Full beneath the drains of Paris, the lamp I brought from Temu had eluded a few levels above the subterranean museum where I made my way to the underground ossuary of the Carthusian priests.
I clenched my telephone between my teeth while its light guided me along the niter-covered walls while holding a large of Chateau Margaux in one palm and a large copper trashcan in the other.
I stumbled with twisted languor until I felt the sticky dirt of the ossuary surface as the destroyed marble steps of the staircase began to sway under my feet. The long-dead Carthusians ‘ stacked heads grinned at me.
When suddenly, I kept tryst with the Spirit of Cardinal Richelieu, winner of the Thirty Years War and designer of France’s 200- time supremacy on the European continent.
I waited until what seemed like an eternity before the next finger on my see suddenly appeared at night and spittoon into the olfactory ooze below. I poured the Margaux into the spittoon, drank, and patiently waited.
The wine was sucked into the windows as the French dying escaped. I identified Marshal Ney and General Weygand, the defeated captain of the Battle of France, as eyes on him as they commanded the back watch during the Grand Armee’s disastrous retreat from Moscow.
I waved them aside until a gloomy haze appeared on the surface. It injected a spectral beak into the constricting opening, absorbed the Bordeaux, and therefore extracted its scalp with an audible roll before popping its head out.
” I warn you”, said the Spirit in his Maurice Chevalier voice. ” I am in a nasty feelings”.
” Eminence”, I ventured, “what will become of France? It seems uninhabitable. Less than 15 % of the votes cast for the European Parliament were cast by President Macron’s gathering next Sunday, and half of the votes were cast by the Rassemblement National. The polls put his party at only 19 % in next month’s snap elections for parliament. What will become of Macron’s promise to send European troops to Ukraine”?
” C’est plus qu’un violence, c’est une faut”, hissed the red Spirit. ” It’s more than a murder. It’s a wrongdoing, as I used to say”.
” Begging your pardon, Eminence, you did n’t say that. It was Introductory”.
” Eh bien”? Richelieu sneered. ” I did n’t have to say it, because I did n’t make that kind of blunder. Not every strategy I devised was successful but I was n’t stupid enough to fight Russia, like Talleyrand’s expert Napoleon. The Russians will just have more chance for target practice with a few thousand Legionaries and a dozen redundant Mirage fighters. It is a small movement made by a small person.
” But why is Ukraine but essential to Macron, Eminence? Why chance his reputation by “playing a poor hand”?
” Irrelevant”! thundered the Cardinal. ” France has become unimportant! It will become a distributor of expensive clutches for China’s new wealthy and a destination for Taiwanese tourists! Although its greatness has vanished, the aristocracy of France also harbors the self-importance of the past.
” But why meaningless”? I pressed.
The “elite of France” is aware that when Ukraine is unable to battle, they may find themselves in a world where their services are no longer needed. No one sector of the economy excels in France. It has less than half the level of business technology found in China, Japan, or Germany.
It exports a fifth of the German auto industry’s sales and produces poor cars.  , It may engage with the Chinese. Germany will swiggle to the west as the Eurasian landmass tilts toward China, leaving France as the priestly tail of a receding European Community.
” Eminence, I am profoundly confused. What does the giving of French troops to Ukraine have to do with this?
” You are as thick as often, Spengler. Do I have to spell it out for you? Germany may repurchase Russian oil once more and open the door to China, just as the Hungarians have done, if Ukraine is humiliated. It will take advantage of China’s great initiative to create a global South, automakers will continue to integrate with their Taiwanese counterparts, German investors will be able to buy from its factories in China, and Mittelstand will export its goods to markets prepared by Taiwanese infrastructure.
” Eminence, Macron said that a Soviet success in Ukraine ‘ may reduce Europe’s trust to zero,'” I offered.
No simply: It would render France’s credibility a zero, and one could say the same for Italy, but it has no trustworthiness at all. Charles DeGaulle was nevertheless persuaded two generations ago that the French had fill the gap between the Americans and the Soviets.
Macron now wants to ostensibly maintain the National attempt, so he at least has a seat at the table. In reality, Macron tried to resolve between Russia and Ukraine until the very last moment, hoping that the Minsk II sacrifice may stop the Ukraine conflict, like the Germans. But now he’s tied to it and terrified by the thought of being humiliated by the United States.
” Eminence”, I asked, “is that why the French voted against him”?
They chose Macron because his trust has already been eroded, according to the statement! thundered the Cardinal. ” The French do n’t want to fight in Ukraine. They may win a battle whose failure may be humiliating. In Ukraine, they lack the people and the tools to change things. It is an empty, helpless, foolish gesture. Macron is the film version of Napoleon, if Napoleon I was horror and Napoleon III was folly. The French may accept fraud, conscience, arrogance and perhaps fight but they cannot stomach Canard Donald as their leader”.
” You were the most brutal leader France always had, Eminence: Is there any chief who might raise France out of its lethargy”?
” Hélas”, sighed the ghost. ” The issue, it is the French themselves. They do not want to have kids but they do not like refugees, either. They do not need China to overshadow their business, but they also do not want to work. They oppose Russian bullying, but they also oppose fighting.
I made the claim that” The Rassemblement National of Marine le Pen is a patriotic group.”
The Cardinal responded,” Le Pen appeals to their sloth rather than the fading grandeur of the Flemish.” Her most common suggestion is to lower the retirement age, which would cause the French Treasury to fail.
” What will become of France, Eminence”?
” The same thing that has become of me: It will be a spirit of its original self”, the Cardinal sighed, as his shiny purple robes turned lustrous. Some of the bone stacks against the wall assembled themselves into remains, formed a circle and began to sing,” Dansons la carmagnole”!
The now-fading Spirit of Richelieu dismissed the corpses with a curt movement after a few rounds, and they were then threw into piles of vertebrae that twitched in the ossuary floor’s primordial seep. ” Get away”! I cried – I do not know why –” Boogie the Carmagnole”!
However, by this point, the chamber was spinning around me. A low Rabelais and an empty container of Cognac greeted me as I awoke.