"What news Sire?" "Does the child..." "Stillborn." "A funeral is planned." " Did the tailors arrive?" " On their way." "It is the talk of the court." "Sire." "My heart is heavy for your loss..." "Ensure the talk continues." "Make it the card table gossip." "Leave us now." " Sire, before..." " Do not address the king directly." "I think he already has." "The men we apprehended wore Spanish leather." "If I wore clogs would that make me Dutch?" " You would have me be silent?" " Deeply." "I wish to warn His Majesty since we already have a Spanish influence in our lives." "Her Majesty must remain abed a week Sire." "As for the condition of the child, I have an explanation." "I cannot wait to hear it." "As you know Sire, Her Majesty has enjoyed the company of a little blackamoor, Nabo." "She liked to play games with him: peekaboo and so on." "As I understand it, after Her Majesty fell pregnant" "Nabo hid behind a piece of furniture, jumped out on her to surprise her and he gave her a look of such force that it corrupted the royal womb with darkness." "It must have been a very penetrating look." " Where is the child now?" " A wet nurse, out of sight." " We trust her." " You're sure?" "Quite sure, Your Majesty." "Very well Fabien, do as you must." "* I'm the king of my own land." "* Facing tempests of dust" "* HI fight until the end" "* Creatures of my dreams rise up and dance with me" "* Now and forever * I'm your king!" "Sire, we may have war or we may have splendor but I do not believe that we can have both." "Then it must be war." "The Dutch will secure trade routes into West Africa alone." "To see our rivals profit from our own inaction is not a price we should pay." "As lucrative as these routes may be for the Dutch, you cannot put a price on glory, Sire." "The Dutch are mistaken." "And France has my wife to thank for that." "(Lady ¿Cômo Se encuentra?" "¿Esté mejor?" "You have no color in your cheeks unlike your daughter." "Please, husband." "Where is she?" "Husband..." "You know what Socrates said about marriage?" "He said:" "By all means marry." "If you get a good wife, you'll be happy." "Get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." "I must tell you, madam, I feel very philosophical." "Madre De Dios..." "What we do resonates throughout the world." "Do you imagine William of Orange if he knew, would pause for a second at our borders?" "That he would see the king and his country as anything but weak, debased, a laughing stock?" "This was not the act of a wife or queen." "This was an act of sedition by a traitor." " Where is our daughter?" " Your daughter is in God's mercy." "French when it pleases you, Spanish when you choose to hide." "If the court deems me a fool I'm worthy of something, even if it is pity." "You will find no pity from me." "Her Majesty looks unwell." "See Masson tends her." "Her confinement shall be extended until she is fit to re-join us." "Your 1st time in court I said...?" "That you would reward any favour with interest?" "And yet," "I am still waiting, after you had me spread all those lies about your little blonde friend." "Cousin, I love that you are so very patient." "Never doubt my affection for you." "Oh!" "By the king!" ""The king invites you to a private showing of diverse suits of lace..."" "A domestic was in the hallway north of the birthing room." "Pallid... "master tailors"" "green eyes, a scar on her chin." "I want her name." " "A banquet will follow." Mother!" " Excited?" " Heard from Rossignol on the cipher?" " No." " The moment he sends word, fetch me." " Yes." "* Pour venir manger ton ton." "* Pour venir manger ton ton." "Thank you!" "That is very expensive firewood." "If I do not burn these, the rest will die, Sire." "A greening disease spread in many by flies." "Good rootstock." "If we girdle and graft on the budwood scions take, trees propagate, the orchard is saved." "How do you know the rootstock is strong?" "What's the measure?" "I make sure I know the provenance of every tree Your Majesty receives." "This one, it came first from the University of Strasbourg." "This one, the Botanic Garden of Montpellier." "Before that:" "China, Arabia." "To know the seed is to know the root." "To know a root is to know the tree and the fruit." "So, I burn the sick to preserve the pure and the king shall have his orange blossom." "You're well spoken for a soldier." "Words are weapons, Sire." "I've used many in my time." "But I'm a gardener now." "My gardener." "Just look at them." "A king either rules his ministers or is ruled by them." "Only power controls a country and as of now, the power lies with them." "It is time to show them who you are." "Without the law documents before us, my edict has no legitimacy." "Where are the archives and why are they not before us?" "Still on the road?" "They decided to turn the caravan around." "Who made this decision?" "The road from Paris is dangerous, especially the royal lands round this lodge." "We cannot have court materials taken hostage." "That is what has happened, Monsieur Louvois." "The masters of the tailor's guild arrived safely." "You'd think the king's guard could survive." "We think only of security." " We merely serve Your Majesty." " For now." "If Louvois does not hold his tongue" "I may volunteer to hold it for him." "I'd rather have an