3: Extract from Ramón María de Valle-Inclán's book From High Tops, third book of the Carlist Wars Trilogy, after The Crusaders of the Cause and The Ancient Times' Bigwigs, taking place slightly after Charles VII asks for Napoleon III's help.
The discussion was very advanced between the military and ecclesiastical chiefs of the forces loyal to Charles VII, talking about the problems the requetés were having to obtain the weaponry necessary to rise up against the disloyal Government, when the Marquis of Bradomín, owner of the mansion where the meeting was taking place, entered the room very fast, shaking off the cape he had not been able to take off before and carrying a newspaper under the arm.
“Friends!” shouted the Marquis, bringing the discussions the chiefs were involved in to an end. “I bring terrible news: our king Charles has gone to the French enemy.”
If there had been some noise before, now it was all a deafening clamor. All present people were trying to make themselves heard at the same time, raising their voices over everybody else's. The shouting only ended when General Cucala slammed his hand on the table, making the coffee cups and the dishes on the table clink.
“Gentlemen! Silence! This is a very controversial and important matter, too much to waste our time shouting like chickens when the fox is amongst them. Are you sure of your statement, Marquis?”
The Marquis answered by leaving the newspaper he had brought over the table, opened by page four. It was a French newspaper, but none of the present people had any problem to understand what the article in that page said. Had the newspaper been in Spanish, they would have marked it as a lie from the disloyal Government in an attempt to dirty the King's name, but, given that it was a French newspaper, there was no doubt that it was a real event. The shouting Cucala had silenced reappeared, and it took several minutes for everyone to recover their calm.
“My dearest friends,” the Marquis said, once silence came back, “we find ourselves in a quandary, and we must choose our way as soon as possible. On the one side, we can follow our king and collaborate with the French when they invade our nation. On the other side, we can support the Government's troops and the Prussian usurper in the defense of Spain to expel the French when they arrive. Independently of what choice this council decides to take, it must be taken before the French troops enter the Motherland, or it will be all for naught. And, much to my regret, after so many years working for our King, I vote that we face the French.”
“Are you that willing to betray our King?” one of the bishops asked.
“It is true that I swore loyalty to King Charles, but I also swore loyalty to Spain. Right now, King Charles has betrayed Spain. And I cannot, in good conscience, follow the King's steps when it is still fresh in all of our memories the deals that the King's great-uncle and great-grandfather made with the Bonaparte tyrant,” the Marquis answered. “If the situation was different, not only would I suggest that we kept fighting against the usurper's army, but I would even be willing to take arms and go into combat. However, we are in a moment in which it is clear that what matters most is neither us nor the Cause, but our Motherland. France will not be able to win a two-front war, and when France falls it will mean the end for us. Do you believe that the usurper's armies will not take advantage of all of this to attack us when the war ends, or even before then? That is the only reason I think that, if our cause is going to fall, that at least it may happen on our own volition and for our love to the Motherland, so that it cannot be said that we were defeated in the battlefield. Are you gentlemen with me, or will I have to go alone and state my willingness to help the nation in this crisis?”
Silence took over the present people after the Marquis' speech. All of
them, although they might have not wanted to say it aloud, knew that Bradomín was right. It was time to choose what was more important for them: the Motherland, or the King?