The King's Gold

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The king’s gold / Arturo Pérez-Reverte ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa.

To Antonio Cardenal,

for ten years of friendship, movies, and fencing

What do we gain from it all? A little glory?

Some rich rewards, or merely boredom?

You’ll find out if you read our story.

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

1. THE HANGED MEN OF CÁDIZ

The reason we are brought so low is that those who should honor us instead conspire against us. Once, it was enough merely to brandish the word “Spaniard” for all to tremble; now, for our sins, that reputation is almost lost.

I closed the book and looked where everyone else was looking. After several hours without a breath of wind, the Jesús Nazareno was finally heading into the bay, driven by the westerly breeze now filling the creaking mainsail. Grouped along the deck of the galleon, in the shadow of the great sails, soldiers and sailors alike were pointing at the corpses of the English, which either adorned the walls of Santa Catalina castle or hung from gallows erected on the shore, along the edge of the vineyards that face out to sea. They resembled bunches of grapes ripe for harvesting, except that these grapes had been harvested already.

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