honest critic than a false friend." "Sire, he seems to talk only of his opposition to you." "He takes contrary positions to all of your plans, then declares them thunderously to anyone who will listen." "And long may he continue." "I am sure I do not understand, Sire." "You will." "How is your son?" "Bontemps?" "Is he alright?" "Carmelite and lavender." "Do you like it?" "Persian silk." "Leave it alone." "Forgive me Monsieur." "The royal baby!" "We all have a heavy heart." "I saw something." "What do you mean?" "The child was alive and the strangest color!" "What madness are you speaking?" "Sire, I beg you." "I say this in confidence." "My mother works for you thus I felt I must speak it." "Perhaps you might help me join her there in service?" "I'm so scared!" "Doctors made every effort but the pox was too strong the fever too much." "It took him." "I am with you in your loss." "Go home." "Sire, you are home." " Grieve while you can." " I will." " Be with those you love." " I am, Sire." "You defy me?" "My place is with you." "God is punishing me, for hurting those closest to my heart." "Testing you, Sire." "Offering a gift." "Vengeance and mercy are his to choose." "They are also yours." "I believe He placed this child in your care for a reason." " I've heard enough." " Let her live." "And then what?" "Come now, truly, answer me." "Sire, I do not presume any authority or judgment." "Of course not." "A secret like this has the power of a tide." "Once released, it will go where it must, beyond our control, and that will be the end of my life, of your life, of this court..." " Sire, I meant only..." " Grieve your loss, but do not forget your place." "So pale." "Needs a distraction." "It'll pass." " You sound very sure." " You doubt my opinion?" "I only see that she has not recovered." "You have a different solution perhaps?" "Why go on this way- she's no better?" "Why not change things?" "I am not going to argue." "Besides, what is done is done." "Have you packed the bags?" "Father, stop this." "It'll be the end." "Of both of us if we do not take measures!" "Then let me help you." "We cannot un-see what we have seen!" "They will kill us." "She needs us here." "Sire, I serve you now as I served your father." "He did things as they have always been done." "I see you as a very different kind of man, born in a new age, born perhaps years ahead of all who love and follow you." "The choice is clear." "There are two paths." "One worn and one yet to be." "How you plant your next step ahead in this moment will determine the way ahead for all of us." "We know how kings of the past would have moved against this problem but you are different, Sire." "You are the king of our future." "The only question is, what kind shall it be?" "Add a monthly stipend to the Household." "Under the name..." "The pension must remain unrecorded, outside of all record." "Do as you must." "Baptise it thoroughly." "See how life fights death." "Cherish this moment." "It is God given." "Stop at once!" "Our work protects the king." "Your work here is finished." "What hope does the wretch have outside of here?" "That is not your concern." "The Gazette De France will report on the funeral with consideration of a royal passing." "A grave is prepared." "A grave error, to be sure." "How is he?" "As you would expect." "He should be here." "The king does not mourn." "In public perhaps." "In truth, anywhere." "It's not only protocol." "The man doesn't weep." "Not with you." "It takes a woman to see it." "He will have a sorrowful heart." "His heart, if he has one, is a whole other matter entirely." "Is it not?" "You look nice." "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." "Give us this day our daily bread," "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us." "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." "Now and forever." "Amen." "Amen." " Who is that?" " He is your son," "Louis XIV." "Not yet he's not." "A maid comes crying to you with information on the royal baby and now she's dead." "Now we're not to leave Versailles because the queen is unwell." "What's going on?" "What is your brother hiding?" "You know him better than anyone." "Be careful about what you say and how loudly you say it." "The king wouldn't think twice about dispatching you." "Perhaps the baby was alive after all." " We saw the child buried." " We saw a box buried." "Your brother thinks you're weak." "You have more power than you realize." "Use it!" "I intend to." "This is your moment to shine, my love." "I know." "Show your worth." "The Spanish fortified Charleroi, Tournai, Douai and Lille." "General Aumont has troops in the north:" "Turenne." "His battalions lie east of Cambrai." "I say cut off all of Flanders plus Lille and large Spanish bases in the east." "Bruges," "Ghent," "Brussels and Namur." "But we'd have to cut the Spanish off from" "Tournai, Douai." "Who would lead our men?" "Maybe there's one." "But in truth, he may not be ready." " To meet here is dangerous." " We can't go, the queen is ill." "The king won't have it." "Noble families will come for the carousel of fashion." "This is our moment to make our case." "I hear the Duc De Cassel shares our intent." "Then let him come." "Cassel does his own will." "He's too rich, powerful to listen to anyone but himself, but if