La Batalla de los Arapiles 3 - The End (Pages 106 - end)

 

RATING: VERY GOOD

SPOILERS!!!

I really loved this book. The novel finishes the first part of Episodios Nacionales, and I think it was the perfect conclusion to the story of Gabriel.

In this Gabriel is confused when he goes to find Ines and she refuses to leave with him. That breaks him, but he has no option but to go. When he leaves, he finds Miss Fly, who has followed him. He learns that Salamanca is to be left with just 800 men. When Gabriel tells Miss Fly about his story with Ines, and they discover that Ines and Santoraz are in danger because of his masonic beliefs. They return to the house, and they persuade them to leave the city. Then at some point Gabriel finds himself alone and with the other galloping away. 

Gabriel goes to the village where he is to talk to Wellington. He is congratulated but when he is asked about Miss Fly and he doesn't know where she is, he receives reproaches. Miss Fly eventually arrives, and Gabriel writes to Amaranta. During the time of preparation there are rumours that Gabriel has seduced Miss Fly, and even Wellington tells him, but Gabriel denies. And when Amaranta arrives, she also hears the rumours, which Gabriel keeps trying to deny.

The battle starts, and Gabriel is wounded. When he comes to, Miss Fly is there, and she tells him a story. She says that her sister Lillian was seduced by Lord Gray, the man Gabriel  killed in Cadiz, and she died. When Miss Fly learnt about Gabriel, he was determined to find Gabriel because from that moment she loved him, and she is the one who started the rumours becuase he wanted to marry him. Gabriel takes this story in confusion because he is still unwell. 

Then Amaranta and Ines arrive, and they are happy to see him alive. They say that Amaranta arrived to see her daughter, and Santorcaz reacted angrily, locking himself up in his room. Ines was worried because he was sick, and then Ines told Luis that he was going to stay with him and Amaranta was going to leave for Seville. 

When the two women talk to him, they say that they are thankful that Miss Fly and Juan de Dios help Gabriel. Gabriel says that he wants to marry Ines, and Amaranta gives him a smile. When he recovers, they go to Santorcaz's house. He is very sick, and they tell him that Ines and Gabriel are to be married, and they want him to live with him. And then Luis dies.

In the last paragraphs Gabriel tells us how he and Ines got married and went to live to Madrid, and with Amaranta's help he promoted several times until he decided to leave the army. He and Ines were happy and had children and grandchildren.

I have to say that I loved the book, one of the best in the series.