At about the same time, in the not-too-distant Palace of Versailles, King Louis XVI was discussing a similar topic with his queen.

"Your Majesty, do you know that someone has been publicly advocating rebellion?" His queen Marie Antoinette asked her husband with her beautiful eyes widened.

"In the Royal Palace, what day did no one advocate a rebellion?" Louis XVI replied disapprovingly.

Queen Marie glared at her husband, then said, "Mr. Lavoisier's nephew turned out to be a traitor too! He staged a rebellious drama at the Royal Palace, propagating rebellion! Especially that The song in it is not just propaganda for rebellion, it is even blasphemous - don't you want to worry about it at all?"

"What do you want me to do? Order a ban on the show and let them arrest them?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically, "The whole of Paris is in chaos and rumors are everywhere. If we do this, it will easily lead to A real riot."

"Isn't the current situation a real riot?" Queen Mary asked unwaveringly.

"At least they haven't attacked Versailles with weapons," replied Louis XVI.

"You are the king, how can you say such a thing!" Queen Mary was irritated by her husband's weak answer.

"Queen, we have to face the reality." Louis XVI lowered his head, and seemed a little ashamed of his situation, "The police system in Paris is paralyzed, and because of financial problems, the army has been for a long time. Not getting paid. They are also very dissatisfied with the kingdom, and as a result, they have become unreliable. Also, the army around Paris has always been infiltrated by those who oppose us, and now we can't count on them. It’s really hard to say who their guns are aimed at. The troops in other provinces are a little more reliable. What are we doing to suppress these rebels now?”

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

"The mercenaries, and the more reliable armies, are not yet fully in place. Now they can only be used to protect us, not enough to calm the situation."

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

"It's hard to say because the first one needs money, and secondly, we can't move too fast, or we're urging them to rebel. They're starting, and our current strength can't stand it. ." Louis XVI said hesitantly.

"So, if we are staying in Paris now, we are going to be held hostage?" the queen asked again.

"Not yet, but our strength here does not prevail." Louis XVI said with a sigh.

"Then why are we staying here? Why don't we go where our strength prevails? We go to the provinces, where our strength prevails. Why do we stay here?"

"Because once we leave, it means that a civil war will break out," Louis XVI said with difficulty. "Even if we are the victor, our country has been destroyed by civil war. So, to avoid civil war, at least To avoid a devastating civil war, we must now stay at Versailles."

"But what can we do in Versailles?" Queen Mary asked.

"Stabilize them first, and then slowly bring our strength back," Louis XVI said. "We have to paralyze them and not let them despair at once. Until our strength is concentrated and we have an advantage."

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

"It has not yet reached such a point that it is not needed for the time being," said Louis XVI. "Even, you should pay attention to the normal correspondence between you and your family, neither increase nor decrease."

"This is absurd!" said the Queen. "Is there anyone else who wants to check our letters?"

"I'm not saying that. But the messengers from Versailles will be noticed. Then, there may be rumors." Louis XVI said with a frown.

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"Rumour," Queen Mary sneered, "is it possible to dispel a rumor by such an act? No, for a rumor needs no basis at all. On the contrary, my majesty, the more you indulge it, the more powerful it will be. I think it's time for you to issue an edict that the play is sacrilegious and ban its performance. If you back down, they'll do what they want, and soon they'll grow to the point where we can't stand it. So if you really If you want to procrastinate, don’t indulge them too much.”

However, Louis XVI just shook his head.

"Your Majesty, if you continue to indulge these behaviors, even the church will be disappointed with you." Felson, who had been standing on the side without speaking, also said.

"Then, let's ban the performance. But don't enforce it." Louis XVI thought for a while and said.

"If you don't enforce it, then it's better not to order." The queen said, "If you order and don't implement it, it will only make others look down on us even more, and even encourage them to further commit chaos."

"What if there is a conflict?" Louis XVI asked rhetorically. "We send the Swiss Guards around us to suppress them? We don't have enough power to suppress them. Once a conflict occurs, then That will expose our weaknesses! So now, my queen, we must avoid any direct conflict. Even if we endure humiliation like Henry IV."

Henry IV was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the eleventh century. He was excommunicated by the order of Pope Gregory VII because of a power struggle with the Holy See. At that time, the interior of the Holy Roman Empire was unstable. After Henry IV was excommunicated, all his subordinates were theoretically released from their allegiance to him at the same time. Some feudal lords in the country, led by Duke Rudolph, declared that they would not recognize Henry IV as monarch if he could not be forgiven by the Pope.

Under the internal and external troubles, Henry IV had to bow his head to the Pope. He took the queen and the prince personally to the Canossa Castle where the Pope was staying to confess to the Pope, hoping that the Pope would withdraw the edict of excommunicating him. He and his wife stood in the snow for three days and three nights before being summoned by the Pope. After being humiliated by the Pope, he was pardoned by the Pope. Later, Henry IV finally quelled the civil strife, and then took the army and entered Rome, expelled Pope Gregory VII, and established another pseudo-pope, which can be regarded as revenge for Canossa.

Now that Louis XVI mentions this story, he hopes that everyone can take Henry IV as an example and hold back the humiliation of the moment for the future. So, after hearing this, everyone was silent.

After a while, the queen said, "If that's the case, then let's just pretend we don't know anything. I've heard people say that if we don't do something, we'll do it to the end. If we don't act, then the king At least His Majesty is still mysterious. If we act, but we act weakly, it will be looked down upon."

Louis XVI nodded quickly and said, "I think what the queen said makes sense."

"But, Your Majesty," the queen said suddenly with a sarcastic tone, "I think everyone should have their bottom line. I've always been curious and wanted to see, what is your bottom line, Your Majesty?"

. . . . . .

Although the king did not decide to ban "Spartacus", the rumor that "Spartacus" was about to be banned continued to spread more and more outrageous. At first, these rumors just said that the king was going to ban the play. Then they said that the king had issued a secret letter to arrest the author and all the actors. After that, all those who dared to participate in the performance of the play. Actors will be expelled. . . . . . In short, all kinds of rumors are constantly being introduced, which is dizzying.

At this time, Aman showed some wisdom like his uncle. He treats these rumors as free advertisements. Taking advantage of these rumors, he took the opportunity to publicize: "This may be the last performance. If you don't watch it again, you won't be able to see it in the future!"

Just as Adam and Eve were powerless in the face of the "forbidden fruit" temptation. The descendants of Adam and Eve are always particularly enthusiastic when confronted with things like "forbidden". Therefore, the gimmick of "I will be banned soon" is indeed very useful. Now every performance of the Dragon and Rose troupe is full, and some other troupes have followed suit. For this reason, the blasphemous "Battle Hymn of the Slaves" spread throughout Paris.

In the beginning, when such rumors came out, the actors in the troupe were still a little nervous, but the full performances brought them more income. Especially in today's environment of wildly rising food prices, these incomes are even more convincing. So now, those actors have fallen in love with all kinds of rumors, and they even create all kinds of rumors themselves to attract more audiences. Rumors, for example, that the actor-and-so was attacked by unknown people kept being made out of them.

Because during this period, various conflicts, large and small, continued to occur in Paris. A few days ago, even the French Guards and the German dragoons fought. Rumors that the king planned to massacre the citizens of Paris became more and more popular. . Many people believed the rumors that Aman and the others created.