Vol 7 Chapter 254: Prayer procession

In the Pinewood Villa outside Toledo, Gonzalo put his two legs up on the table, a pair of leather boots on his feet gently knocked on each other, his eyes seemed to be asleep rather than asleep, half squinted together, like Is taking a nap.
But soon he was awakened by the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside.
Opening his eyes and looking at the door, Gonzalo didn't move as a figure appeared, but smiled and greeted everyone.
Lazy, casual and with a little coziness, this is what the Knight Sandro Don De Cliar saw when he entered the room.
He originally thought that Gonzalo should be a little lost, but now it looks quite relaxed, and he is also worried that his friend will have defeated the frustrated De Kliar knight, but for a while because of this unexpected scene, I don’t know what to say. That's good.
"Sandro, you're here," Gonzalo greeted casually, and then ordered the servant standing at the door "Go get the wine and get the best."
"My lord, you really surprised me." The Knight De Cliar smiled bitterly, thinking about how he came all the way because he was worried that he would die in such a hot season, but what he saw was this scene, De Cliar. The knight couldn't help being a little annoyed. "I thought you were in a bad situation now, but depending on how you look now, it seems to be more relaxed than before."
"You can say the same, in fact I never felt so good now."
Gonzalo took the dusty wine bottle from the servant who came in, and after unscrewing it forcefully, poured the wine into the glass in front of the de Cliar knight.
"I have been here all this time reminiscing about the battle of Seville, and the command of the Duke of Rome Thesia."
"Sorry, my lord, I have to correct you. It is the command of Her Majesty the Queen of Sicily."
Hearing what the Knight De Cliar said, Gonzalo looked at him and laughed "hahaha".
"It can be seen that you have been tamed by the queen, right?"
"To be precise, I am her captive," Knight De Cliar corrected slightly. "But I admit that I was indeed conquered by Her Majesty the Queen. I never thought that one day I would be defeated by a woman. "
"Who could have thought of it?" This topic obviously made Gonzalo deeply impressed. He smiled bitterly and clinked with the Cavaliers De Cliar. After taking a sip, he placed the cup between his palms and rubbed it back and forth. At the same time, an indescribable confusion flashed in his eyes, "I used to think that I was the most special one, but then I discovered that God obviously does not only dote on me."
"Then have you figured out the reason for the defeat in the Battle of Seville," the de Cliar knight asked curiously.
"I don't know," Gonzalo explained patiently when he saw the unexpected look of his friend's answer to him. "I recalled almost every detail I could think of, as well as all the judgments we made and subsequently issued. I can guarantee that if I were to re-command this battle again, I would be able to win the battle quickly, but..."
"Just what?"
Seeing Gonzalo stop, the De Cliar knight couldn't help but asked curiously.
"Now I think about it carefully, and found that if I didn't know that there would be a later result, the only decisions I could make were the same as then, and our opponent seemed to know what I would do from beginning to end."
The de Cliar knight was silent, he thought about Gonzalo's words carefully, and then he was surprised to find that things seemed to be exactly what he said, throughout the battle of Seville, they had indeed done everything they could.
And their enemies, as Gonzalo said, always seemed to know what they would do.
"Even from now, I can’t think of a better response than the Queen of Sicily’s response at the time. She seemed to know from the beginning what kind of decision I would make, so she placed the heavy troops on Her left wing, because she knew I would send cavalry to surprise her as soon as the battle began."
"And she arranged the most elite troops on the second line of her center," the de Kliar knight also joined Gonzalo's memories with interest "because this not only avoided our artillery strikes, but also We can also launch a counterattack just in the brief chaos after we broke through the first line of defense."
"More than that, their artillery can cause a lot of damage to our phalanx, but they would rather endure the blow of our artillery and wait for the opportunity, and then destroy almost all of our artillery in one fell swoop!"
Gonzalo said excitedly, he drank a sip of wine, and then circled back and forth, as if he had completely forgotten that the Knight De Cliar had just come from afar and did not rest.
