La San-Felice, Tome 02

In the dead of night the monarch slips back to his chambers, his mind rattled by the sudden turn of events in England. He summons his most trusted adviser, the austere Cardinal Ruffo, whose reputation for blunt honesty has earned him the king’s confidence. Their conversation begins with a candid appraisal of the celebrated admiral Nelson, a figure both admired and deemed manipulable by the cardinal’s sharp eye.

Ruffo quickly maps the tangled web of alliances that now bind the crown—obligations to Austria, Russia, and the looming demand for thirty thousand troops. He warns that love and ambition—embodied in the alluring Lady Hamilton and the king’s own aspirations—will steer the fate of nations. As the king wrestles with these strategic choices, the stakes of the evening’s counsel hint at a larger conflict that could reshape Europe’s balance of power.