Rumors and the National Guard (I)

At almost the same time, not far away in the Palace of Versailles, King Louis XVI was talking to his queen on a similar subject.

"Your Majesty, are you aware that there are already people openly advocating rebellion?" His queen, Marie Antoinette, asked, staring at her husband with big, beautiful eyes.

"What day passes at the Palais-Royal without someone advocating rebellion?" Louis XVI replied in disbelief. 

Queen Marie glared at her husband, then said, "Mr. Lavoisier's nephew, has actually become a rebel as well! He was at the Palais-Royal, staging a play to incite a rebellion and propagate it! Especially that song in there, it's not just promoting rebellion, it's even blasphemy - don't you want to take care of that at all?"

"How do you expect me to manage? Order a ban on the show and have them all arrested?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically, "The whole of Paris is in disarray today, there are rumors everywhere, and if we do this, we could easily start a real riot."

"Isn't the current situation a real riot?" Queen Marie asked without wavering.

"At least they haven't come toward Versailles with weapons." Louis XVI replied.

"You are the king, how can you say such things!" Queen Marie was enraged by her husband's weak reply.

"Queen, let's face it." Louis XVI lowered his head and seemed a little ashamed of his situation as well, "The police system in Paris is basically paralyzed and the army hasn't been paid for a long time because of financial problems. They were likewise very dissatisfied with the kingdom and, as a result, they became less reliable. Besides, all this time the army near Paris has been infiltrated by the guys who are against us, and we can't count on them nowadays. It's really hard to say exactly who their guns will be pointed at if anything does happen. Rather, the army in the provinces is still slightly more reliable. What are we going to suppress these rebels with today?"

"What about the mercenaries? What about those Swiss, those Germans? They take our money, don't they work? And aren't there still more reliable armies from the provinces?"

"The mercenaries, as well as a more reliable army, aren't quite there yet. Today they can only be used to protect us, not enough to calm the situation."

"And how long will it take for them to be fully in place?"

"It's hard to say, because it would require money in the first place, and in the second place, we can't move too fast, or we'd be urging them to rebel. When they do move, our current forces won't be able to hold up." Louis XVI said rather hesitantly.

"So, we're staying in Paris now and becoming hostages instead?" The Queen asked again.

"Not so much yet, but we don't have the upper hand on this side." Louis XVI said with a sigh.

"Then what are we staying here for? Why don't we go where our power prevails? Let's go to the provinces, where our forces are superior. Why should we stay here?"

"Because once we leave, it means a civil war is sure to break out." Louis XVI said with some difficulty, "Even if it is we who win in the end, our country has been destroyed by civil war. So, in order to avoid a civil war, or at least a devastating one, we must now stay in Versailles."

"But what can we really do by staying in Versailles?" Queen Marie asked.

"Stabilize them first, then slowly move our forces over." Louis XVI said, "We must paralyze them and not let them despair at once. Until our forces are concentrated to our advantage." 

"Perhaps ..." said the Queen, "perhaps, if anything, I can get in touch with my family."

"It's not at a point where that's going to be necessary for a while." Louis XVI said, "Even the normal correspondence between you and your family must be taken care not to increase or decrease."

"This is ridiculous!" The Queen said, "Is someone else going to check our letters now?"

"I am not saying that. But any messenger out of Versailles is going to be noticed by someone who is interested. Then rumors may arise." Louis XVI said with a frown.

"Rumors," sneered Queen Marie, "can rumors be dispelled by such a gesture? No, because rumors don't need to be based at all. On the contrary, my liege, the more you indulge it, the more powerful it becomes. I think you should issue a royal decree now that the play is sacrilegious and prohibit its performance. If you just back off, they will do whatever they want, and soon, they will grow to the point where we will not be able to tolerate them. So if you really want to stall, then don't indulge them too much."

But Louis XVI just shook his head.

"Your Majesty, if you continue to indulge in these behaviors, even the Church, will be disappointed in you." Felson, who had been standing off to the side without saying anything, also spoke up.

