That night, behind thick curtains, in a dark-panelled room lit by heavy candles that threw their flickering light on a crucifix of gold, the Marques de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba prayed.

He had wondered why the Inquisitor had come to him bringing his wife’s letter, curious why the letter should have so eminent a carrier, but now he understood. The Marques’ lips moved, his fingers shuffled the beads on their string, his eyes stared at the crucifix until the small, gold image seemed to shift and swim before him. He shook his head to clear his vision. ‘What will happen to the Englishman?

‘Wellington will send him home.’ The Inquisitor had a voice deep as the pit. ‘Wellington needs the Spanish alliance.’

The Marques groaned as he stood up from his knees. ‘I should have killed him.’

‘Your honour is intact. It was he who fled, not you.’

The Marques turned to look at Father Hacha. The Inquisitor was all that a priest should be in the Marques’ estimation; he was a tall, strong man, fierce faced and grim, a warrior of God who knew that pity was a luxury in the fight against evil. The Marques, who yearned to have the toughness he saw in the Inquisitor, frowned. ‘I don’t understand what made the man do it! To insult her!’

‘He’s English, he’s from the gutter, he’s heathen.’

‘I should have killed him.’

‘God will do it.’

The Marques sat opposite the Inquisitor. They were in the Marques’ bedroom, taken for the night from the mayor of this small town. The candlelight shuddered on the red hangings of the bed, on the picture of the crucified Lord, and on the grim, axe-faced man of the Spanish Inquisition. The Marques stared at the dark eyes. ‘Helena will come to me?’ He used the Spanish form of his wife’s name.

The Inquisitor nodded. ‘She must do penance, of course.’

‘Of course.’ The Marques felt the stirring within him. On the table beside the bed there stood her portrait, the portrait that had travelled with him to the Banda Oriental and showed her pure skin, wide eyes, and delicate face. She had spied for the French, and that fact could not be hidden from the Marques, but the Inquisitor had assured him that her spying was merely a woman’s weakness.

‘She missed you, my Lord, she was tempted by loneliness and unhappiness. She must do public penance.’

‘And she will do it?’

‘She is eager to be in your good graces, my Lord.’

The Marques nodded. He had had a frank, embarrassingly frank, discussion with his grim Inquisitor. Yes, the priest had said, there were rumours about the Marquesa, but what woman did not attract rumours? And was there truth in the rumours? The priest had shaken his head. There was none.

Perhaps because Father Hacha had freely admitted that his wife had spied for the country of her birth, the Marques believed the lie about her faithfulness. He wanted to believe it. He knew, guiltily and secretly, that it had been a fault to marry her, but what man would not have wanted to marry the frail, lovely girl? He knew he had married out of lust, out of sinfulness, and he had confessed the sin a hundred hundred times. Now, it seemed, his prayers were answered and she wanted his forgiveness and his love. He would give both to her.

He would give them because the priest had laid before him this night a glittering image of Spain’s future, and a future, the Inquisitor had said, in which the Marques would play an eminent, a vital part. ‘You were always close to the old King, my Lord.’

‘True.’

‘His son needs you.’

Spain, the Marques had heard, needed him. This war against the French, the Inquisitor had said, was a mistake. True, it had been started by the French, but they now saw that their best interests lay in peace. They wanted to take their embattled armies from Spain, and only one obstacle lay before them; the British alliance.

The Inquisitor had spoken of the secret treaty. He had done it because he wanted this man’s trust. The Marques had listened. At first he had felt offence at the secret manouevering that would end with a broken promise to Britain, but as he listened more he felt the glory and excitement grow in him.

Spain, the Inquisitor had said, had been given its empire by God. That empire was the reward for defeating the Muslims in Europe. Now, because of the war against France, the empire was slipping away. The Spanish, the priest said, had a duty to their God to keep the empire. If there was peace with France then the army could go abroad as God’s warriors. The secret treaty that was being forged at Valencay would give Spain peace at home and glory abroad.

That appealed to the Marques. He had no love for the government that ruled that part of Spain not held by the French. It was, in his view, a liberal, dangerous government that would try to introduce a parliament and limit the royal power. Spain should be ruled by the King and the Church in consort, not by a shouting rabble of upstart ambition.

There was more. As he sat and listened to the Inquisitor, the Marques heard what the Junta in Cadiz now proposed. The liberals, who ruled the country in King Ferdinand VII’s absence, were trying to dismantle the power of the Church in Spain.

‘Surely not!’

In answer the Inquisitor had taken from his pocket and handed to the Marques a copy of a new law, a law that had, within the last two months, declared that the Spanish Inquisition was abolished.

It still existed in French-held Spain, that body from the protestant nightmares of the sixteenth century; the Inquisition that preached God’s love with the fires of agony and the blades of torture. Now, bereft of their racks and burning irons, they were a moral police force to the Spanish people, granting licences of marriage to those who could prove they were of pure, Christrian blood; watching always those who were suspected of being Moors or Jews. They were the spies of God, the secret police of heaven, and their power was threatened. The Junta had dissolved them.

King Ferdinand VII, whose love of women was matched by his fear of God, did not agree that the Inquisition should be abolished. They might spy for God, but their reports came to the King of Spain, and no kingdom on earth had a more efficient body of informers than did the Spanish king with his loyal Inquisitors.

‘If we restore His Majesty,’ the Inquisitor had said, ‘then we preserve our Church. Peace with France, my Lord, is Spain’s only hope.’

With which sentiments the Marques de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba agreed wholeheartedly. ‘So what do you want of me?’

The Inquisitor told his lie smoothly. ‘I want you to gain support among your friends, among the officers of the army, among your admirers, my Lord.’ He shrugged. ‘When the time comes, my Lord, the peasants will not be overjoyed.’

‘They hate the French.’

‘But they love their King. They need firm leadership, strong example, from Church and nobles. From you and I, my Lord.’

The Marques nodded. The future was suddenly golden. His wife, whom he had married for lust, was willing to do penance. She would come back to him chastened and humbled, loving and loyal, to be the helpmate of a man who would assist his king steer Spain into a brilliant, holy future. And to help the Marques, to steer him, comfort him, support him, there would be this grim, tough Inquisitor with his subtle mind and sharp purpose. Suddenly the events of the day, the abortive duel and the Marques’ escape from death, seemed trivial compared to that future.

The Inquisitor smiled. ‘You did us all a service today, my Lord.’

‘A service?’

Father Hacha stood. ‘‘The Englishman backed down from you. You are a, hero to the army, you beat the Englishman in their sight. Where you lead, my Lord, others will now follow.’

The Marques saw himself leading the army away from the British alliance. He saw himself welcoming King Ferdinand VII at the gates of Spain, he saw glory.