Descending On France 1780-Chapter 28 - 025 Brittany Club

Mirabeau lived in a three-story house on the side of the road.

This whole row of houses was said to be the property of the Duke of Orleans, and now they were all open for rent to the citizens of Paris, who had opened a series of shops.

The Royal Palace was just like this, becoming the central axis of life in the city of Paris, and people from several nearby districts would come to the vicinity of the Royal Palace to satisfy their needs.

As soon as Vanni knocked on the door, an old woman opened it: "You must be Mr. Frost, Mr. Mirabeau has been waiting for you on the second floor."

Vanni stepped back half a step to make way, and Anning walked confidently into Mirabeau's residence.

The old lady led the way in front, and at the second floor, she gently knocked on the door of a room on the side of the corridor: "Mr. Mirabeau, Mr. Frost is here."

"Come in," Mirabeau's voice came from the room, and the old woman opened the door, then stepped aside.

Anning looked inside upon reaching the door and found Mr. Mirabeau wearing his wig askew, feverishly writing at the desk.

Anning: "Have I disturbed you?"

"Not at all," Mirabeau looked up, straightening his wig with a pass of his hand, "Come in, take a seat. Mrs. Evans, please serve the tea."

Vanni: "I'll help with serving the tea."

Mirabeau chuckled: "It seems that Mr. Frost has grown accustomed to bringing a maid everywhere he goes, must be nice having someone to serve you, huh?"

Anning shook his head: "It's not like that, I'm just not familiar with the area, so I let Vanni guide the way."

Anning pulled up a chair to sit down, then got straight to the point: "Mr. Mirabeau, the thing is, I attended a dance at the Versailles Palace last evening..."

"Is that so? Then you must have become the center of attention," Mirabeau said with a smile, "I'm sure there were quite a few curious noble young ladies who wanted to meet the hidden nobility heir who defeated Reginald."

Anning: "Uh, indeed, the rumor that I am of hidden nobility spread surprisingly wide, but it fell apart as soon as I danced with Christina."

Anning's external assistive software did not include dancing, so immediately after Christina pulled him onto the dance floor last night, it became apparent.

He stepped on Christina's feet a total of three times, and the nobles resting by the dance floor all laughed.

After that, no one believed that Andy Frost was the descendant of hidden nobility anymore.

Anning finished telling Mirabeau, who directly laughed aloud: "Indeed, no noble would step three times on the foot of a beauty like Miss Christina. Have you not learned how to dance at all?"

"Yes," Anning nodded, "Last night was my first time dancing."

"Should I commend your courage then?" Mirabeau smiled, "Even though you can't dance, you still led a girl onto the dance floor, and that was your mistake."

Anning curled his lips.

Actually, it wasn't intentional, he just trusted his external assistive software too much, who would have thought it wouldn't help with dancing.

Mirabeau: "So you came all the way to tell me this?"

"No, that's not it," Anning recounted everything that Lady Lamballe said the day before word for word.

Mirabeau frowned: "I don't know Marquis Li Xia'er, so I can't judge what he might do. But I've heard that he has a terrible reputation in his own domain, and his peasants believe he's possessed by the devil."

Anning thought to himself that wouldn't this Marquis make an excellent street lamp ornament? With the arrival of the Great Revolution, not all the nobles in the city were necessarily hanged from lamp posts, but those nobles who abused their powers in the countryside were one by one sent to the gallows by peasants who could no longer endure their oppression.

Mirabeau then said, "However, there are witnesses to this duel. Besides the witnesses from both sides, there is also a third-party witness, Father Sais. Even if the Marquis comes, he probably can't do much anymore."

Anning replied, "It's better to be prepared than panic later. Better find a lawyer in advance, lest we get flustered when something actually happens."

"Why not just ask the Duke's lawyer for help?"

Anning said, "I would like to ask a lawyer who is willing to fight cases for commoners. Only then can we ensure that he will give it his all."

Mirabeau responded, "I do know some lawyers who are willing to fight cases for commoners, but they are not in Paris at the moment."

Anning said, "I've heard that there is a student from Alas at the University of Paris, whose family has always fought cases for commoners. He would probably also be willing to help the son of a leatherworker."

Mirabeau said, "Alas... You're not referring to that 'Roman,' are you?"

Anning, puzzled, asked, "The Roman?"

Mirabeau explained, "Don't you know? There's a student from Alas at the University of Paris who speaks Latin and Greek excellently, and he's been nicknamed the Roman. He once recited a laudatory poem in Latin during the visit of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen to the University of Paris."

Anning then remembered that Robespierre did indeed recite an address to Louis XVI during his student days. He had seen it on some history-themed marketing account, which later reflected on how the Robespierre of that time could never have imagined that he would send Louis XVI to the guillotine.

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Anning said, "Maybe it really is this Roman. Do you know him?"

At that moment, Mirabeau's elderly servant, Mrs. Evans, and Vanni came in with tea and pastries.

Mirabeau gestured invitingly, "Have some pastries. These were sent by Madame Roland yesterday, they are truly exquisite."

It seemed that Mirabeau indeed had excellent connections as rumored, often receiving pastries and small gifts from noblewomen.

Anning tried a pastry and found it so sweet it made him want to vomit.

France already had Caribbean colonies in this era, and sugar should not be as scarce as before, but clearly the pastry chef still treated sweetness as a symbol of luxury, heavily loading the treats with sugar.

Mirabeau chuckled, "Terribly sweet, isn't it? Because of the damned war, the British have blockaded our maritime trade, and now the market price of sugar has skyrocketed several times. As a result, noble families are piling sugar into their desserts, showing off their wealth."

That explained it.

Anning almost forgot that France was now engaged in what should be the Seven Years' War, only having broken out some 30 years late.

Mirabeau continued, "I don't know this Roman myself, but I know that he often appears at a certain club. The people from Brittany have organized a gathering, and somehow this man from Alas is often seen mixing there."

Anning was astonished; the Jacobin Club of the Jacobin faction originally started as the Brittany Club, mainly a group of people from Brittany.

However, it was strange that Robespierre often attended the gatherings of people from Brittany. His hometown of Alas is part of the Province of the Strait, near Calais, which is quite far from Brittany.

Anning asked, "Could you help me join this gathering? It's not some kind of noble gathering, is it?"

"Of course not, in fact, most of the attendees at such gatherings are commoners now. Nobles mainly socialize through endless balls, all led by that deficit Queen. They would rather go into debt to throw extravagant balls." Mirabeau didn't hide his disdain, "If most of the nobles were like the Duke of Orleans, good at doing business, France's finances wouldn't be in such a state."

Mirabeau paused for a moment; right then, the sound of the noon cannon being fired for time correction came from outside.

He immediately took out his pocket watch to adjust the time, murmuring, "It's five minutes slow, seems I need to get this pocket watch fixed somewhere."

Then Mirabeau stood up, "Here's what we'll do. You want to find Robespierre, and I'll take you to the gathering of the people from Brittany this afternoon. We might just run into him. But personally, I think you don't need to worry too much. After all, he's just a Marquis, and you are a distinguished guest of the Duke."