El Empecinado has a conflict with both Don SAturnino Albuín, El Manco, and Manson Anton Trijueque. With the priest, Manson Antón, he argues because he should have led his troop where El Empecinado was, and he did something else. Trijueque is very dramatic and starts saying that he should get him executed for doing what he thought was right.
The conflict with El Manco happens when an acquaintance of El Empecinado tells him that El Manco came to his house and stole the money that his wife had been saving for years. El Empecinado gives the man his money, and when later he demands El Manco he give the money to be sent to the Guerrilla Committee, El Manco refuses. There is a heated argument and threats and the man leaves.
El Empecinado hears that both El Manco and Trijueque have turned to the enemy and he swears to hunt them down and kill them. So he leads his men along snowed paths to find the traitors. When they find them, fight breaks out, but the traitors are too many. El Empecinado falls down a ravine and Gabriel is made prisoner, carrying the baby, El Empecinadillo with him.
He is taken to Rebollar de Sigüenza and a French soldier tells him that he will be executed. Then he receives a surprise visit. It is Luis de Santorcaz, the man who fathered Ines, and he tells him that if he agrees to join the French, he will be pardoned. Gabriel states that he would rather die than become a traitor. Santorcaz tells him that his intention is to go to Cifuentes, where we know that Amaranta and Ines are. They have been exchanging letters with Gabriel, and though their intention was to go to Madrid, they couldn't reach it because of the war. Amaranta mentions that in Cifuentes she saw a man that fills her with deep dread, and we understand that this man is Santorcaz.
Santorcaz tells Gabriel his life story. He says that he was a student, and some of his fellow students and he went to Cifuentes, and he fells sick. The people from the castle helped him, and we understand that he met Amaranta and fell in love. After he decided to leave everything, and he sneaked into the castle to see Amaranta. When he was found out, he was made prisoner, and after his release, he wrote to his father, who disowned him, so he decided to go to France. There he saw and joined the events of the French Revolution, and when France invaded Spain, he decided to return.
The first part of the novel was dull and I thought I was going to be bored all the time, but now things have become more interested. I wonder what will happen to Gabriel. We know that he did not die because old Gabriel is writing his memoirs, so I wonder how he escaped death this time.
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