Chapter 231: Arthur, you have to live to the end (K4)

Chapter 230: Arthur, You’ll Live to Fight Another Day (4K4)

In the recreation room of Apsley House, London 1, there were two new players at the card table.

Dumas glanced at his hand, a small hand that made his head practically spin as he looked at it.

Disraeli had just settled his manuscript fee yesterday, and in just a moment’s time, he had already lost all of it at the card table.

And compared with the agitation of Dumas, sitting across from him calmly holding a pipe Arthur seems much more calm, although his cards are also not big, but in the hands of a king of pressure, and the most important thing is that he has a joker devil, as long as he does not want to lose, then no one can win money from his hands.

While sitting beside Arthur was the humming Talleyrand and the belated Duke of Wellington, these two old gentlemen were not so much playing cards as talking trash to each other.

The Duke of Wellington’s two eyes were staring at Talleyrand’s hand: ”My old brother, you’ve come here with great difficulty, do you want to take a look at my eight marshal’s staffs? The marshal’s staff in England was given to me by Joseph Bonaparte during the Peninsular War, as for the remaining seven, they were given to me by Napoleon at Waterloo.”

The Duke of Wellington had just finished saying this, and Talleyrand had not yet moved, but Dumas, who was cupping a handful of cards, was the first to red-warm.

He was about to speak, but saw Talleyrand smile and raised his hand to pat his thigh, then threw out a queen to suppress the duke’s jack.

Talleyrand spoke, ”Your Excellency the Duke, I have always thought that this matter of fighting a war is too serious, which is why it must be left to a soldier like you. But while the defeat of the war is certainly something I mourn, it is fortunate that after you, there will be no one else in Britain who can seize the eight marshal’s staffs from France. If we had known that knocking you down would be as easy as finding a lover in Paris, there would have been no need for any Napoleon, and we should have taken a random mob from London back to be king in the first place.”

Duke of Wellington raised an eyebrow: “your mouth is still like this, when you heard that Paul I of Russia died of a stroke, you just preferred to come up with a witty remark in front of the Russian ambassador: I think you should really think of a new reason for your monarch’s death in the future, it’s too boring to have a stroke all the time. It was because of this witty remark that the Russians held a grudge against you for a long time, wasn’t it?”

Talleyrand laughed out loud, “You lived in Paris for a while, then you should understand that the French can throw their heads over a witticism. The reason I was able to get from a cripple with no inheritance to my current position is because of my ability to make wisecracks. If you don’t let me make jokes then you might as well kill me.

As for the Russians, I’m just telling the truth to their faces. And look, didn’t Alexander I change the cause of death when he died two years ago? A middle-aged Tsar in his prime, dying in a sanatorium from a medical condition, which sounds a lot more pleasant than a stroke. It shows that the Russians are still quite good at accepting other people’s opinions.”

As soon as Talleyrand finished this paragraph, not only the Duke of Wellington, but even the many gentlemen who were watching them play cards on the sidelines laughed out loud.

Talleyrand threw out a card and raised his head at Arthur: “Young man, it’s your turn, don’t get distracted while playing cards with me! Otherwise you will lose all your salary this month in my hand.”

Hearing this, Arthur just smiled and pressed the poker in his hand onto the table one by one, “Your Excellency, it seems that I don’t need to live on my salary this month.”

“Huh?”

Talleyrand looked at the poker on the table, until he counted the cards, then he helplessly knocked on the table, and muttered at the attendant beside him, “Today’s luck is really bad, it’s just a small sum of money. Mollet, cough up the money, ten pounds, oh yes, and don’t forget to put that on the embassy’s books.”

Hearing this, the entourage leaned over and asked mildly, “Got it, still hanging on to travel expenses like before?”

Talleyrand sipped a mouthful of red wine, “This month’s travel expenses are a bit much, it’s better to change the name, hmmm …… what do you think of the banquet expenses?”

The attendant held the scribe in one hand and the quill in the other, “Isn’t ten pounds a bit low for the cost of a banquet?”

“Fair enough.” Talleyrand shook his glass of red wine and pondered, “You can just put down one hundred and twenty pounds, ten pounds to Mr. Hastings, one hundred pounds to save for tomorrow night when we play another game, and the remaining ten pounds as your touch-up fee.”

When Dumas heard this, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath, and the fat Frenchman muttered, “Still, you guys make hard money!”

