Let Joy Reign Supreme (Que la fête commence !)

"But all this love which I will give, where will I take it?"... Jacques Audiberti

Brethren,

warn the field mice to retreat within three days

or we shall declare them excommunicated!

Amen!

This one is the nicest. Take it, don't be afraid.

Let me show you another.

You'll see.

Here, look. This one is the prettiest of all.

Name's Julia like my own girl.

Let's go see mama

and your little friend's mama too.

She's the same.

You're sisters.

We'll share the doll.

Fine then, let's go!

Here we go.

Wait!

Hey!

Who paid you to abduct these girls?

Go on... confess! You're about to die!

He confessed before dying.

The Regent wanted to deport your girls to Louisiana.

Your own daughters! Fodder for the American savages!

Tomorrow that will be you,

deported or starved.

Give him a Christian burial.

BRITTANY, Palm Sunday 1719, 4 years after Louis XIV's death.

Let Joy Reign Supreme...

Don't forget that Spain...

Go on.

Spain has agreed to land troops in Brittany.

But we're at war with Spain, sir.

Not I.

The Spanish monarch is Louis' heir and my king.

The Regent is a usurper.

If you must appeal to Spain, I am not with you.

But I shan't give you away.

Then put your mask back on before you leave.

Before calling on Spain, I suggest

we issue an ultimatum to the regent.

A delegation.

One man will do. I'll go.

I'm of noble blood and Captain of the Dragoons.

Even the infamous Regent respects the military.

No masks here.

My husband was unable to come.

Oh, no, my dear Helena.

We are among men. Exclusively.

And if I keep my beard?

Oh, my... then... I cannot refuse.

Of course, this trip...

Off to Spain, Cousin?

To Paris, my dear, it's less costly.

Once again, friends, I must ask you for funds.

Once again.

Bed and board, sir!

And you know my appetite.

A bank note?

I've never seen one before.

You don't want it?

Oh, I'll take anything,

even the Regent's notes.

It's hard, sir, but when the wine is drawn...

it must be drunk.

Some water.

Some water quickly.

Please come back, Madam.

Look at this.

It's rare to see a brain reduced to half its normal size.

She died of that?

No, Madam.

It's an old injury.

She may have been born with it.

No, the Duchess died of congestion due to excessive food and drink.

Gluttony did her in.

Please, Doctor.

I saved her life when she was six with herb tea.

That's all she was drinking at the time.

She died from your doctoring.

Otherwise, we might have saved her.

Brain damage... that would explain certain things.

That she was mad?

Mad? No, my Lord, but surely different.

That's why I loved her.

She'd have hurt you more.

They say she was four months pregnant.

I'd have accepted...

her husband, her child...

everything.

I'll miss the pain she'd have caused me.

You have other daughters.

Death did not strike blindly.

It took what I held dearest.

God is evil.

Have you no fear, my Lord?

Could he be more cruel?

You may retire, Madam.

You've had a long, hard night.

So have you, milord.

No, I slept.

It's the day I fear.

The maid told me you were here.

I was surprised...

under the circumstances.

I don't feel it yet, Dubois,

so I'm working while I can.

I'm not sure Montesquiou really grasps this Brittany affair.

So we have a few stubborn nobles under the Marquis of Pontcallec

dreaming of a Breton Republic with no taxes to pay.

But a republic of what?

Poor country squires.

But peasants,

the really poor, no.

Not a one.

Peasant and nobleman can't be brothers,

even if they're both beggars.

They don't mix.

So... where will they get troops?

From Spain.

The Bretons won't ask for foreign aid,

especially from Spain.

Your own relatives did during the Spanish plot.

A plot, you remember, that we calmly stifled

without bloodshed.

We made them look so ludicrous

that no one dared participate.

You even rewarded your kidnapper.

For bravery...

attempting to carry off a man of my weight.

I'm glad to see you so jovial.

You all expected me to sink and drown.

What a disappointment.

But I'm delighted.

Who am I without you? Not even archbishop.

Tell Montesquiou to go easy, to arrest Pontcallec if he likes,

but not a drop of blood must be spilled.

The provisions for my daughter's mourning.

Did the autopsy show anything?

No, nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The King only mourns six weeks?

Six weeks.

Even that is too long for a child of nine.

That girl is one of La Fillon's whores!

They wouldn't fuck in church?

Not at a memorial mass for his daughter.

Tell me...

did Joufflotte really sleep with her father?

That's not for a common coachman's ears.

I'm late because we got lost.

I always do in the country.

Thank you for coming.

I've never fancied mass, but I'm glad someone remembers her.

Twelve people...

not so bad after a month's time.

They say she died a saint's death...

took the sacraments in public...

There were many people...

She spoke like a queen...

asking forgiveness for her sins.

She was mad.

All my children are mad, Emily.

My eldest an abbess who's married to Christ.

I don't get along with my son... in... law.

And my son who loathes women...

It's the Elevation, milord.

You do believe in God.

If knees are all there is to it...

Look at the priest.

He thinks he saw the Devil

enter his room and fall upon him.

He says they fought

like cats and dogs.

If you believe in the Devil, you believe in God.

All princes believe in God.

I spent many a night in the quarries calling on the Devil.

And I never saw him.

Joufflotte feared hell too.

She often went to the Carmelites for whipping after a night with us.

Once she asked me to go along.

I refused.

I'm too young to do penance.

She wasn't old either.

Only 24.

Perhaps she knew she was going to die.

And you never do penance?

Our penance is...

the clap, a sheared head, and death in the poorhouse.

Have you been shorn?

Yes, milord... long ago.

I got 32 flies and a rat this morning.

Two young workers were caught having it off in the street.

You told the King?

No... not exactly.

No friends in court so they were burned alive.

When you think what goes on here...

Since they confessed

they were allowed sulphur shirts...

it hurts less.