to face: "Please put the two Please come out, owner of the box on the first floor. Someone who has the financial resources to spend six million livres to buy a diamond necklace, I don’t think I’ve even heard of his name.” Lawrence shook his head secretly, thinking about this person. The Duke of Guillon is worthy of being the leader of the Richelieu faction. He has already figured out his intentions in such a short period of time.
However, the limit of what he could figure out was this. Lawrence spread his hands and explained helplessly: "I'm sorry, Your Excellency, the owner of the box is not willing to show up today."
"Hahahahaha what am I talking about? You don't dare to let the people inside show up at all. In this case, I will help you!" Upon hearing these words that were exactly what he wanted, Duke Aiguillon immediately laughed heartily. At this time, he was already 99% sure that Lawrence was faking it. Then his face darkened and he shouted loudly: "Here comes someone!" As the Duke of Aiguillon's order was issued, a dozen guards were waiting outside the door. He quickly rushed into the theater and waited respectfully for the Duke's order.
"Go and throw out all the people in the box on the second floor! Do you hear me? Throw them away!" The Duke of Aiguillon obviously had not forgotten the humiliation suffered by his attendants just now, and specifically ordered: "A group of clowns who are pretending to be magic, look at How can I deal with you today?"
"I advise you not to be so impulsive. The owner of the box will be very unhappy." Lawrence sighed, and watched with hundreds of guests as the dozen or so Duke's personal guards with swords stormed upstairs in a menacing manner. .
The smile on the Duke of Aiguillon's face simply couldn't stop. He walked up to Lawrence, patted Lawrence's cheek contemptuously, and said sarcastically: "Do you still want to pretend to the end at this time? Your Excellency Bonaparte, little Lawrence ? Huh? Okay, I’ll let you give up, and the Guards will obey the order! Get all the bastard things in the box and bring them to the stage for everyone to see!"
"Yes!" More than a dozen personal guards responded loudly, and then filed into the spacious box.
However, in less than half a minute, these dozen bodyguards, who were as strong as cattle, rolled out of the box one after another. Everyone's face was filled with extreme fear and shock, as if they were at noon. It's as frightening as encountering a ghost on the street.
The Duke of Aiguillon was stunned for a moment, and hundreds of guests were also stunned for a moment. They didn't understand why these dozen sword soldiers retreated from the box in such horror.
Before the Duke of Aiguillon could ask the question, the owner of the box finally spoke for the first time tonight. His voice was a little childish, but it was full of anger at the moment: "Emmanuel Armand, do you want to do something to me?" Do you want to do it?" Duke Aiguillon's mind went blank. This voice seemed familiar, as if he had heard it often in a place filled with the aroma of champagne and cologne, accompanied by dazzling fireworks, singing and dancing.
By the way, the Duke of Aiguillon remembered that he often heard this sound in Versailles. As for the owner of the voice, it was... Under the spotlight, a white and slightly thick arm opened the crimson curtain of the box on the second floor, and a very young couple walked out.
Everyone couldn't help but open their mouths. Few of them knew this couple, but the blue-and-gold fleur-de-lis emblem on their shawls could explain everything.
Duke Aiguillon staggered back two steps and almost fell to the ground. The wanton smile on his face disappeared without a trace in an instant, replaced by a bloodless paleness.
After a long while, the Duke struggled to squeeze out a sentence through his teeth: "Please forgive me, Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness the Crown Princess..."
