After this idea came to his mind, Pushkin's eyes subconsciously moved to the side.
This was not a casual browsing, but a purposeful one - he wanted to find someone among the crowd.
This person is not difficult to find, because even in the palace where celebrities gather, she is one of the highest-ranking people, and she must be very conspicuous in the crowd.
Sure enough, it only took him a little time to find it.
In the center of the hall, directly opposite the throne, in almost the most conspicuous position, there is a young woman wearing a palace skirt and a ribbon dress.
Not only was she dressed luxuriously, her face was calm and solemn, but there was almost no one around her. The hall was obviously crowded with people, but there was a small open space around her.
When people do this, it is not so much "respecting" her noble status as it is to stay away from her and not dare to approach her.
This lady is naturally Princess Maria, who is rumored to have a "close relationship" with his good friend the Emperor.
As one of the most distinguished guests in the palace, it is not surprising that she attended this occasion. Pushkin was not surprised by the treatment she was receiving now. Although he did not know the princess, he had heard some rumors.
, some of these rumors conflicted with each other, and some he thought were absurd, but they had one thing in common: that is, Queen Theresa had a very bad relationship with her, and there were very sharp conflicts between them.
It's easy to stop.
Even though the matter was suppressed, their relationship was still very cold, to the point where they never interacted with each other except on ceremonial occasions.
Pushkin was naturally able to feel this indifference from the side. Since coming to Paris, he had been invited to Fontainebleau many times, chatted with Theresa many times, and mentioned many people, but Theresa
The existence of the other party was not even mentioned once, as if she was completely empty, which shows how bad the impression is.
Since Teresa's old grudge has not been resolved, in the eyes of the most observant courtiers and ladies, Princess Maria is naturally a dangerous person who cannot be approached. Even if there is anyone who is really dissatisfied with Her Majesty the Queen, they may stand rashly on this occasion.
On the side of Princess Maria, it is clear that she is the "opposition" of Her Majesty the Queen - so naturally, she has an aura of "keep away from strangers" here.
However, no matter what, she is still a princess of a country and a distinguished guest, so no one dares to show off to her. She can still remain calm and act as if nothing happened.
Because of his curiosity, Pushkin couldn't help but continue to observe Maria.
Then he silently came to the conclusion that beauty was indeed beautiful, but in his opinion, she seemed inferior to Theresa.
Pushkin knew that this might be because he had known Teresa earlier and might have had a preconceived impression, but Teresa's demeanor and self-cultivation seemed to outshine hers no matter how he looked at it.
As a prodigal with countless romantic affairs, Pushkin felt that his conclusion was somewhat reliable.
So, why was she able to charm her best friend so much that he would rather risk the discord between the couple to keep her? He couldn't figure out the reason.
All I can say is that this world is often full of surprises.
Poets are never satisfied. No matter how good they are, they still want to experience other beauties. In the end, he can only judge others by himself and come to this conclusion.
At this moment, perhaps sensing that someone was looking at her, Princess Maria suddenly turned her head slightly, and her eyes met with his.
Then, the corners of Maria's mouth twitched slightly, revealing a faint smile.
This smile is full of aggression, provocation and ridicule, but also seems to have a kind of indifference of going its own way.
Pushkin felt nervous and quickly lowered his gaze, not daring to look at the other person again - after all, it was really rude to keep peeking at a lady in private, and the other person's identity was definitely not something he could afford.
Fortunately, nothing happened next. Maria turned around again, and continued to listen to Teresa and the orchestra's performance with a respectful and even humble expression. As for what she was thinking in her heart, no one knew.
Got it.
Just when Pushkin thought that this little turmoil had subsided, the man he had just observed in private quietly walked up to him during a break in the music.
"Mr. Poet from Russia, I have heard your name for a long time. It is such an honor to finally meet you today." Then she said hello softly.
Pushkin was a little confused and a little flustered by her sudden greeting, fearing that she was causing trouble for what had just happened. However, he still followed the due etiquette and saluted the other party respectfully. "I am also very happy to meet you, princess.
Your Highness. However, I only have some ability to show off my words, and I really don’t deserve your praise."
Although the two of them were chatting and saying hello, and they were officially acquainted, Pushkin had a worse impression of Maria in his heart.
He had an indescribable feeling - even though she seemed to be just saying hello, she still gave people the feeling of being mocked from above, which made people feel a little uncomfortable.
Compared to the feeling of spring breeze when communicating with Teresa, it is indeed a world of difference.
If he had to choose, he would definitely choose Teresa as his friend - but it seems that the princess in front of him is not someone who needs friends.
At this time, many people nearby noticed the two of them, but although Maria's behavior was surprising, no one seemed too shocked - after all, this Russian has recently become famous in Paris, and Princess Maria wants to
It’s normal to see a new trick.
"It's too noisy here, can we take a step to talk?" Maria suggested again after a brief greeting.
Pushkin was shocked again, but in this situation, he seemed to have no reason to refuse, so he nodded slightly and agreed to the other party's request.
So, the two people walked out of the hall and then came to the balcony next to the corridor.
It was already dark at this time, and the stars in the sky made the palace under the night a bit more mysterious, and made the scene a bit unreal.
"Your Highness, do you have any instructions for me?" Pushkin asked cautiously.
"It's not about giving orders, I just have a merciless request for you." Maria replied with a slight smile.
"Then what do you want me to do?" Pushkin suddenly became more nervous and asked quickly.
