Chapter 990: Chapter 54: Absurd Assassination Plot_2
Mr. Dumas responded with a smile and led through the crowded crowd. He originally wanted to introduce to a few actresses, but I really felt embarrassed, so I politely declined, citing exhaustion today.”
Heine, upon hearing Andersen’s description, chuckled and teased: “Hans, it’s not that you don’t want to et actresses; you just didn’t et the one you fancy the most. Let guess, among the actresses in Paris, which one do you fancy the most… hmm… Ida Ferrier? Mary Dovar? Or Juliette Drouet?”
Andersen quickly waved his hand and said: “Mr. Heine, you must be joking, whether I fancy them or not doesn’t change the fact that they are the top actresses in Paris right now.”
Heine winked at Andersen and said: “Hans, Mr. Dumas took you touring theaters for half a day, yet you haven’t learned a bit of his flair. Do you know what Alexander said the first ti he t Miss Ida Ferrier?”
“What did he say?”
Heine imitated Great Dumas’s accent, one hand pinching his scarf, the other slightly raised: “You may believe that daffodils are white, that snow is white, that albatrosses are white. Ah, no! There is only one thing in the world that is white, and that is Miss Ida Ferrier’s hand.”
Just as Heine finished this sentence, he felt sothing pressing on his shoulder.
“Heinrich, what are you saying to our friend here?”
Heine turned and saw that it was a smiling Great Dumas and their great patron, Sir Arthur Hastings.
Great Dumas did not understand German, so naturally he couldn’t understand what Heine and Andersen had just discussed in German.
However, as the Second-class Secretary at the British Embassy to the Kingdom of Hanover, Arthur, who had learned a smattering of German, caught about seventy to eighty percent of it.
Nonetheless, even though Arthur understood, he didn’t say anything, because he wanted to see if Heine would talk about him behind his back.
There was no help for it, for this German Jew’s mouth could be quite infuriating sotis.
Seeing his two friends arrive, Heine quickly stood up to introduce Andersen: “Mr. Dumas you’ve already t before, so let introduce this gentleman. The noble London grand pianist, Michael Faraday’s assistant, a forr senior officer of the Royal Greater London Police Departnt, whose hobby is running a gossip column on the side—Sir Arthur Hastings. By the way, Arthur, did your ‘Hastings Case Files’ get a German edition? If so, can you gift Hans a copy?”
Arthur removed his hat and coat, handing them to the attendant beside him, and shook hands amicably with Andersen: “Very pleased to et you, Mr. Andersen. I grew up reading your books; could you give an autograph later?”
Andersen was rendered extrely embarrassed by Arthur’s words, as he thought Arthur was mocking him: “Sir, I am but a small-town writer from Denmark.”
Great Dumas put his arm around Andersen’s shoulder and they sat down: “Hans, don’t take his words to heart, Arthur likes to joke around. Ever since he took a bullet under the Tower of London, he’s grown an extra two bits of mischief. But he’s not always so bad; at least when it cos to settling writing fees, those ‘Brits’ keep their promises.”
Arthur sat down, not directly diving into the main topic but instead pointing out the window at the layers of scaffolding and the busy workers on the square: “Do you know what they’re doing there?”
“That?” Heine asked: “Haven’t you read the newspapers? The French Governnt plans to bring Napoleon’s remains back from overseas, along with fully acknowledging Napoleon’s achievents. The scaffolding at Place Vendô is being set up to erect the Napoleon Monunt; they’re trying to have it completed by the July Festival this year, so they’re rushing the schedule.”
“Building a monunt for Napoleon?” Arthur lit his pipe: “Louis Philippe is really pulling out all the stops to please the public; the French should be happy about this, right?”
Heine scoffed at this: “Not necessarily. Hans, do you rember that old lady we ran into under the scaffolding earlier?”
“Old lady?” Arthur turned his gaze to Andersen: “Was there sothing different about her?”
Andersen sighed: “Heine and I were gazing at the monunt near the scaffolding at the ti, perhaps the old lady saw that Heine and I were foreigners, so she approached us and laughed maniacally: ‘Today they erect the monunt here, tomorrow they’ll topple it over. Hahaha! I know the French.'”
Great Dumas was originally ordering food, but he didn’t refute this upon hearing it: “In a sense, she’s right. I guarantee, on the day of the July Festival, when Napoleon’s monunt is unveiled, there will definitely be part of the crowd shouting ‘Long live’, while another part will be shouting ‘Down with him’, this has basically beco a traditional part of Paris.”
Arthur, hearing this, recalled the Royalist assassin from that evening.
He quietly raised his glass and asked: “The night you and Mr. Victor escorted the assassin to the Great Paris Police Hall, did they confess?”
Great Dumas closed the nu, rubbing his temples as he recalled: “I heard from Mr. Victor that, at first, the guy didn’t admit his cris, but he didn’t hold out for long; by the next morning, he confessed everything. He said he was under orders from the Royalists to attack the Kaidao Sai Mansion. Based on his testimony, the Great Paris Police Hall raided two Royalist hideouts and captured over a dozen of his accomplices.
Initially, the Great Paris Police Hall thought this was all there was to it, but later the Austrian envoy provided information to the police departnt, suggesting that the assassination was linked to ‘Young Italy.’ It seems that Austrian Pri Minister tternich was quite gloating over Louis Philippe’s assassination attempt because he had previously warned the French Governnt not to harbor exiled Italians, but Louis Philippe disregarded his words.
Mr. Victor said that the Austrian envoy’s tone almost infuriated the Paris Police Chief, Jusco. So, Jusco held overnight interrogations of the newly arrested Royalist assassins, and it turned out, the Great Paris Police Hall discovered that these Royalists were indeed acting together with ‘Young Italy.’
Arthur quietly sipped his drink.
Royalists?
Young Italy?
How did he not know about this?
The efficiency of the Great Paris Police Hall left this retired senior officer from Scotland Yard in awe; Arthur never expected that the Paris police could investigate to such an extent.
Clearly, they hadn’t even caught a hair of the real assassin, yet they could deduce a cross-national assassination case based on a false assassin’s confession.
Arthur asked: “Alexander, didn’t you know Mazzini of Young Italy? Could it be that he and his underlings are really involved in this incident?”
Great Dumas shrugged: “Who knows? I’ve only t Mazzini once. But Young Italy’s goal is to overthrow the autocratic rule of the Papal States, so why they would be mingling with the French Royalists is beyond .”
Heine, hearing this, seed to recall sothing, he suddenly realized and clapped his hands: “Could it be that Young Italy received sponsorship from the Two Sicilies Kingdom? The Royal Family of the Two Sicilies Kingdom is also a branch of the Bourbons, so from this angle, mixing with the Orthodox Party doesn’t seem so surprising.”
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