Descending On France 1780
Chapter 59 - 59 055 The Decline of Royal Power

59: 055 The Decline of Royal Power 59: 055 The Decline of Royal Power Anning was chatting with his friends when a tall, horse-faced gentleman suddenly came over to talk to them: “Gentlemen, how are things today?”

Upon seeing the newcomer, Anning recognized him as Ba Yi, the current Mayor of Paris.

His surname reminded Anning of Ba Yi from Avanti.

But unlike the plump Ba Yi in Avanti, this one was tall and thin, with a long face.

Ba Yi later became a core member of the Pei Yang faction, but now he was at the Brittany Club.

Clubs during the French Revolution Era were quite different from the political parties of later times; they were really just places for people to chat and play bridge.

Members of the Pei Yang faction and even the Royalist Party could freely mingle with the Jacobin faction in the same room.

Dan Dong spoke up: “Marat didn’t get elected because he was too ugly, so he is planning to use his savings to start a newspaper dedicated to monitoring the work of those of us who were elected.

How about you, Mr.

Ba Yi?

You must have been elected, right?”

Since Ba Yi was the Mayor of Paris, the selection of representatives was mainly orchestrated by the municipal administration of Paris; it would be difficult for him not to be elected.

Ba Yi responded, “Of course I was elected, so now I can be in Parliament…”

Anning interrupted Ba Yi, asking a crucial question: “Which class of representative did you get elected as?”

Ba Yi replied, “Do you even need to ask?

Obviously, the Third Class.”

“But you are a noble.”

In this Third Estate assembly, many nobles who were originally supposed to join the Second Class instead campaigned to represent the Third Class; these were mostly the nouveau riche who had turned into capitalists.

As the situation evolved, many individuals from the First and Second Class also began to join the Constitutional Assembly largely composed of the Third Class.

Ba Yi stated, “I’m just a minor noble in name only.

Not just me, even Lafayette, the Marquis, was elected as a representative of the Third Class.

I have a premonition that this Third Estate will not grant His Majesty his wishes.”

Marat added, “Andy was just saying that this Third Estate aims to transform France into a constitutional monarchy, like the UK.”

“Is that so?” Another person joined the conversation.

Lafayette, dressed in his uniform, approached Ba Yi.

The 32-year-old “American Founder” was already balding, and his wig could not hide his shiny forehead.

Anning asked, “Mr.

Lafayette, aren’t you planning to promote a constitution?

I thought that aside from the priests of the First Class, everyone might be considering starting a constitution.”

Lafayette responded, “Don’t exclude the priests.

In fact, many of them also feel that the system where all power belongs to the King is outdated.”

“Are you referring to Talleyrand and Monsieur Sais?” Marat inquired.

Lafayette added, “Not just them, many people think this way.

Anyway, this Parliament…”

While Lafayette spoke, Anning saw a club waiter pushing a cart covered with a cloth toward the club’s main entrance.

Out of curiosity, Anning apologized and temporarily left his friends to see what the waiters were doing.

After exiting the club’s main door, he noticed dozens of beggars—not only beggars but also many ordinary civilians mixed among them—gathered outside the club’s door.

A waiter was shooing away a hunchbacked lady: “Go away!

These breads are for the beggars, are you a beggar?”

The lady pleaded tearfully, “Please sir, we have children at home!

Bread is too expensive, even with hard work we can’t earn enough money, we’ve been surviving on wild vegetable soup for days!

Without some bread, I won’t even have the strength to work!”

The waiter was about to drive her away, but Anning stepped forward and said, “Give it to her.

In my view, those who work hard deserve more respect than those who lie flat and wait for aid!”

The waiter looked embarrassed: “This…

the head of the monastery told us to only help the beggars…”

Anning retorted, “Open your eyes and see, the price of bread has risen to 50 sous each, an ordinary worker can’t earn even half a loaf in one day.

The difference between them and beggars is, they are still working.

If the times weren’t bad, who would give up their dignity to beg?”

The waiter hesitated, then handed a moldy piece of bread to the woman.

The woman devoured the bread voraciously, as if it wasn’t mold-ridden but a delicacy.

Anning said, “Give her another one, to take home for her children.”

The waiter did as told.

The woman, with tears streaming down her face, repeatedly expressed her gratitude: “Thank you, kind sir!

May God bless you!”

Anning thought to himself, I’m Chinese so technically I’m not under God’s jurisdiction.

Then he stood at the door, watching as the waiters distributed bread equally to all the beggars—and civilians—gathered at the monastery’s door, before returning satisfied to his friends.

Dan Dong asked, “Where did you go?”

“Just watching the waiter give out alms,” Anning briefly described the scene outside.

Everyone fell silent.

Suddenly, Marat slammed the table: “That’s the title of my first article!

People are still starving, while our King is thinking about raising taxes to buy more skirts for his mistress!”

Lafayette reminded, “Marie is the Queen, not a mistress.

Actually, if King Louis had a mistress, many people would be relieved.”

Anning interjected, “He does have a mistress.”

Everyone looked at Anning in shock, and Lafayette frowned, “I’ve been frequenting the royal court balls for years and haven’t heard anything about it.”

Anning spread his hands: “I’m referring to those locks.”

Everyone burst into laughter, filling the air with joviality.

After they stopped laughing, Lafayette added, “Actually, it’s not just the locks.

Our Locksmith King is now obsessed with tinkering with execution devices, he’s come up with something that can swiftly chop off people’s heads…”

Anning was startled, “What, did King Louis XVI personally invent the guillotine in this world?

In the original timeline, it was darkly humorous enough that Louis XVI personally refined the guillotine, now is it dark humor to the extreme?”

Anning asked, “So what does His Majesty intend to do?

Use his invention to behead those who oppose him?”

Marat disdainfully said, “Pfft, I doubt he has the guts.”

Indeed, what courage could a locksmith have.

The group then resumed their ridiculing and derogatory comments about King Louis XVI.

If it were the era of Louis XIV, Anning and his friends would have been sent to the gallows long ago.

But now was the era of King Louis XVI, an era of declining royal power, and King Louis XVI, the Locksmith King, and his deficit-spending Queen undoubtedly accelerated the fall of royal authority.

The French no longer revered their King.

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