Descending On France 1780
Chapter 220 - 213 Bloody Night

Chapter 220: 213 Bloody Night

Anning drew his sword and placed it straight to the throat of the first Royalist who approached.

Louis XVII angrily exclaimed, "How dare you draw a sword in front of me? Is there no respect for the King’s law?"

Anning didn’t care about his protests, and with two swings of his sword, he brought down the men who tried to stop him. Then, with a lunge, he reached General Bouyer and with precise, embroidery-like swordsmanship, severed the tendons in his hand.

Bouyer let out a scream like that of a slaughtered pig.

Then Anning took another lunge forward, right up to the face of Louis XVII.

Louis XVII’s eyes widened in surprise, his mouth opened to shout something, but that shout immediately turned into a whistling groan.

Because Anning had used the pommel of his sword to strike Louis XVII’s throat, physically cutting off his words.

Immediately after, Anning, with the body of a man just past his twenties, charged towards the study’s glass window.

Obviously, jumping through the window was a more viable option than fighting his way back through the same route he came.

With the sound of shattering glass came Louis XVII’s scream.

Anning’s body smashed through the glass like a cannonball, hurtling into the fiery night sky.

The height of the Palais des Tuileries was relatively high; even for Anning, jumping from the second floor was not a laughing matter—at least it shouldn’t be.

When he landed, Anning’s reflexes were as quick as usual, he adjusted his posture in mid-air and used a squatting motion with his knees to cushion the impact.

As a result, Anning ended up in a pose like that of the Terminator at the end of time travel.

Louis XVII, who was also dragged out of the window, was not so fortunate; he smashed right into the middle of the gathered Royalists below.

The good news was, the Royalists served as a cushion for their King.

The bad news was, this cushion was spiked, after all, the Royalists were armed with pitchforks and bayonet-rifles.

Louis XVII was stabbed in the shoulder and let out an agonized scream, but the aftershock of Anning’s earlier strike was still present, and his vocal cords weren’t fully functional, so the scream turned into some strange whining.

Anning turned around, cut down two confused Royalists with his sword, and then, picking up the still disoriented Louis XVII, charged towards his own army.

The Royalists below were stunned, completely clueless as to what had just happened.

At this moment, Anning ran past Lana.

Lana: ?

Anning: "What are you dazed for, run!"

Lana: "Ah? What happened?"

Although confused, Lana still turned and started sprinting.

Both his horse and Anning’s horse sensibly followed the two sprinting riders.

Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded: Anning carrying someone and running ahead, Lana with a bewildered face chasing after, and two horses happily trotting behind Lana.

The well-versed French Army, having never seen such a sight, were stunned upon seeing the trio and two horses running towards them.

The Royalists were also stupefied, unsure of what was happening.

For a moment, both sides just watched as the three people and two horses ran past the French-style garden square in front of the Palais des Tuileries.

Bouyer shouted from the upper floor, "Catch him, Frost has kidnapped His Majesty!"

The Royalists snapped out of their trance and began chasing after Anning, who was fleeing at breakneck speed.

The French Army didn’t catch what Bouyer had shouted, but seeing the Royalists moving, they promptly reacted.

"Raise your guns!"

Anning, running in front, yelled out, "Don’t shoot! Damn it, it’s me! Avoid friendly fire! Wait until we’ve passed!"

**

Napoleon: "Did something just fly out from the second floor of the Palais des Tuileries?"

Christina: "I didn’t quite see it clearly, seemed like a large object, did they throw down a sofa?"

Napoleon: "Shall we open fire then?"

Christina: "No, General is still inside. What if we accidentally hurt him?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw two people on two horses running their way.

Christina: "It’s Frost!"

Napoleon exclaimed in surprise: "How do you know? It’s so dark!"

Ignoring Napoleon’s response, Christina gave orders to her cavalry girls: "All set! We’ll charge and disperse the Royalists following them!"

After saying this, Christina drew her Horse Sword.

The responses were a series of Horse Swords being drawn from their scabbards.

Christina: "Attack!"

This small cavalry troop began to move forward, their formation extraordinarily orderly, as if undergoing inspection.

Napoleon didn’t hesitate either. After Christina’s charge, he dismounted, took a torch from a soldier’s hand, and personally lit the fuse of the Cannon!

The Cannon roared, its solid shot accurately hitting the second-floor wall of the Palais des Tuileries.

As a palace, the primary function of Palais des Tuileries was not to defend against enemy attacks, thus even a six-pound Cavalry Gun managed to blow a hole the size of a basin in the brick wall.

The sound of the cannon made the surrounding, oblivious singsong abruptly stop, then Patriots shouted: "It has started! Attack the Palais des Tuileries! Kill the Royalists!"

Napoleon: "Uh? Wait a minute, I only meant to fire the cannon for cover, don’t get overexcited..."

The Patriots, brandishing the tricolor flag, didn’t listen to him at all and surged toward the Palais des Tuileries like a breach in a dike.

Seeing this, the French Army also began a bayonet charge. Their target, the Royalists of the Palais des Tuileries!

Napoleon, holding a torch and watching this scene, stood frozen in place, muttering under his breath: "Damn, it’s all over. If this turns into a massacre, Andy is going to hold me accountable..."

His adjutant asked beside him: "Do we... keep loading?"

Napoleon resolutely decided: "Load! Things are already this way; let’s make the most of it! We are the first in French history to cannonade the King’s palace!"

**

In the midst of chaos, Anning finally made it back to a safe position behind his own line of Privates; he dropped the unconscious Louis XVII from his shoulders, gasping for breath while turning his head to watch the major confusion behind him.

The people of Paris were expressing their opinion to the Royalists with bayonets, undoubtedly ready to unload all the fear accumulated in recent days from the threat of the coalition and the fear of the Royalist counterattack after the coalition’s siege of Paris onto the heads of these Royalists.

Anning had read history books; he knew what kind of outburst this would turn into.

The Royalists were finished, literally.

—So in the end, it was impossible to prevent things from reaching this point.

Everything was just like real history.

Dickens, in his "A Tale of Two Cities", heavily criticized the crazed and bloodthirsty aspects of the Great Revolution, and he also intentionally used the poem of a French poetess to conclude the story:

Freedom, how many crimes are committed in thy name.

Although Anning didn’t buy this British notion, he also knew that the real Great Revolution indeed had a bloody aspect.

He had initially hoped to strive to prevent what happened tonight, to avoid turning into that.

Well then, nothing more can be done, let it be.

Thinking so, Anning saw Christina come over.

She dismounted and rushed over to Anning, grabbing his shoulders with both hands: "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine." Anning smiled. "By the way, I have a present for you."

Saying this, he pointed to the unconscious Louis XVII lying on the ground.

"I’ve brought your brother out."

Christina’s eyes widened with surprise, her mouth gaping in astonishment.