"You know, I even thought about what I would do if I was replaced by the Queen of Sicily," Gonzalo stopped and looked at Knight De Cliar seriously, and then he shook his head slowly. "Then I found that I couldn't figure out how to pay. Is there any other better way? Every decision she made may not be the most correct, but she won."
The knight de Cliar nodded. Although he was indeed impressed by the queen's amazing beauty and demeanor after seeing the Queen of Sicily, he now listens to Gonzalo, one of the commanders of the two sides of the Battle of Seville. Still can't help but feel agitated, hard to control himself.
He couldn't help but imagine what would happen if he was fighting with both of them separately, and then the De Kliar knight was a little frustrated to find that it seemed that either of these two men could teach him a severe lesson.
But Gonzalo interrupted his reverie at this moment.
"Well, tell me what the queen asked you to do?" Gonzalo asked the Knight De Cliar "I know she has persuaded you to serve her, and now you are a servant by the Queen of Sicily."
Knight De Cliar smiled. He didn't care about Gonzalo's mocking words: "The Queen hopes you can serve her in the same way."
"It's obviously impossible," Gonzalo refused without hesitation. "I'm a Castilian. Besides, I don't think the Queen of Sicily needs me."
"No, the Queen is very interested in you," the Knight De Kliar immediately defended his new master. "Did you know, your Majesty praised you as a true general and commander in chief, and she said you can create greater miracle."
"That's what the queen said?" Gonzalo was somewhat interested.
In addition, he has always regarded himself very high. Although the Battle of Seville accidentally suffered his biggest defeat since the expedition to Italy, he was not discouraged, but from the moment of defeat, he has been constantly pondering the battle. Gains and losses.
I just didn't expect that the Queen of Sicily seemed to have stronger confidence in him than himself.
Perhaps this is because of the Duke of Rome Thesia?
Gonzalo thought for a while and thought it was possible.
The Duke of Rome Thesia is really an interesting person.
Gonzalo thought slightly amused.
For the brother and sister, his already strong curiosity is now greater.
Thinking that his letter sent to Alibabadotus should almost arrive, Gonzalo felt a vague excitement in his heart.
In the Bishop's Palace in Toledo, the archbishop walked back and forth unsurely.
He was waiting for Alexander.
When a person is honest and willing to be ordinary, he often doesn't have any thoughts.
But when someone tells him that you have the opportunity to become a bigger and more important person than now, with more wealth and power, even if you know that it may be just a mirage, few people can't be moved.
If the person who said this to him disappears after saying it, then he will grow from being full of hope towards this person to having resentment from the bottom of his heart.
The archbishop is like that.
The promise Alexander made to him before has now become his heart disease, or simply a curse.
No matter day or night, he would involuntarily think of those words, and sometimes he even imagined himself wearing a purple robe in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and making generous speeches.
It is a pity that Alexander seems to have completely forgotten his previous promise, and he has been indifferent without any news for several days.
It is like giving a bunch of food to a person who is on the verge of starvation, and then cruelly snatching it from him. This torture is more cruel than giving nothing from the beginning.
The archbishop has been suffering from the gains and losses at the beginning and then becomes extremely distressed.
Just when he finally couldn't bear to wonder whether to send someone to find Alexander, the Balkan guard next to Alexander suddenly brought him good news.
The duke is going to the bishop's palace to meet with the archbishop.
Ever since he got up in the morning, the archbishop has been restless. He told himself that he shouldn't be so restless, but as time went on, the sun gradually rose above his head, and the archbishop's heart became more and more impatient.
He began to worry that it was Alexander playing tricks on him, but the little hope in his heart made him tell himself again and again that things would not be so bad.
Once the big bell on the church tower rang, the archbishop had to walk out of the room, and he had to attend the noon prayer.
It's just that he is in a bad mood now, and people around him are also very unpleasant.
According to the Benedict canon, the number of prayers per day is 11 times.
