Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 240 007 In the th District of Paris, there is a mysterious lady
Madame Récamier's salon was reconvened on the rue Mont-Blanc, and the number of guests who came here was also astonishing.

However, there were only a few generals who came to show their support this time, and most of them were people from the social circle.

There were also diplomats from some countries, and Solovyov happened to sit close to the secretary of the British Embassy.

"Hello, my friend from Russia. If a reckless guy provokes you, don't kill him."

"On the premise that he doesn't use a knife to kill me."

"Yeah, this is a stupid way to die."

When two people laugh together, they do feel that sometimes, they should find some jokes that are not so funny.

"Charles Stuart, I was supposed to be in Vienna, but the embassy in Paris always needs someone to deal with the French. You know, the French are very difficult to deal with. I envy your skills."

"There are more duelists in Paris than permanent secretaries in London, and you happen to be an embassy secretary. If you don't become a professional diplomat, you will probably go back to being a permanent under-secretary, won't you?"

When Charles Stuart heard this, he realized that this Russian lieutenant colonel was very familiar with the United Kingdom's practices and could even explain them in a coherent manner.

"It's better to be a secretary abroad. In London, it's a hassle to go to the Foreign Office and be questioned by the Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office. Just imagine that the permanent secretary has to write letters or communicate with so many embassy secretaries in person. It's simply a disaster."

And this embassy secretary would later serve in embassies in St. Petersburg and Paris many times, and even as ambassador.

Of course, he doesn't like to stir up political topics and is a relatively mild-mannered diplomat.

As for the hostess of the salon, Madame Récamier, she was still sitting on her sofa as usual, a very classic posture.

"But today's topics are just fancy words. They are meaningless and can become hypnotic if you listen to them too much."

"But we don't need to go up there and tell them. You have to know that they are all permanent secretaries from various departments."

Stuart already had a picture in his mind. You know, many of these diplomats came from Oxford and Cambridge, and the art of speaking of these one of us was indeed like this.

In Solovyov's mind, there was a group of Tang monks chanting sutras, and in Stuart's mind, there was probably a chain of long and difficult sentences from these people.

The two of them couldn't help but feel a headache when they thought about going together.

"Michael, you should go to London and work as an assistant to Count Vorontsov. You know us English too well. You must have a way to deal with the secretaries of the Foreign Office."

"I don't want to. I'd rather stay in Paris."

Fortunately, the next part was the banquet. This time, the salon on Mont Blanc Avenue was reopened and a famous chef was indeed invited.

Many of the dishes are special dishes that appear in the "Food Yearbook".

But Solovyov still prefers borscht, but French cuisine doesn't often make this affordable dish.

Moreover, French chefs often modify bad ingredients and treat them as good ingredients instead of adding salt. This method is indeed a bit scary.

However, the grand ceremony in the French salon was even smaller than the banquet at Prince Alexander Kurakin's house.

The prince entertained guests in his own banquet hall with such pomp and luxury that Paris could only choose one or the other.

When Russians come to Paris in large numbers to consume in the future, I'm afraid this kind of scene will be brought over as well.

"Excuse me, I have to go to the Paris Opera tonight."

"You are good at drama adaptation and creation. Do you also like opera?"

“Art knows no national boundaries or forms of expression. Don’t think that we Russians are all barbarians. If you go to St. Petersburg, you will understand. It is just another paradise in the midst of ice and snow.”

By the way, it also exudes the dead and rotten smell of the upper class. Solovyov knew that he couldn't say this.

In the area between the 8th and 2nd arrondissements of Paris, the Paris Opera was also performing the latest opera. He had a ticket, but went there alone.

Even if he brought Adela back, she could only appear as a servant, and as for Silvia... Although he knew that Prince Borghese was a fool, Solovyov did not intend to provoke him. After all, this man would become Napoleon's brother-in-law in the future, and there was no need for a small Russian diplomat to cause such trouble.

However, he overlooked an important person in this logical chain, that is, Paulina.

Even though she couldn't appear in social occasions, Paulina began to appear in theaters as soon as she returned to Paris. She also lived in the new mansion her brother bought for her in the 8th arrondissement. While raising her children, she also had to look for a suitable man.

Although Leclerc died, she was really sad. After all, it was not easy to find a husband who was so tolerant of her. But she was just like that, always looking for food.

Today, she is also at the Paris Opera, and is in the box.

Here you can not only see the performance on the stage, but also see the actions of the people below the stage very clearly.

Today she only brought her female companion out, and she was leaning on the sofa in the box, watching everything in the theater.

With the education she received and the life she had to wander around in her childhood because of her third brother Lucien's nonsense, her biggest advantage over others is her beauty. There are many people who are greedy for her body. She is also a carnivore and is always eyeing the prey in the field.

But she was also afraid of her second brother Napoleon. Although the First Consul was very indulgent towards his sister, Leclerc had just passed away and was still in mourning.

In this regard, Napoleon proposed that after Paulina had completed a year of mourning, he would find an outstanding young man as her husband. If she had someone she liked, as long as he was of decent status, he could consider her.

In fact, for political reasons, Napoleon intended to marry Paulina to a young man of a certain status in Italy. This was a way to win over the Italian upper class.

People from the island of Corsica know Italians too well. You can tell from the names of their family members. Even though Paulina was born French, she was called Pauletta until she was 13 years old.

If Solovyov knew about this, he might even link it to the striker from Portugal's golden generation. Who isn't a football fan? It's just that none of these teams have one now.