"What else can I do if I find a poet?" Maria spread her hands innocently.
"You want me to write a poem for you?" Pushkin asked.
"Half right, dear sir." Maria smiled, "I do want you to write poetry, but it's not for myself. If it's just for myself, I can go to your friends. Your Majesty also
You wrote a poem for me~"
Regarding the other party's bragging, Pushkin just pretended not to hear it and did not ask further questions - after all, the less he knew about this kind of thing, the better.
"In other words, you want me to write poems for others, so what exactly?"
"You can understand it as customization... Just like I order clothes and hats from a tailor, I ask you to write a poem. For this, I am willing to pay the due reward." Maria replied unhurriedly, "The specific target... is
My father and your Majesty’s father, I hope you can write a poem to celebrate the deep friendship between them and the close affinity between our two royal families for two generations.”
Although Maria spoke vaguely, Pushkin certainly understood what she was talking about - Maria's father, Maximilian, was originally a "traitor" and took refuge with Emperor Napoleon along with a large group of German princes and followed him.
He dismantled the Holy Roman Empire and formed the pro-French Rhine League. In order to consolidate family friendship, he also married his eldest daughter to the emperor's adopted son, Prince Eugene, making the two people have a "son-and-daughter" relationship.
To say "deep friendship" is indeed a deep friendship, but it is a bit ridiculous to talk about friendship among the capricious German princes - after Emperor Napoleon entered a decline, Bavaria has never been ambiguous about jumping ship.
However, now that the Bonaparte family is making a comeback, it is quite normal for the Bavarian royal family to re-advocate for family friendship in order to "take advantage of foreign countries to respect themselves".
As a well-known pro-French element, it was only natural for Maria to find someone to promote her father's deep friendship with Emperor Napoleon to support her.
Logically speaking, as long as she is willing to spend money on this kind of thing, and there are so many imperial literati who want to cling to the powerful, she does not have to go to Pushkin - it's just that the poet has recently become famous in Paris, so she asked him to write
Coming out will only put more gilt on her own face.
Of course, Maria had another reason that was inconvenient to explain, but the more important reason was that this Russian was Teresa’s friend. If he was bribed by her to write a hymn, Teresa would definitely be very unhappy, and anyone who could provoke her
Theresa was willing to do anything that made Teresa unhappy, and she would do it happily.
"How about it, sir?" After expressing her thoughts, Maria asked Pushkin again, "I know that this will take up your precious time, so I am willing to spend a large amount of retouching fees to buy your works.
...If you prefer fame, I will invite you to my motherland for cultural exchanges in the future. This will definitely be a very pleasant trip for you, what do you think?"
Pushkin fell into silence and did not answer her.
"Don't you think the conditions I gave are sincere enough?" Maria asked with some confusion.
"No, Your Highness, the conditions are very favorable. It can be said that I am truly frightened. Any poet, not to mention me, would be tempted." Pushkin shook his head gently, and then immediately changed the subject, "But, I'm afraid you don't have any
Don’t understand me... Although I am a poet, I only write what I like to write. I neither know how to write odes nor can I write them.”
Being rejected by Pushkin in person, Maria suddenly felt a little unhappy.
In her heart, the Russian Empire may be very powerful, but it is definitely an uneducated and barren land. Therefore, in her heart, she also looks down on the so-called great Russian poets, but now she did not expect that she had given such a "generous" gift.
The conditions were actually rejected by him so simply, so of course he would be angry.
She glanced at Pushkin again, as if asking him to reconsider, but Pushkin just bowed slightly, seemingly apologizing, but in fact he still insisted on his opinion.
"Didn't you accept his request and write a poem for the late Emperor Napoleon?" Maria asked. "Why can't you write it for my father?"
Pushkin was not surprised. After all, the other party had a special relationship with his friend. It was normal to learn this from him. "Your Highness, I did agree to write a poem for Napoleon, but it is not a hymn; and I did not write this because of
He is an emperor, but because he represents too many other things... He is a hero first, and an emperor second."
At this point, he could only pause, and the implication was already quite obvious - your father is just an ordinary king, not a hero, so there is nothing worthy of praise, let alone
It's not worthy of him writing poems to praise it.
Such a response made Maria even more angry.
However, she also knew that getting angry at people now had no meaning and would only make her lose her temper even more, so she could only control her emotions and smile coldly.
"Of course you can refuse, sir, this is your freedom. However, I am sorry, because in this case, you will lose my good intentions..."
Seeing Maria looking so angry, Pushkin felt that his words seemed a bit too harsh.
Although it was about his pride as a poet, he didn't want to give in, but as a wanderer, he didn't want to make such a beautiful lady sad - besides, no matter what, she was his friend's lover, and he didn't want to
The relationship between the two people has become so tense.
"Your Highness, I admit that I looked at you rudely just now and caused you trouble... However, please allow me to defend myself. I have absolutely no inappropriate thoughts. I am just curious. After all, you and him
The relationship is very close.”
His answer made Maria angry for a while, but now she was even more angry and speechless.
Pushkin was also confused for a while, because until now, he still has not found the reason.
Maybe this is an accident of fate? There is not so much reason.
"Well, sir, I wish you a pleasant evening." After this quarrel, Maria was unwilling to continue the conversation, so she nodded coldly and said goodbye. "I hope you can change your mind in the future."
"If there is a chance in the future, I would like to write a poem for you as a souvenir - of course, it is just for fun." Pushkin saluted and said goodbye.