## Chapter 247: The French Bulldog Encyclopedia (5K2)
**London, Tower Hamlets, Whitechapel Police Station, Interrogation Room.**
Alexandre Dumas and Arthur sat on either side of the interrogation table, while Louis-Napoléon sat opposite them, clad in an ill-fitting Scotland Yard police uniform.
Dumas, with a pen stuck in his mouth, glanced down at the sheet of paper in front of him, filled with questions and fresh ink. He then turned to Arthur, raising an eyebrow.
Arthur simply nodded slightly in response to the fat man’s gesture, indicating that the examination could begin.
Dumas cleared his throat and pulled out a print of Napoleon’s portrait, recently purchased from a nearby shop, comparing it to Louis-Napoléon. He then asked: “Sir, how should I address you?”
Louis-Napoléon rubbed his calves, his face contorted in annoyance. “I’ve told you countless times, I am Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte! I don’t expect you Brits to be efficient, but at least improve your memory!”
Dumas couldn’t help but slam his fist on the table. “Sir, please retract your insults. There is only a genuine French gentleman and a British bald man who hasn’t yet gone bald sitting in front of you in this office.”
Arthur merely took a sip of tea. “Alexandre, you’ve been out gallivanting lately, I shouldn’t have had time to offend you, right?”
Dumas, upon hearing this, quickly corrected himself. “I’ll revise that. What I said earlier was hypothetical! There are also some British people who are naturally not bald.”
Louis-Napoléon, sitting opposite, naturally replied: “I guess you’re referring to the ladies of Britain, as they make up half the population.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the faces of the two Frenchmen lit up with a knowing smile, melting the coldness of the interrogation room with their joyful laughter.
Arthur merely glanced at them, coldly stating: “Even though you can’t provide any citizenship documents, you should be a Frenchman, at least in spirit. Alright, Alexandre, let’s move on to the next topic.”
Despite Arthur’s words, Dumas was still eager. “Arthur, why the rush? He might have just lived in France for a while, I need to test him further.”
Before Arthur could speak, Dumas quickly asked: “Listen carefully, sir. If you are a true Frenchman, you will surely know the answer to this question. Listen carefully. What begins with warmth, comfort, as if enveloped in the sun, goes through a long, damp, soft, bumpy process, and finally ends with a gasp of seeing thousands of little fools?”
Louis-Napoléon couldn’t help but chuckle mischievously. He pointed at Dumas and said: “Aha! Mate, if I weren’t a true Frenchman, I might have been stumped by your question.”
Dumas, with a serious expression, said: “So, what’s your answer?”
Louis-Napoléon stood tall and confidently replied: “Simple, I guess you’re talking about crossing the English Channel from France!”
“Absolutely correct!” Dumas leaped to his feet and grabbed Louis-Napoléon’s hand, shaking his arm while not forgetting to turn to Arthur and prove his point. “Arthur, I can confirm now, this guy must be my compatriot, no mistake.”
Arthur, upon hearing this, spun the pen in his hand more vigorously. “Alexandre, are you sure you want to play this game with me? Are you two French frogs done playing around?”
Dumas returned to his seat, coughed twice, and then picked up the prepared questionnaire.
“Sir, while I’m willing to prove that you’re a true Frenchman, I still have some doubts about your claim of being Napoleon’s relative. To be honest, my father actually had some work connections with Napoleon, so I happen to know some secrets about Napoleon that others don’t…”
Louis-Napoléon shivered at these words, asking: “Are you Fouche’s son?”
“Fouche?” Dumas coughed. “My father didn’t reach that level, but sir, pay attention, the one next to me is Hastings, Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, he is the Fouche of Britain. In other words, in front of him, you better tell the truth, don’t try to be clever, otherwise, if he finds out you’re lying, you know…”
Louis-Napoléon was terrified by Dumas’s ambiguous words. He asked: “You… you guys aren’t going to shoot me, are you? I’m a victim, for God’s sake!”
Arthur rested his forearms on the table, clasped his hands, and brought them to his mouth. “Sir, while I also want to believe your words, you know, you can’t provide citizenship documents, or any other identification, you don’t even have a passport for entry. If this were during the Napoleonic Wars, we could sentence you as a foreign spy and execute you based on these points alone. Not to mention, you just proved you’re a Frenchman, which is a serious aggravating factor.”
“But I’m not a spy, and it’s not the Napoleonic Wars anymore!”
“That’s right.” Arthur nodded. “So, we won’t execute you, Britain is still very humane in this regard. But while we won’t execute you, we can’t rule out the possibility of you being a member of the Fred crime syndicate. So, before the truth is revealed, we tend to detain you temporarily. If you don’t want to be locked up in an electrified cage, you better come clean and tell us everything.”
