Napoleon en Chamartín 2 (Chapters 5 - 17)

 SPOILERS!!!

One regular visitor in Gabriel's lodgings is Father Salmon. The priest asks Gabriel if he knows Diego de Rumblar because he has heard rumours that he is a bit of a rake, and the countess wants to know. Gabriel confirms that Diego leads an improper lifestyle. The priest persuades Gabriel to accompany him to see the countess, and he also tells him that the countess is worried about Ines because she claims that there is a reason why she can't marry Diego, but she won't tell anyone. In a previous book we discover that Amaranta, the countess, is Ines's mother, but what they have done is that her uncle adopts her, and now Ines is legally her cousin.

Gabriel goes to Amaranta's with Father Salmon, and Ines's confessor, Father Castillo, is also there. After a long conversation between the two priests and Amaranta about books about the political situation in Spain, which I find too long, Father Castillo leaves. Father Salmon tells Amaranta that Gabriel has confirmed what she suspected about Diego, and then he alos takes his leave. When Amaranta is with Gabriel alone, she tells him that Ines has told her about her silly liaison with Gabriel when she was just a poor seamstress, but that should stop. Amaranta claims that now that she is a lady of means, Gabriel does not mean anything to her, but what Amaranta wants is for Gabriel to do something to make her hate him like writing her a cruel letter or making disparaging comments about her in her presence. Gabriel says that he already knows that he has to forgot about Ines, but he can't do what Amaranta is asking her. Then Gabriel gives her the letters that he found in the saddlebags of Santorcaz, indicating that he and Amaranta had a relationship and he is Ines's father. Amaranta is angry and upset, but Gabriel tries to appease her, saying that he didnt' know what the letters were.

After that visit, there is alarm in the streets of Madrid because the French are advancing and there are rumours that Napoleon is coming. Gabriel is one of the volunteers in the army, and in his unit there is also Santiago Fernández, the Great Captain, one of his neighbours, who is a braggart and has some exaggerated patriotic ideas.