Among them, the noon prayer is the fourth time in a day. From the day before dawn, you have to get up and pray, to the afternoon when people become lazy, the chanting of the priests' spirits makes people drowsy.
The archbishop stared at the priests with a deep expression. Just as he was wondering if he could find a few unpleasant sighs from among them, he saw a few figures appearing at the church door.
Seeing Alexander standing at the junction of the noon sun outside and the shadow of the church porch, the person who made the archbishop suddenly stand there was like an angel in control of all the destiny of the world.
It's just that this angel was vaguely disturbed after getting him initially excited.
Alexander looked at the archbishop standing next to the priest, and saw that although he seemed calm, but somewhat deliberately calm, he couldn't help but smile.
How many people in this world can resist the temptation of wealth and status, or even if someone can really not be tempted by these things, it does not mean that there is no other way to make their hearts move.
In fact, sometimes it is not only the temptation that can impress some people. For some people, money and power can make him bow to his ears, but for others, perhaps a noble but empty belief can make him born to death.
The key to everything depends on whether you can cleverly find what everyone desires and needs most.
To the Archbishop of Toledo, Alexander only took a promise of a future cardinal to make him suffer.
The archbishop almost spent the next time in a daze, but the long afternoon prayer that was not long made him feel that long for the first time.
Finally, after seeing Alexander half-kneeling and drawing a cross, the archbishop walked towards him.
"Duke, I heard that you have been meeting with the elders."
The archbishop said, looking at Alexander, then he was slightly surprised to find a trace of fatigue on his face.
"Yes, Archbishop you may not have imagined how I came here these days," Alexander glanced at the archbishop with a meaningful smile. "But you just have to think for a moment that you might become a pivot. Can guess where I am now."
The archbishop's face immediately became serious.
Of course he knows what kind of bad personality those nobles have. Maybe they can cooperate with the church because of the same purpose in dealing with Ferdinand, but as long as there is a chance, those nobles will immediately turn around and bite. Go to church.
So Alexander promised to help him become a cardinal. Will the nobles cause him trouble in this matter?
Thinking of this, the archbishop's originally uneasy emotions grew stronger.
As the senior priest of the church, the Archbishop of Castile, there is nothing more exciting for him than becoming a cardinal.
When I heard that the Archbishop of Valencia Rodrigo Borgia became the cardinal of the Holy See, the current Archbishop has not yet taken over. The only thing he can do is to secretly envy Rodrigo Borgia that there is a Pope Uncle, although the pope has passed away for many years, the impression of the Borgia family in the Vatican can be seen from the election of Rodrigo Borgia as the cardinal.
Now it is difficult to have a powerful duke who is willing to help himself, and at the same time with the support of the pope today, the archbishop feels that the door of the Vatican has been opened to him.
The archbishop's gloomy expression slowly eased a lot, because he was eager to know the result from Alexander, the archbishop took the initiative to invite Alexander to visit the Toledo Cathedral again.
"There are indeed people who are quite dissatisfied that you might become a cardinal." Alexander thought of the attitudes of the noble elders and couldn't help but smile. Although the old and new nobles and churches of Toledo held a large number of Castile's traditional forces, they always struggle But the Isabella couple is not without reason.
Thinking of this ~EbookFREE.me~ Alexander felt that his trip to Toledo was really right.
"Archbishop, have you considered holding a prayer parade? This may be a good way for you to get more support."
The archbishop was taken aback.
He knows that most of these parades are far away, and they are quite painful.
However, such a parade can undoubtedly usher in a lot of prestige for him. He didn't care about the prestige before, but now for him, the parade of prayer can undoubtedly bring him great help.
"Duke, you mean a grand parade to get people to support me as a cardinal?"
"At least this will prevent those who oppose it having a chance to cause trouble," Alexander thought for a while, and suddenly smiled. "I think the destination of the parade is Vallitod, which is the most suitable."
Hearing what Alexander said, the smile on the face of the archbishop who was in a good mood and was in a good mood instantly solidified.
Looking at Alexander, the archbishop suddenly felt like he was on a thief ship.