Soundtrack: François Adrien Boieldieu - Angéla - Ma Fanchette est Charmante
*Paris* *April 1814* *night* *a solitary cavalryman gallops in along the road from Rambouillet* *we see the soldier dismounting in the forecourt of the Hôtel de Talleyrand on the Rue de Saint-Florentin*
*cut to dinner table where Talleyrand is entertaining Alexander I of Russia [among others]*
*a servant comes in and passes a message to the chamberlain* *the chamberlain nods and walks over to the table, where he passes the message on to Talleyrand*
Talleyrand: *listening to Alexander regaling the company with some story* *camera pans in on his face, we see the pupils of his eyes grow large*
*cut to Talleyrand in a room* *in front of a fireplace* *the cavalryman is standing in front of him, reporting* *Joseph Fouché, duc d'Otrante, is in the chair opposite*
Fouché: *outburst* you idiot, you have...what must we do with this news? do you have any idea how this will make us look?
Talleyrand: it only makes us look complicit if we cover it up, my dear Joseph.
Fouché, cavalryman: *look at him*
Talleyrand: *to cavalryman* you may go.
Fouché: you have finally lost your head, Charles.
Talleyrand: hardly...I plan to keep mine attached. And keep the king on the throne-
Fouché: this king?
Talleyrand: don't be absurd. Louis XV's regency had the Cellamare Conspiracy, not to mention the Pontcallec Conspiracy afterwards, Louis XIV had the Fronde, and then fifty years of turmoil as Catherine de Medicis was regent for first one son then another. *shakes head* no...a regency will not do. Still less with an empress regent who is about as politically capable as Marie de Medicis.
Fouché: she had Richelieu, Anne had Mazarin, Louis XV had Fleury...
Talleyrand: and I am too old to walk in those shoes, Joseph. *sets glass of cognac aside* but this is the king's choice. The Bonapartes are...scattered. The empress and her daughter, the queen of Holland, are at Évreux, the king of Spain is in Orléans, the grand duchess of Tuscany is at Montpellier, and the king of Westphalia is with the boy's mother at Rambouillet. There will be a dreadful squabble amongst them- *tiredly* and haven't we seen what disaster such sibling squabbles have wrought over the last decade?
Fouché: *says nothing*
Talleyrand: it's only with difficulty that I've convinced the Russians to drop their support for either Bernadotte or the duc d'Orléans. The Austrians will want this boy on the throne, nobody in France will tolerate what they will see as an Austrian puppet. I'm afraid the die has been cast, Fouché, and there remains little to do but wait for the king to arrive.
Fouché: *under breath to Talleyrand* assuming the king doesn't have him executed or murdered or- does the Man in the Iron Mask mean anything to you?
Talleyrand: the king is many things. But he is the only Bourbon who is not a complete idiot [1].
*title card reads 5 May 1814* *Louis XVIII is in his study at the Tuileries Palace, talking to Blacas*
Footman: His Serene Highness, the Comte de Talleyrand, Prince de Benevente, His Serene Highness, the Duc d'Otrante-
Louis XVIII: *quietly as he watches them enter* ah, Blacas...here we see Crime escorted on the arm of Vice.
Blacas: *looks at the fair-haired child accompanying them* your Majesty, I was thinking more of the child playing in a nest of vipers [2]
Louis XVIII: since both studied to be priests, I imagine they should be oddly familiar with the passage.
Little boy: *charges forward* *looks up at the king* that's my father's chair.
Louis XVIII: *looks at Talleyrand*
Talleyrand: then you may bow and kiss your grandfather's hand, sire.