Paulina was indeed sitting there, waiting for her prey to appear.

There was really no suitable candidate among the people present, not to mention that there were relatives of her deceased husband. Considering that Davout was already bald when he was less than 30 years old, and it was even more obvious now, she had no interest in him.

Polina is very picky in choosing men. This is her usual practice. She has criteria for judging men from head to toe. However, she is often hungry and will not choose what to eat. This is probably the "instinct" of a hunter, which is a bit scary. Although she will let go of some "prey" that reject her on weekdays, she will not give up easily on some special ones, and will even track them down.

Solovyov already felt the pressure when he sat in his seat. Although this definitely had nothing to do with death, it was like a hunter catching prey, and his instinct was to defend himself.

However, this kind of danger might be different from what he had encountered before, so he didn't care much about it.

After all, from the Paris Opera, one could walk directly to the Rue d'Italie and the Rue Montmartre and quickly return to his apartment on Rue Montmartre.

If there are special circumstances, he can go directly to the embassy, ​​after all, he also has a room there.

What Polina saw in the box was the back of his head. After all, after he took off his hat, he still had braids and a handsome face. There were indeed not many young men who could leave such a deep impression on her.

"Interesting prey, Madeline. You have to keep a close eye on him."

"Madam, that man is a Russian officer. I heard he is a good duelist and must be a dangerous playboy."

The little maid was obviously very careful and was also concerned about Paulina's safety.

"No, he looks harmless and won't hurt anyone easily. Madeleine, you are always so careful. I think there is no one more careful than you in Paris. This kind of person is like a beast that won't show its fangs and claws before encountering its prey. He won't hurt a girl, even if you follow behind him."

As for today's opera, it was the same as usual. In fact, Solovyov came to the theater today because he didn't want to stay in Madame Recamier's salon for too long, as it would easily arouse suspicion.

After all, Fouché had agents all over Paris, gathering intelligence on British and Russian diplomats in the city.

He also needs to do his best to disguise himself as a harmless person, so he has to continue attending events and living his personal life.

It's the lover problem, which is actually easy to solve. Sylvia is coming to Paris with her daughter. Although they can't get married, they are very happy when they are together.

What's more, the lion was probably the only clean door at Prince Borghese's house. Silvia's problems were trivial matters. She was trusted by the prince. After all, she was pregnant before marriage and had a child, which made people feel more at ease.

Although he was aware that Polina was staring at him from behind, it was only for a moment, and he even mistakenly thought that someone was secretly following him.

Therefore, after the show, he left in a carriage, which would allow him to move faster.

"Where are you going, sir?"

"I want to go to 205, Rue Montmartre."

But at this moment, because Madeline was the one tracking him, Solovyov could not sense any danger.

“Maybe sometimes intuition can be wrong.”

He thought so, and after arriving at Montmartre Street, he looked around to make sure that no one was following him.

Madeleine, also in a carriage, followed behind, and she even saw Solovyov enter the apartment.

Number 205, rue Montmartre, is where the victim of a famous injustice in Paris often lived.

"That makes it easy. I can do what my wife asked me to do well."

After walking for a while, she got off the car at a nearby street corner, then walked back and handed the letter written by Polina to the landlord.

"Miss, to whom do you want to give this letter?"

"There lives a gentleman here, Mikhail Solovyov, a Russian diplomat."

"We are a registered resident here. I came to see you, young lady. Who sent you?"

The landlord also knew that although Solovyov had begun to appear in the social circles of Paris with his real identity and there were many guests coming here, it was relatively rare for a girl to come and deliver a letter.

Although Solovyov was keen on asking his hired maid Adela and the maid Jeanne here to deliver letters, he would not let them deliver envelopes like this. They were just invitations and letters that required communication, asking them to do specific things, and no one would come.

If he had continued to register under a pseudonym, Madeleine's letter might not have been delivered.

However, he felt that since he was famous in Paris for duels and plays, it would be meaningless to use a pseudonym.

This identity was sometimes useful when going outside Paris, but that fool Cadoudal exposed him once in Nantes.

"Sir, what's the problem?"

"Do you have any impression of this official residence in District 8?"

"Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Before the Revolution, quite a few dignitaries lived there. I remember Number 39. It was the property of the Duke of Charlevoix. It should have been nationalized now."

"nationalize?"

"Yes, after the Duke's death, there was no one to inherit the property, so it was naturally taken over by the state."

You know, the French were much more diligent in sending nobles to the guillotine than the Russians in shooting them. Some patriots and philanthropists among the Russian nobles were able to leave with their important property. The last family of Count Stroganov who left were able to have a decent ceremony. Even more than 20 years later, many Russian nobles moved back. There was even someone who joined the party in the UK. You read that right, this is a princess of the Dolgorukov family, and she has the blood of the empress.

As for the signature of the letter, it was also very clear, inviting him to the Charles-St. residence for a chat on a certain day.

The letter from this lady seems to have many grammatical errors, and she is probably not a native French speaker. At the same time, there is another problem, that is, she did not reveal her identity, which is also strange.

There are many things in Paris that you still need to pay attention to.

However, there was still a hint of request in the other party's words. In other words, the lady had no hostility.

He thought of the ladies in Paris, even beautiful women like Madame Récamier who wore clothes that highlighted their figures, who were actually very reserved and innocent until now, and he let down his guard a little.

After all, no one could guess what Pauline Bonaparte was up to.

(End of this chapter)