"Then, order a ban on the show. But do not enforce it." Louis XVI thought about it and said this.

"If it's not enforced, it might as well not be ordered at all." The Queen said, "If we give an order but don't carry it out, it will only make others look down on us even more, and even encourage them to commit further offenses."

"What happens if enforcement is enforced and there is a conflict?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically, "We send those Swiss Guards we have with us to suppress them? We don't have enough power on our hands to put them down, and in the event of a conflict, that's what would really expose our weaknesses! So now, my queen, we must avoid any direct conflict. Even if we have to endure humiliation as Henry IV did."

Henry IV was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the eleventh century. He was excommunicated by order of Pope Gregory VII because of his power struggle with the Papacy. At the time, the Holy Roman Empire was not internally stable, and after Henry IV was excommunicated, theoretically, all his subordinates' allegiance to him was simultaneously dissolved. Some of the independent vassals in the country, led by Duke Rudolph, declared that they would not recognize Henry IV as monarch if he did not receive papal indulgence.

In the face of internal and external problems, Henry IV had to bow to the Pope, and he took the Queen and his son to the Castle of Canossa, where the Pope was staying, to confess to the Pope, hoping that the Pope would retract the edict that had excommunicated him. He and his wife stood in the snow for three days and nights before being summoned by the Pope. It was only after suffering much papal humiliation that Henry received papal absolution. Later on, Henry IV finally calmed down the civil unrest, and then, with his army, he killed his way into Rome, expelled Pope Gregory VII, and also created another antipope, which was also revenge for Canossa.

Nowadays, Louis XVI brings up this story. That is, he wants everyone to follow the example of Henry IV and endure a moment of humiliation for the future. So, after hearing this, everyone kept quiet.

After a while, the Queen spoke, ''In that case, let's simply pretend that we don't know anything. I've heard it said that you do something or you do it to the end. If we don't act, then His Majesty at least seems mysterious. If we act but act weakly, it is rather despised."

Louis XVI hurriedly nodded and said, "I think the Queen has a point."

"But, Your Majesty." The Queen suddenly said again with a mocking tone, "I think everyone should have their own bottom line, I've actually always been curious and have always wanted to see where your bottom line is, Your Majesty?"

...

While the King has not made a decision to ban Spartacus, the rumors that Spartacus will soon be banned are still getting more and more outrageous. At first, these rumors were just that the king was going to ban the play, then that the king had sent out a secret note to arrest the author as well as all of the actors, and then, further on, that all of the actors who dared to take part in the performance of the play would be excommunicated.... In short, all kinds of rumors were constantly being pushed out, and it was overwhelming.

At this point in time, Armand showed some of the same wisdom as his uncle. He took all these rumors and used them as free advertising. Taking advantage of these rumors, he took the opportunity to advertise to the public, "This may be the last show, if you don't come see it, you won't see it again!"

Just as Adam and Eve were defenseless against the temptation of the "forbidden fruit". The children of Adam and Eve have always had a hard time with things that have the word "forbidden" in them. So the gimmick of "soon to be banned" worked very well indeed, and now every performance of the Dragon and Rose Theater Troupe is full, and some other troupes have followed the trend of staging the play. Because of this, the blasphemous "Slave War Song" spread throughout Paris.

At first, the actors in the troupe were a little nervous when these kinds of rumors came out, but the results of the sold-out shows brought in more money. These revenues are even more compelling, especially in today's environment of wildly rising food prices. Nowadays, those actors have become fond of all kinds of rumors, and they even create all kinds of rumors themselves so that they can recruit more viewers. Rumors, such as an unknown person attacking that actor or something, are constantly being created from them.

Because during this period of time, Paris was constantly experiencing all kinds of conflicts, big and small, and a few days ago, even the French Guards and the German Dragoon Cavalry fought, rumors about the King's intention to mass-murder the citizens of Paris were becoming more and more prevalent. Quite a few people believed those rumors that Armand and the others had created on their own.