Louis XVIII: *puts out a pudgy hand*
Little boy: *looks conflicted* *finally does so*
Louis XVIII: *motions to Blacas*
Blacas: *lifts the little boy up and places him on Louis XVIII's leg [3]*
Louis XVIII: we bid you welcome to our court, Monseigneur François. You may rest assured of our eternal and unchanging love. *kisses the boy on both cheeks*
*fade to black*
[1] You cannot imagine how stupid the Comte d'Artois is. All these Bourbons are idiots except Louis XVIII.- said by Talleyrand OTL. Although the usual quip about them attributed to him is "learned nothing, forgot nothing" (mistakenly, since that was actually by historian Jacques Godechot (1907-1989))
[2] Isaiah 11:8
[3] the Prince Regent likened fastening the Garter on Louis XVIII to "buckling it around the waist of a rather stout woman"
*Paris* *April 1814* *night* *a solitary cavalryman gallops in along the road from Rambouillet* *we see the soldier dismounting in the forecourt of the Hôtel de Talleyrand on the Rue de Saint-Florentin*
*cut to dinner table where Talleyrand is entertaining Alexander I of Russia [among others]*
*a servant comes in and passes a message to the chamberlain* *the chamberlain nods and walks over to the table, where he passes the message on to Talleyrand*
Talleyrand: *listening to Alexander regaling the company with some story* *camera pans in on his face, we see the pupils of his eyes grow large*
*cut to Talleyrand in a room* *in front of a fireplace* *the cavalryman is standing in front of him, reporting* *Joseph Fouché, duc d'Otrante, is in the chair opposite*
Fouché: *outburst* you idiot, you have...what must we do with this news? do you have any idea how this will make us look?
Talleyrand: it only makes us look complicit if we cover it up, my dear Joseph.
Fouché, cavalryman: *look at him*
Talleyrand: *to cavalryman* you may go.
Fouché: you have finally lost your head, Charles.
Talleyrand: hardly...I plan to keep mine attached. And keep the king on the throne-
Fouché: this king?
Talleyrand: don't be absurd. Louis XV's regency had the Cellamare Conspiracy, not to mention the Pontcallec Conspiracy afterwards, Louis XIV had the Fronde, and then fifty years of turmoil as Catherine de Medicis was regent for first one son then another. *shakes head* no...a regency will not do. Still less with an empress regent who is about as politically capable as Marie de Medicis.
Fouché: she had Richelieu, Anne had Mazarin, Louis XV had Fleury...
Talleyrand: and I am too old to walk in those shoes, Joseph. *sets glass of cognac aside* but this is the king's choice. The Bonapartes are...scattered. The empress and her daughter, the queen of Holland, are at Évreux, the king of Spain is in Orléans, the grand duchess of Tuscany is at Montpellier, and the king of Westphalia is with the boy's mother at Rambouillet. There will be a dreadful squabble amongst them- *tiredly* and haven't we seen what disaster such sibling squabbles have wrought over the last decade?
Fouché: *says nothing*
Talleyrand: it's only with difficulty that I've convinced the Russians to drop their support for either Bernadotte or the duc d'Orléans. The Austrians will want this boy on the throne, nobody in France will tolerate what they will see as an Austrian puppet. I'm afraid the die has been cast, Fouché, and there remains little to do but wait for the king to arrive.
Fouché: *under breath to Talleyrand* assuming the king doesn't have him executed or murdered or- does the Man in the Iron Mask mean anything to you?
Talleyrand: the king is many things. But he is the only Bourbon who is not a complete idiot [1].
*title card reads 5 May 1814* *Louis XVIII is in his study at the Tuileries Palace, talking to Blacas*
Footman: His Serene Highness, the Comte de Talleyrand, Prince de Benevente, His Serene Highness, the Duc d'Otrante-
Louis XVIII: *quietly as he watches them enter* ah, Blacas...here we see Crime escorted on the arm of Vice.
Blacas: *looks at the fair-haired child accompanying them* your Majesty, I was thinking more of the child playing in a nest of vipers [2]
Louis XVIII: since both studied to be priests, I imagine they should be oddly familiar with the passage.
Little boy: *charges forward* *looks up at the king* that's my father's chair.
Louis XVIII: *looks at Talleyrand*
Talleyrand: then you may bow and kiss your grandfather's hand, sire.
Louis XVIII: *puts out a pudgy hand*
Little boy: *looks conflicted* *finally does so*
Louis XVIII: *motions to Blacas*
Blacas: *lifts the little boy up and places him on Louis XVIII's leg [3]*
Louis XVIII: we bid you welcome to our court, Monseigneur François. You may rest assured of our eternal and unchanging love. *kisses the boy on both cheeks*
*fade to black*
[1] You cannot imagine how stupid the Comte d'Artois is. All these Bourbons are idiots except Louis XVIII.- said by Talleyrand OTL. Although the usual quip about them attributed to him is "learned nothing, forgot nothing" (mistakenly, since that was actually by historian Jacques Godechot (1907-1989))
[2] Isaiah 11:8
[3] the Prince Regent likened fastening the Garter on Louis XVIII to "buckling it around the waist of a rather stout woman"