Dumas chimed in: “Yes, that’s right, mate. From your answers just now, you don’t seem like a bad guy, but bragging about your connection to Napoleon is wrong. You still have time to admit your mistake, I warn you, the questions I’m going to ask next aren’t something ordinary Frenchmen can answer, my father really had connections with Napoleon.”
Louis-Napoléon was initially terrified, but as soon as he heard Dumas questioning his lineage, the twenty-three-year-old couldn’t hold back. “Then ask away! Bonaparte men don’t die of fear! Our nobility is inherent!”
“Good! You have guts!” Dumas couldn’t help but admire him. “With that said, even if you’re not from the Bonaparte family, you’re at least of noble birth. Now, listen to the question… Who was the French First Empire’s meritorious general who once served as commander of the Alpine Army and followed Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt?”
Louis-Napoléon was stunned for a moment, then fell into contemplation. “This… Jean Lannes?”
Dumas, seeing this, simply tossed his pen aside. “Come on, Arthur, he can’t even answer basic questions, he’s a fake, drag him out and shoot him.”
Arthur, upon hearing this, merely pinched his chin. “French people are really efficient!”
Louis-Napoléon, hearing this, hurriedly stood up. “Give me a hint, will you? There are so many generals from the First Empire, you need to give me some characteristics!”
Dumas was about to push the door open, but couldn’t help but frown upon hearing this, giving a slight hint: “Black Devil.”
Louis-Napoléon, upon hearing this, slapped his thigh and stood up. “Thomas Alexandre Dumas, General!”
“Huh?” Dumas’s eyes widened. “It seems you actually know that period. But that doesn’t prove you’re from the Bonaparte family, it just means you’re knowledgeable.”
Dumas was about to return to the table to continue with the next question.
Unexpectedly, before he could even stand firm, Arthur spoke: “Let me ask one too, I heard this from the French Ambassador Talleyrand. If you can answer it, it’s a bonus, if you can’t, it’s no deduction, that should be reasonable, right?”
Louis-Napoléon breathed a sigh of relief. “Then ask away, I may not know everything, but what if I do…”
Arthur leaned back in his chair and said: “At a meeting during the First Empire, Talleyrand angered Napoleon with a single sentence, what did he say?”
“This…”
Louis-Napoléon pondered, guessing: “Was it when Paris was rife with rumors of Talleyrand and Fouche conspiring to overthrow my uncle? My uncle rushed back from Spain overnight, leaving the war behind, and called Talleyrand to the Tuileries Palace for a scolding. I remember my father told me about this, he cursed him very badly.
If I’m not mistaken, my uncle cursed at Talleyrand: ‘You thief! Bastard! Shameless person! Listen! I’m going to crush you like I crush glass… You’re a piece of shit in a silk stocking! Shit!’
I heard that Talleyrand was very calm after being scolded, he just took out his handkerchief and wiped the spittle off his face, coldly saying: ‘What a pity, such a great man, yet so ill-mannered.’ Then, he limped out of the palace with his cane. My uncle was furious with his reaction and immediately dismissed him from all his posts.
At the time, my uncle wanted to execute Talleyrand for treason, but he couldn’t find any evidence against him, so it ended up being a dead end. But looking back now, Talleyrand started selling the First Empire’s military intelligence to Austria after being scolded. The reason we couldn’t find evidence against him was because Fouche, the Minister of Police, was covering for him.
Ugh… those two guys, they were real bastards!”
Arthur listened, seeing the young man’s furious expression, coupled with the vivid story, he couldn’t help but be more convinced of the young man’s identity in front of him.
Could it be that Fiona actually brought me an emperor?
However, regardless of whether this emperor was real or fake, the procedures had to be followed.
If the guy in front of him was real, then the Home Office and the Foreign Office would definitely have to verify the procedures of his arrest. As long as Arthur could ensure they couldn’t find any flaws, it wouldn’t be just fine, but a merit to his record.
Thinking of this, his smile couldn’t help but widen. He said lightly: “Mr. Bonaparte, you should be grateful that you fell into the hands of the British, if you had fallen into the hands of the Prussians, you wouldn’t have been so lucky.”
Louis-Napoléon hadn’t realized the change in Arthur’s address to him. He was still curious about the meeting between Talleyrand and Napoleon that Arthur mentioned, the imperial second son was interested in everything about his uncle.
“So, Mr. Hastings, what did Talleyrand actually say at that meeting?”
Arthur said: “I remember, Talleyrand said at the meeting: ‘In the past few years, the Empire has been on the verge of collapse due to His Majesty’s excessive expansion. But after the Battle of Leipzig, I can proudly announce to everyone that His Majesty has now taken a big step forward!'”
As soon as Arthur finished speaking, Dickens, who was waiting outside the interrogation room, leaning against the door, ready to go fishing with Arthur after the interrogation, and Jones, the police chief standing next to him, both burst into laughter.
