Medina spoke. He had thoughts, but after half a minute Don Ignacio interrupted him. What he wanted to hear, he said, was what the teniente thought should be done about it. How was the insult of Morales to be answered?

Again, Medina began to speak; again Don Ignacio cut him off.

I have something for you, he said. An opportunity I can offer only to one I have the most perfect trust in . . .

Medina, after the briefest of pauses, assured him that he was, in fact, that person.

You are of course, said Don Ignacio, or I should not have brought you here. He glanced at the doors, or at the clock over the doors. Now that there was light in the room Medina could see the clock was hours out and must, indeed, have ceased to run. Had it too been rebuilt? Did it mark the hour of the earthquake? But the mere sight of a clock seemed to remind Don Ignacio of his many duties. He touched the point of his beard, possessed for an instant the eyes of a cutpurse in some filthy posada in the south, then informed Medina, in three or four sentences, the tone you might use to order your dinner, what exactly was required of him. When he had finished he said, you are astonished. Perhaps you do not think the people of Morales deserve such an effort.

Medina denied it. The people of Morales deserved whatever justice could be found for them. But surely, he said, the French had done as much, and more than once. In Cordoba . . .

Don Ignacio waved him to silence. He looked pained, angry even. Did the young teniente think he had forgotten the French? Did he suppose there was a day, an hour, when the names of sacked Spanish towns did not pass through his head?

Medina apologised. Don Ignacio, with a brief closing of his eyes, forgave him. He called Medina by his given name. Strange how powerful it was, in that room, at that moment. You need, he said, only to accompany the one they send. You have only to see that he does what they have promised us.

But can we be certain, asked Medina, that this English officer is the one responsible? Was there not some doubt?

As for that, said Don Ignacio with a shrug, it is for the English to concern themselves with.