The part about 1805 ends with fourteen-year-old Tommy Pidgeon is found guilty of theft and sentenced to death. The boy is executed and his mother commits suicide.
It is this cruelty that Spade wanted to change but his path into politics is thwarted by Hornbeam, who uses his relationship with Arabella to derail him. Spade accepts his failure to become an elderma stoically, and he doesn't care so much as the hurt that caused to Arabella. After the mourning for the bishop is over Spade and Arabella marry and move to Will Riddick's house, which Spade has bought.
Amos hears that Jane is pregnant, and everybody is astonished after seven years of marriage. Amos wonders if the baby is his, but when he dares to ask her, she retorts that he will never mention that again and refuses to answer.
Kit also had a disappointment in his plans to work with Roger when he is conscripted to serve the militia. He tries to get out of it, but he is told that he has been picked for his skills, and he will be an officer and will be able to retire in three or four years.
The next part takes place between 1812 and 1815. After serving the militia, Kit managed to retire, and now he and Roger share the business and build and sell looms and other machines. They live together, and they keep their love a secret.
The increase in the use of machines make men unhappy because there is less work. Amos sees that people are unhappy because the war keeps going and many struggle to have food for their families, so that is why he thinks he could be a Member of Parliament for Kingsbridge. That is what Hornbeam also wants, and he starts spreading the rumour that Jane's son, Hal, is Amos's son. Spade knows that the rumour comes from him, so he goes to see him and tells him to stop the rumour mill, and he threatens to tell what he knows about him. From a bargee who used to know Hornbeam, Spade knows that Hornbeam's mother was hanged as a thief. Hornbeam agrees to make sure that nobody will say anything more about Amos, but he uses another technique to make sure he is elected Prime Minister. Like other times, he uses his power and the debts that people have with him to force them to vote for him, so he is finally elected Member of Parliament.
The British are now fighting in Spain, and Hornbeam's grandchild, Joey, enlists without telling his grandfather, which causes him great pain. He is not the only one who will go to Spain. Roger has always been a gambler, and unbeknown to Kit, he borrowed money for his gambling, and when he is unable to pay back, he decides to join the army and fight in Spain, and Kit decides to join him. And Kenelm, Elsie's husband, gets a new disappointment when once again he is turned down for a bishopric and the archbishop's aide tells him that he is a good candidate, but the archbishop wants his new men to have fought in the war. So he decides to become a chaplain for the regiment fighting in Spain.
While all these people are fighting the war, in Kingsbridge the men are still unhappy about the shortage of employment because of machines, so Jarge and others follow the actions of luddites, destroying looms and machines in mills. Jarge is suspected because he has always been vocal about his feelings, but his alibi is that he was ringing the bells in the cathedral. That is a lie because that day Sal replaced him, and she is angry with him for placing her in that situation. Jarge is arrested and tried, and there are witnesses who swear to have seen him, and even though Jarge proves that there is reasonable doubt, he is found guilty but the jury begs for mercy for him. Then Amos asks the judge to commute the death sentence for having him join the army. So he is sent to Europe and Sal goes with him.
Sal and Jarge reach Brussels after the war is over and Napoleon has been sent to Elba. They see Kit, who has become an aide for Wellington, and Sal can't be prouder. Kenelm has been wounded in his backside, and even though at first the wound seems more an embarrassment that a cause for concern, the wound becomes infected, and Kit has him place in a boarding house. He sends a letter to Elsie, who decides to go to Brussels with her five children and look after her husband. When she finds him, she discovers that her husband is a very changed man, who is now more worried about the men and their faith than about his own ambitions.
Spade and Arabella travel to Paris, and when they hear about Napoleon's escape and his gathering an army, they travel to Brussels to be with Elsie. Amos also travels to Brussels because Jane and Hal are there, and he is worried about her and their son, but Jane refuses to leave Brussels. Jane tells him that she should go to the ball of the Duchess of Richmond, which is going to be a great event, and when he visits Elsie and Kenelm, the latter asks him to accompany his wife to the ball, and it is during this time that he feels attracted to Elsie.
It is during this time that Napoleon invades the Netherlands and the last chapter leads us to Waterloo where the Allies are to meet the French army again.
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