Talleyrand drew his handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his mouth as he shook his head, “Alexander, don’t compare yourself to me, I can play like this because I’m Talleyrand. The guys know that I like money, and they know that I like to get my own money, and if I don’t do that, they’re going to start wondering if I’m taking money from other countries again. Compared to the ten million francs Metternich sent me, and the million gold pounds I got from the German side, a hundred pounds is still too cheap a price.”

Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington also couldn’t help but snicker, “But weren’t most of the military intelligence that Metternich spent ten million francs to buy from you in the first place false?”

Talleyrand shrugged his shoulders, “I didn’t tell him about fidelity either! I was only responsible for giving him information, and I’m not an expert in screening.”

Duke Wellington laughed out loud when he heard this, and he rushed to Arthur, “Do you now think that our government in Britain is actually quite incorruptible.”

Hearing this, the Red Devil, who was leaning against the card table, couldn’t help but pestle Arthur with his arm, and scowled at him, “Hear that, the way to get rich is right in front of your eyes.”

When Arthur heard this, he just smiled and opened his mouth and said, “I think that this trick of His Excellency Talleyrand should not work in Britain. The Royal Navy’s military intelligence wouldn’t be worth much because it’s useless for the enemy to know about it, and they wouldn’t be able to win anyway.”

This passage of Arthur’s immediately made the crowd present laugh again.

Duke Wellington wiped his tears of laughter and said, “It seems that it was indeed a wise choice for the Whigs to let you manage the Police Intelligence Bureau, I thought at first that this kind of job where you can’t take it out when you do it well, and you have to be subjected to a lot of harsh criticisms when you do it poorly, that a young man of such great promise like you might not be willing to do it? I didn’t expect you to relish it so soon.”

Hearing this Arthur simply replied, “Actually the Scotland Yard job is pretty much the same, so for me it’s just an added part of the job, which is no big deal.”

Talleyrand got up and said, “That’s right, your future job will be much easier than your current one. But what you are experiencing now is indeed essential, for there are no unfortunate accidents in this world from which a wise man cannot learn, and there are no accidental fortunate events from which a reckless man will turn it to harm.

And this experience you are having is simply to help you identify for yourself whether or not you are an intelligent person. If it is, you will soon have no need to do the difficult minutiae, but only to make a few casual high-flown speeches, as I have done. As for the hard work of enforcing speech, that will have to be left to the young men who come after you and want to prove their intelligence.”

At the end of his speech, Talleyrand raised his head and rushed towards the Duke to extend an invitation, “I heard that you have a novelty here that plays a symphony on its own, why don’t you take me to see that thing? If it’s interesting, perhaps I should buy one and bring it back to Paris.”

The Duke of Wellington didn’t refuse when he heard this, he already had a good personal relationship with Talleyrand, and after receiving the promise that France was willing to cede Belgium, he could be said to be obedient to his old friend’s request, “If you can get Louis-Philippe to pay for a little something more, maybe I can send someone to send you a few phonographs over for free.”

Hearing this, Talleyrand just raised his eyebrows in amusement, “A few gramophones and you want to buy me off? Your Excellency, you also see me as too cheap.” “That’s different.”

The Duke of Wellington spoke, “See if you don’t know, our Mr. Hastings is one of the contributors to this patent of the phonograph, and incidentally, he is also a renowned pianist, and just recently participated in that musical recital that caused a sensation in London. If we entrust him with the job, in addition to the phonograph, we may be able to get a copy of the out-of-print record of the Coburg concert, which is just about to go crazy on the various art exchanges in London right now.”

“Whoa? Yeah?”

Talleyrand looked back at Arthur, “An interesting young man indeed. Well, for the sake of the record, I’ll think about it.”

Hearing this, Dumas couldn’t help but press the card table to get up, “You intend to sell out the interests of the country for a record that is of little use? I remember you just said in my presence that you love France more than Napoleon.”

Talleyrand just laughed out loud at that, “Come on, Alexander, you don’t want to change my original statement. Also, you must not mention the matter of patriotism in front of me, I get a headache when I hear this. Every time someone advocates patriotism, their goal is either to get the people to pay money or donate their lives.

For the sake of your good friend Mr. Hastings, who is so good at telling jokes, your warrant is cancelled. Get on with your life in London, Alexander, and don’t get into all that nonsense. That won’t do the gang any good.”

At these words, Talleyrand went out with the Duke of Wellington, and only Arthur and Dumas remained at the card table.

