Descending On France 1780
Chapter 63 - 63 059 Volcano

63: 059 Volcano 63: 059 Volcano Christina interpreted Anning’s speechless expression as being shocked by the Queen’s remarks.

She said anxiously, “I’ve been trying to make the Queen understand the state the people are in, but she seems incapable of understanding.”

Anning: “Of course she can’t understand.

She was born into one of Europe’s most prominent royal families, then married into another of Europe’s prominent royal families; her perception is limited by her birth.

“She’s not like you, who has encountered many commoners in the Royal Palace, and you know what the life of a commoner is like.

“You’ve even been on the battlefield!

Your experience is far beyond that Austrian Woman.”

Christina: “But the Queen is more beautiful than I am.

She’s much older than me but looks so young.”

Anning: “The Habsburg skin is indeed not bad.”

Anning had once attended a royal ball and seen Queen Mary there.

All that can be said is that Louis XVI was actually impotent in the face of Mary’s prime beauty; Locksmith surely underperformed.

Perhaps it was also because the Queen’s body odor was so strong that it killed the Locksmith’s interest…

maybe?

Christina anxiously asked, “You went to Louis XV Square today, didn’t you?

How was it, what’s the situation?”

Anning: “Very good.”

Paris is like a volcano that has reached its limit; to Anning, of course, that’s very good.

He worries that if the revolution doesn’t happen, his familiarization would have been for nothing.

Christina looked at Anning: “What do you mean ‘very good’?

In what way is it good?”

Anning: “Good in every way.”

He didn’t want Christina to continue questioning, so he changed the subject: “You’ve been promoted to Captain, huh?

The Captain’s uniform is really beautiful.”

Christina: “Oh, this?

This was specially designed by the Queen’s tailor, a newly made outfit.

The Queen told him he needed to combine the valor of a soldier with the charm of a maiden, and then he successfully accomplished it.”

Then Christina sighed, “This new military outfit cost a lot of money, even though the Imperial Palace’s expenditures are already so tight, Her Majesty the Queen and such wasteful spending…”

Anning: “She’s the Deficit Queen, how can one expect her not to waste money?”

Christina: “Her Majesty the Queen has been in a good mood recently.

It seems like she thinks that once the Third Estate is convened, she can smoothly raise taxes and have more money to spend.

She has no idea what the public opinion in Paris is, nor does she know what the gentlemen of the Third Class are plotting.”

Anning: “Does she really not know what the public opinion is saying?

Did nobody tell her at the balls and salons?”

Christina: “They probably did, but the Queen is very stubborn.

She only listens to what she likes to hear; the rest she treats as if it were a breeze passing by her ears.”

Anning was speechless and thought that Louis XVI was unlucky to have such a Queen.

Apart from a good skin, she’s nearly useless in every other respect.

At this moment, the Duke of Orleans entered the dining room and upon seeing the state of Anning and Christina, he joked, “Should I leave first and come back in after you two finish whispering?”

Anning then realized that after hugging Christina just now, he hadn’t let go of her, and had maintained his arms around her while they chatted.

He hurriedly released his hands.

Because Christina had already joined the military, theoretically she could no longer be used for aristocratic marriage alliances—in the aristocratic society of this time and space, sending daughters to the military or the monastery were both considered grounds for eliminating them from the list of marriage candidates.

But soldiers can still marry, and often these women in the military end up becoming the wives of some officer.

Anning was exactly one of those officers.

So, the Duke probably had that kind of thought in mind.

Christina turned to greet her father, and Anning hurriedly paid his respects to the Duke as well.

Duke: “I heard from Christina that you were at the Louis XV Square this afternoon?

How did it go?”

Anning: “The execution turned into an oath-taking assembly for the Third Estate.

Led by the condemned, everyone chanted long live the Third Estate.”

The Duke nodded: “To tell the truth, I’ve already regretted it.

I should have stood for election on the side of the Third Estate instead of as a noble.

I’ve heard that Mirabeau has already done so.”

Anning laughed: “Though Mirabeau holds the title of Earl, no one sees this drunkard as an Earl.”

Actually, as a noble, Mirabeau was already bankrupt, and the little noble stipend he got from the appointment office couldn’t support his current expenditures.

Mirabeau’s life in Paris almost entirely depended on writing articles for the Duke of Orleans in front of him and acting as a tool for public opinion to sustain himself, which made him a working man; standing for election as part of the Third Estate was absolutely no problem.

The Duke continued: “The petition of the Second Estate has been almost completed.

We have reached a consensus on the formulation of the constitution, but the motion proposed by Marquis Lafayette and me to reform the voting system of the Estates-General was rejected by everyone.

The petition still demands to vote according to the method from 175 years ago, where each Estate gets one vote.”

Anning, who had the foreknowledge of the future, already knew this was going to happen.

But he still acted extremely surprised: “What?

That means there are now two classes that do not support voting by headcount.”

The Duke shook his head: “I’ve observed that in Paris, the nobles almost all support one vote per representative, but there are nearly two hundred minor nobles from the countryside in the Second Estate, and they all demand to maintain tradition, we can’t overrule them.

“How ironic, they voted one person one vote to overturn the proposition supporting the whole assembly voting one person one vote.”

Anning thought to himself that this was normal, as the minor country nobles were both poor and reactionary; they would form the core force of the Royalist insurrection in the future.

This was merely the first manifestation of their reactionary nature.

Duke: “I heard that the First Estate’s petition has also come out.

The clergy mainly support the constitution to limit the royal power, it seems we and the clergy have already reached a consensus on the issue of formulating the constitution.

What’s the situation with the Third Estate’s petition now?”

Anning: “It’s still under discussion.

After all, there are more than five hundred representatives of the Third Estate, and it’s not easy to reach a unanimous opinion.

Moreover… some representatives haven’t even arrived in Paris yet.”

The Duke was shocked: “They haven’t arrived in Paris yet?”

“Yes, they might have been delayed by some issues…”

The Duke curled his lip, and just then the butler came in to report: “Dinner is ready, my lord.

It would not be good if it gets cold.”

The Duke waved his hand: “Alright, let’s eat and continue our discussion while we do.”

**

A few days later, in the afternoon, Anning was in the Brittany Club discussing the Third Estate representatives’ petition with everyone when suddenly the door of the club was knocked open.

A person in an old green coat entered the club.

Dan Dong laughed as soon as he saw the person: “Dammit, he’s still wearing that green coat.”

Maximilien Robespierre had finally wrapped up the case that had long delayed him in his hometown and arrived in Paris.