El terror de 1824

A rain‑soaked October afternoon blankets the outskirts of Madrid, turning the river into a sluggish, muddy torrent. Amid the drizzling sky, an elderly man in a threadbare coat and battered boots trudges toward the Puerta de Toledo, his breath visible in the chill air. He reaches a bustling military outpost where weary soldiers check passes, unaware that the city’s recent upheavals have left the gate a hotspot for suspicion and intrigue.

There, the old traveler, Patricio Sarmiento, bows before the stern Colonel Garrote, pleading for any word about his missing son, a young soldier lost in the recent Andalusian skirmishes. His voice trembles with grief, yet the officer’s reply is guarded, hinting at the tangled web of loyalties and secret orders that now govern the capital. As the rain continues to fall, Sarmiento’s desperate hope becomes a quiet thread woven into the larger tapestry of a nation still reeling from revolutionary turmoil.