Dumas stood in silence for a long time with mixed feelings, but he turned around and realized that Arthur was collecting dimes from the card table one by one.

He sank back in his chair on his butt, both arms stretched out against the ceiling as if to vent his frustration, “All right, Arthur, laugh at me, laugh at France. I won’t refute anything you say from now on. Look, it’s people like this who have managed to dominate the political scene in France for decades! Yet in France, there are still many people who hold him up as a role model in life and a model in the workplace, this beautiful and rich land of France is really rotten to the bone.”

Usually when he came across this kind of situation, Arthur would definitely step on Dumas twice, but today he uncharacteristically did not sneer.

“Don’t be so pessimistic, a man like Mr. Talleyrand is able to get along no matter where he is. You may not believe it when I say it, but I think that if he had been born in Britain, he might have become Prime Minister. The Duke of Wellington would not have stepped down at this moment if he had been able to have a few moments of the cunning and smoothness of this friend of his.”

Hearing this, Dumas could not help frowning, “Arthur, what do you mean? Why is it that when I hear you say this, it seems like you kinda appreciate him? Why do you hold a favorable view of a corrupt and bribe-taking criminal, a shameless man who betrayed his country?”

“Why?”

Arthur slipped the last ticket into his jacket pocket, “Because I don’t think there are many capable people in this world who can take into account a part of the collective interest while satisfying their own selfish desires. You think it’s a misfortune for France to have Talleyrand, but I think it’s a blessing for France. Because for a long time to come, France may never again have such a brilliant diplomat.

Of course, you can say that I’m flattering him, that I’m speaking against my will. For as Monsieur Vidocq said before, whether it be Louis XVI, Robespierre or Napoleon, they are all dead, but Monsieur Talleyrand is still alive. If I curse Napoleon, he can’t climb out of his coffin and do anything to me, but if I curse Talleyrand, it’s likely that tomorrow night Mr. Vidocq is going to bring Coconut Tree and the others to make trouble for me.

But above all, he canceled the warrant of a fat friend of mine, and incidentally lost me ten pounds on a bet, both of which I am very grateful to him for.”

When Dumas heard this, he first took a deep breath, he wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say, in the end he could only sigh helplessly, “Alas ……”

Seeing him in such a low mood, Arthur just patted his back and spoke with a smile, “Alexander, don’t dwell on such things. Even if you really want to do something about it, you have to start with the basics first, like picking up your pen.

Before a moment of true historical significance, a moment when the stars of mankind shine, there are bound to be, long years that needlessly pass away, and at such critical moments, those things that normally happen slowly and leisurely and in juxtaposition are compressed to manifest themselves in such a brief moment that decides everything. This moment makes irrevocable decisions for generations, it determines the life and death of a person, the survival of a nation and even the fate of the entire human race.

But you also have to understand that in every revolution, it is not the first who wins, not the one who is always at the front, but always the last, always the one who is at the back, the one who seizes the revolution as a trophy, and that such eccentrics are the ones who pop up in any great worldwide change. As Mr. Talleyrand says, it is the chameleon that is the heraldry of politics, and it seems to me that to live to the end is the odyssey of politics.”

When Dumas heard this, the fat man looked out of the window at the drizzling night rain and the faintly glowing lights in the darkness, and was just silent.

Agareth looked at him like this and just leaned against Arthur’s shoulder and skimmed, “What an obstinate fat man. Idealist? The lexical interpretation of idealism is not knowing the weight of the world nor how much you weigh.”

Arthur could only shake his head at this as he stepped away and walked to the rec room door, his steps paused for a moment and after some thought he decided to close the door for Dumas.

Unexpectedly, before the door was closed, the voice of the fat Frenchman suddenly rang in Arthur’s ears.

“Arthur.”

“What’s wrong?”

Dumas fished a coin out of his pocket and flicked it at him, the money he’d lost to Arthur in a bet today.

Dumas took a deep breath and spoke, “You’re going to live to fight another day!”

In the crack of the door, all that could be seen was a black eye with a flashing red light, the black eye gradually narrowing to look like it was smiling, or as if it was skeptical.

After a long time, the response to Dumas was the usual gentle, courteous voice.

“Thank you for your blessing, Lord Dumas.”

Dumas raised an eyebrow, “So?”

Arthur pressed one hand to his chest and arched his back slightly, “I do my best.”

(End of chapter)