we were to persuade his friends, then we might yet persuade him." "No matter what, the building of Versailles must be stopped." "We grow in number every day and not even a king can stop a tide." "I've never seen a cipher like this." "Even Rossignol cannot break it." "This was in Montcourf's rooms yet he walks free?" "Free, but not unwatched." "So we do not know what it says?" "These symbols are similar to those we took off the prisoners." "Spaniards?" "Someone inside your court was helping them, was a friendly face." "Then we must summon Moncourt to us." "Better to lie fallow and collect information." "This paper was placed freely upon Montcourt's bureau." "He may not have known its true purpose." "Well, one thing is clear." "There is a plot against you, Sire." "Montcourt has wounded you before, he may try again." "The men are at war, and so are we." "The men use their swords, we use our beauty, but the end is the same, my dear:" "conquest." "This one is nice." "You'll need more than a dress, a filigree bracelet and a necklace of diamonds, believe me." "But how do we pay?" "Oh!" "Let me worry about that." " Your job is to bring me a king." " He's not even here." "When you gaze at a king, do not avert your eyes, especially looking like you do now." "You were never more beautiful than now." "Leave us." "Take it off." "There is talk of war." "Always." "My husband would love to fight." "Is that his desire?" "He talks of nothing else." "If I send him to the Spanish Netherlands, he may not return." "A glorious death would not displease him." "That's my brother you're speaking of." "I speak it, Sire, but you think it." "A little death is good for everyone." "Le Chevalier De Lorraine!" "Philippe Duc d'Orléans!" "Oh, look!" "You mock me?" "How can I not?" "You are an embarrassment to the king." "You mock me, you mock my brother that makes you a traitor." "If I smite you, you will fall, which makes me a dead man." "Coward!" "Stop!" "You've made your point." "Have you lost your mind?" "You choose who I marry, where I live, how much money I spend, but you do not choose what I wear, who I fuck." "Understand this." "Everything you are reflects on me." "I've dressed like this since 3 months old." "My goal was to be less than you." "Not my choice but my duty to not be the cloud in front of the sun." "Think it's hard being a king?" "Try being a king's brother." "You can't trick me." "I know what you're planning here." "And what you're hiding." "That's right..." "I know you, Brother." "I have only given you my love and respect." "Do you say that fucking my wife?" "Someone has to!" "Everything I have I share with you, but you won't share the truth." "How can I have your back if you won't tell me the truth?" "Some things you cannot know, things only a king can know." "Where's the baby?" "The child did not survive." "Know how rumours start?" "Your silence only fuels the fire." "Let me help you." "I have never uttered an ill word against you, my brother." "Your words don't worry me," "Brother." "Majesty, I want you to know I've been praying for you." "Why?" "As we sink into our deepest misery we must remember:" "God's will is to rouse our souls in longing for our promised Saviour." ""Know that our redeemer liveth."" "You are a whore." "You come to me for contrition even as my king's seed swells your belly." "We are all damned in this place." "Do you not see?" "I am the queen of harlots and you are a pious puta and we can beg for mercy all we like." "Hellfires are gaping to swallow us all." "You must leave." "Tend to Her Majesty, I'll get a poultice." "Sick from the birth." "Where is Nabo?" "And the poultice will reduce the womb's swelling." " It's swelling for a reason..." " Do as I say!" "Help me, please." "And call for the King!" "Your Majesty, let me make you comfortable." "Your Majesty?" "Your Majesty!" "Get my father!" "Quickly!" "Your Majesty!" "North and east are out of the question." "We cannot..." "You took it." "You are red in the face." "Took my tactic to give to him." "All my life I have longed for war, even the smallest taste, and now, you're denying me, again and again." "Ask me who leads." " Who will lead the charge?" " You will." "Sire, you mentioned that the man might not be ready yet." "I meant you, Louvois." "Congratulations, Brother, you are going to war." "Sire, the queen!" " Must be..." " God in heaven!" "Push on her stomach where you feel my hand near the ovarium." " I'll pull it out the womb." " Pull what?" " If she dies, we both die." " There, I have it!" "Her pulse's stronger." "Never speak of this." "Speak of what?" "Her Majesty was unwell, Sire and bled, but her condition looks as though it will improve." "So I see." "You may leave." "You will stay." "Privacy!" "Show your arm." "What is that in your hand?" "How did you stop the bleeding?" "Lie to me and God." "After birth." "I removed it from her uterus..." "I know where." "You knew it stops blood?" "It was a guess." "I'm a midwife trained by my father." "I'm a student of anatomy, medicine." "I do not recall signing any laws allowing women doctors." "I took body parts, studied the organs, took detailed notes, drew them." "A justice would have you burnt at the stake." " If that's your command." " My command is... you stay close to me on medical issues." "As to your father's