The Shadow of Great Britain-Chapter 637 - 314: Napoleon’s Direct Relatives_2

Great Dumas shrugged his shoulders, "How do you know he contracted it in Liverpool? Perhaps the habit was acquired in London. Working within the government really does make it easy for one to fall into corruption, the speed at which it corrupts a person is simply comparable to Hell. Look at our Officer Hastings, if his supporters knew what he had become, I wonder how disappointed they would be?"

Upon hearing this, Louis just smiled and responded, "Come on, Alexander. Lord Byron, Paganini, and others, their private lives are far messier than Arthur’s. I’ve said it before, a distinguished artist who can write books and play the piano, how could he possibly be too tidy in emotional matters? This isn’t really a scandal, after all, he was never marketed on purity, what everyone appreciates is his talent."

Having said that, Louis, with a mischievous grin, gently pushed open the door, "Let’s see, it should be over by now, right?"

However, the situation inside the room clearly disappointed him.

A sofa, a desk, a set of tea cups, a chair—aside from inexplicably missing a coffee table, everything in the room was very normal.

There might have been something abnormal here, but after an afternoon spoiled by the smell of sulfur, Louis could no longer discern whether there was an unusual odor that shouldn’t have been there.

Arthur, who had been reading, looked up and glanced outside the door, "Alexander, Louis, you both have come at the right time."

"Hm? Is there something you need from us?"

They made their way to the desk as if they were completely familiar with it. Louis poured a cup of tea while Great Dumas directly picked up the plate of pastries.

"Oh?" Before Arthur could speak, the sharp-eyed Great Dumas spotted the book in his hand, "’Napoleon’? I didn’t expect you to be interested in such a book."

When Louis heard the title, he couldn’t help but take another look at the book’s cover and scoffed, "These biographers are all making things up; some of them have never even met Napoleon. How much truth could they possibly write? Arthur, if you want to understand Napoleon, you might as well just ask me directly."

Arthur closed the book, "Of course I know you’re much more reliable than biography writers. And I didn’t buy this book; it was left by a lady who visited me today."

"Oh... a lady..."

At that, Louis’s expression changed, and he said with a smile, "Is she an admirer of Napoleon? That’s actually quite normal; many ladies admire a powerful man like him. After centuries, Caesar and Alexander the Great finally have a successor. So, it’s quite normal for the ladies to have a preference for him. You know? Although there are still many ladies who prefer him now, it doesn’t compare to when he was alive."

Arthur, holding his tea cup, asked, "I remember apart from Josephine, he also had relationships with many lovely ladies, didn’t he? What was his first love’s name again... Oh! Right, Eugenie. Desiree Clary Eugenie, the daughter of the French merchant Clary family. Napoleon even wrote a book for her, ’Clary and Eugenie’, to express his love through a novel. Sounds rather Romantic."

Louis nodded, "That’s right, my uncle started making his mark from Eugenie. Her sister later married my uncle Joseph Bonaparte, becoming the Queen of Naples and Spain. You remember my uncle, right? The one who lives in Regency Crescent."

Arthur nodded slightly, "It sounds a bit complicated."

"Of course, sorting out the relationships in the Bonaparte family is quite chaotic."

Louis continued, "But my uncle’s first love was still quite important to him. If it weren’t for Eugenie secretly giving him 98 Gold Coins, my uncle, a minor officer, would never have been able to make it to Paris in time, and naturally there wouldn’t have been the later coup, let alone the French Empire Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I."

Arthur asked, "So looking at it, did Napoleon play the faithless lover? It seems like after he fell for Joseph, he ditched his first love. However, he always felt guilty about it, so he arranged a promising husband for his first love. And this husband later became an adopted son of King Carl XIII of Sweden and, holding great power, turned against Napoleon, leading Sweden into the anti-French alliance. And Napoleon’s first love Eugenie, in turn, became the Queen of Sweden with her son becoming the Crown Prince of Sweden? Is this what happens when ’Romeo and Juliet’ meets the ’lady version of Hamlet’?"

Great Dumas laughed heartily, "Perhaps I could write a novel based on this experience."

"Uh..."

Louis didn’t know how to respond to this awkward question; he changed the topic slightly, "That’s all in a past generation. But looking at it now, Eugenie’s ending is definitely better than if she had married my uncle. My uncle indeed made many mistakes in his relationships, and many of the ladies he was involved with were actually quite nice. Not just Eugenie, but that Polish lady as well. My mother said, she was a very kind and gentle person, much more tolerant than my grandmother."

"Your grandmother?"

"Oh..." Louis explained, "You probably don’t know. Napoleon’s Queen Josephine was my grandmother; my mother is the child of Josephine and her former husband Alexandre de Beauharnais. She married my father, Napoleon’s youngest brother, who was also the former King of Holland, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, at my grandmother’s urging."