From the vibration of the door, they were clearly laughing very happily.
Inside the interrogation room, the two Frenchmen, who had been so cheerful just now, seemed to have agreed, their smiles vanished completely.
Of course, happiness couldn’t disappear out of thin air, it had just shifted.
Dumas’s entire face was almost purple, he asked: “Did Talleyrand really say that?”
Arthur took a sip of tea: “How could he, I made it up.”
“Why did you make that up?”
“Didn’t I want to liven up the atmosphere?” Arthur patted Dumas on the shoulder with a smile. “Alright, Alexandre, I’m done, it’s your turn now.”
Dumas glared at him fiercely, normally, he would have just pushed his chair back and left.
However, from Louis-Napoléon’s words just now, the French fat man also felt something was wrong. He couldn’t sleep for days without figuring this out, so he could only hold his nose and let Arthur win this round.
Alexandre said: “Forget about the regular ones, the ones I’m going to ask next are more private, only those close to him can know. First, I want you to list some of Napoleon’s unknown quirks, I will randomly select a question from these quirks.”
“Quirks? There are so many.”
Louis-Napoléon said confidently: “First, my uncle was a very cultured person, he only applauded at the end of a play when he went to the theatre, but everyone in Paris basically knew that, so it’s not a secret. My uncle also loved to spray himself with perfume, he could use up dozens of bottles of cologne every day, that should be a not-so-small secret, anyone close to him would know. But what I’m going to say next, only the most intimate people would know… it’s about the love letters he wrote to my first aunt, Empress Josephine…”
“Oh?” Dumas couldn’t help but lean forward. “What did you say?”
Arthur couldn’t help but put down his teacup. “Continue.”
Louis-Napoléon lowered his voice. “I’m only telling you two, to prove my identity. But you guys can’t spread it around later!”
Dumas patted his chest and assured him: “Of course, I’m a playwright with integrity. You know Vidocq? Although he can’t compare to Napoleon, he’s also a legend of France, I’ve kept many of Vidocq’s love affairs hidden in my heart.”
Arthur also nodded in agreement. “That’s right. Although I don’t know how the French law enforcement intelligence agency operates, I must emphasize that as a rational person, you should trust the confidentiality of the British official intelligence agency.”
Louis-Napoléon, reassured by them, finally mustered up his courage and said with a blush: “Most people don’t know why my uncle was so infatuated with Josephine, even after he had to divorce her for a political marriage, he still corresponded with her for a long time and provided her with financial support. As a woman, my aunt Josephine was beautiful, but my uncle had seen many women, why did he love her so much?”
Dumas, with wide eyes, nodded and asked: “Yeah? Why?”
Arthur also asked: “Why?”
Louis-Napoléon said proudly: “Why? The secret lies in my uncle being captivated by Josephine’s unique body scent, this obsession even reached the point where my uncle wrote to her specifically praising her – I desire not only your love, but also your breath, your laughter, even your imperfections.
Perhaps this evidence isn’t strong enough, but when Josephine passed away, my mother went to her residence to help tidy up her belongings. Among her belongings, there was a love letter, according to the date, it was written when my uncle had just won a great victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. I thought it would be filled with mushy words, or boasting about his great victory, but in fact, there was only one very short line on the letter, can you guess what it is?”
“What?”
Louis-Napoléon couldn’t help but let out a smile, the most radiant smile of the day: “Josephine, don’t take a bath, I’ll be there in three days.”
Hearing this, Dumas and Arthur couldn’t help but gasp, both reached out and pinched their jaws. “Interesting.”
Seeing them like this, Louis-Napoléon couldn’t help but ask: “So, what do you say? Did I prove my identity with what I told you? When will you release me?”
Dumas said with pursed lips: “I really don’t know about this, but I can’t say you’re wrong, this…”
He turned to Arthur: “What do you think we should do?”
Arthur nodded slightly: “Based on the content of that letter just now, it’s pretty French. But as for whether it’s true or not, I need to forward it to the Foreign Office, let them go to Joseph Bonaparte, who lives at Regency Crescent, and verify it.”
Louis-Napoléon, hearing this, hurriedly stood up: “No! If you go ask him, won’t he know I leaked this? Besides, to verify my identity, you can just take me to see him, why go through so much trouble?”
Arthur, hearing this, couldn’t help but smile. “Taking you there is not impossible, but you have to sign a disclaimer for Scotland Yard first. Because if this involves fraud, we won’t be able to explain it to Joseph Bonaparte.”
“Disclaimer?” Louis-Napoléon waved his hand. “You could have brought that out earlier.”
Arthur, hearing this, pulled out the prepared document as if by magic, flipped the front, which was filled with dense text, to the back, which only had a signature space. Arthur pointed at the blank space and said: “If that’s the case, you just sign here.”
(End of Chapter)