position, in the eyes of the court he will remain our physician but advice I will heed comes from you." "Bontemps, let in air." "Unless you advise against it?" "As long as we cover her, fresh air will benefit her." "Comfrey and calendula aid healing, rosemary for the pain." "Don't look surprised." "I've put many women to bed." "Noble opinion is ours." "We shall need more than that." "We have our tinder, one of us must strike the flint." "If it is to be me, so be it." "I must tell you all." "I believe very soon we shall have a revolution in our country." "The world knows France as a master of the battlefield, but a glimpse around this glorious place tells you, soon our textile mercers and our master tailors shall transform the world." "Our fashions will be revered just as much for their beauty, elegance, refinement and grace," "the world's finest." "At the carousel many spoke of a desire to own the emerald rings on display." "I'm afraid to say this was never possible because I have bought every single one." "I wish to give you all a gift... this special evening." "I hope you enjoy the orange blossoms." "I can trace their rootstock back to the ancient citrus forests of Arabia." "Which reminds me, Moncourt..." "How is your wife?" "Dead, Sire." "She passed away six weeks ago, sadly." "Thank you for coming back to court so quickly." "No time to change after the funeral?" "These are not my mourning clothes." "Nor evening clothes." "Neither are they French clothes." "Your father, the Baron, inherited his title from his grandfather?" "Yes, Sire." "Originally bequeathed to his grandmother, the Baroness of Saint-Maur, she just married a Seigneur." "Seigneur Charles De Saint-Maur no less, Sire." "No more, sadly for you." "A farmer's son might call himself Charles De Saint-Maur if that is where he was born." "Your father, a common man with a fiefdom, was a vassal to his overlord, the true noble, the Grand Seigneur." "Isn't that right?" "He might be labelled a vassal, perhaps, or a peasant, yet you try to be above those men whom would gladly sweat and toil to feed their families pay their taxes and honor their duties to their King." "You think yourself above them, yet you lie far below." "You pay nothing and do nothing, which leads me to believe you are nothing," "which begs the question:" "What is a nothing doing at my court?" "I can find you my papers, Sire." "I beg you allow me to prove my worth." "The papers are all here after an inexcusable delay." "As to the delay, Sire, as I mentioned, um, to not bother you with trivial state affairs..." "I am the state!" "It has come to my attention many of you are uncomfortable here on our visits to Versailles." "Many of you prefer Paris or your lands and estates you so dearly miss, some only a short ride away." "To all of you, I say this:" "You will soon get used to it, and we shall all soon discover who we are." "Your noble birth freed you from our taxes." "Your falsehood, condemned you to pay." " I have no money but my estate." " Take his keys, then." " What do I do?" " You'll think of something." " You, what is your name?" " Pierre De la Croix." "God smiles on you, la Croix." "I do not know him." "He doesn't belong here." "The time's come to prove to me who you are, all of you." "Rest assured I will do the same." "We're under suspicion." "Every noble family must produce papers or pay tax..." "What's this proof everyone's talking of?" "Proof is proof." "We've nothing to worry about." "Now go and enjoy yourself." "Pull up a chair." "I said a chair, not a stool:" "a chair with arms." "Only kings sit by His Majesty in a chair with arms." "You are more than a king." "You are my friend." "I would like to hear stories about your son." "In his last hours, he asked me to tell him about my life with you." "And what did you say?" "I told him the truth:" "that it is God's gift to me to be by your side... that the gardens seem so glorious" "that they themselves gave birth to beauty and might steal the breath from any man." "I also told him he would one day live and work in my place, that he might find himself part of the finest family in the world," "all of whom dare to dream they might one day live like a king or a queen" "in a palace that will seduce your eyes and steal your heart," "and that one day when we are all gone... they will write stories about this place of wonder." "But when they do," "I fear that those who hear it might not believe it." "And think it's some kind of fairy tale." "Oh my God!" "Did your son approve of the dream?" "He asked me if that was where he was going." "I told him it was." "Some would say your son is in a better place." "I happen to believe true paradise lies in his father's arms, to be here with you" "in this moment" "and that is not our choice." "God has made his plans and we cannot question his design, just as my people cannot question mine," "but they will." "They mean to kill me." "They would kill us all to preserve the past." "They may succeed, but change will come no matter what." "And if we are to endure, there is only one course." "Which is what, Sire?" "We must lay our own foundation here." "Why here, Sire?" "Because I won't be king of Paris." "I know who I am." "I am Louis XIV." "I am King of France." "Now these nobles must prove their worth to me." "See how they run."