La campaña del Maestrazgo

About this book

La campaña del Maestrazgo by Benito Pérez Galdós is a historical novel written in the early 20th century. Set during the First Carlist War, it follows the aging noble Don Beltrán de Urdaneta as he crosses Aragón and the Maestrazgo amid soldiers, refugees, and intrigue, helped by the quick-witted Salomé Ulibarri and her husband, the young officer Baldomero Galán. The story dwells on the savagery of civil war and the clash between personal honor, politics, and survival.

The opening of the novel unfolds in the overcrowded parador of Fuentes de Ebro, where two caravans—refugees fleeing and troops marching to the front—collide. Salomé recognizes the nearly blind Don Beltrán, feeds him, and, with Galán, settles him tenderly to sleep in the stable, while he reveals he has fled a humiliating family life and now aims, despite danger from Cabrera’s forces, to push toward Teruel and Mora de Rubielos on a private errand. Through three “escarmentados” (disillusioned deserters) the scene fills with stark testimonies of atrocities by both sides—massacres at Chiva, Liria, Alcotas, and Alventosa—and with the lament of a mad father, Muel, who curses the murderous priest Lorente; a brawl over Cabrera’s mother’s execution underlines the bitterness of the time. An Italian go-between, Rapella, arrives; over an earnest meal he and Don Beltrán debate politics and war, with Rapella praising Cabrera’s generalship and confirming he survived a near-fatal ambush at the Ebro. News then shifts to the learned nun Marcela Luco of Sijena—now a wandering penitent opposing both armies—and to the possibility that her brother Francisquín lives; the section closes with Don Beltrán traveling to Caspe, warmly hosted by Don Blas de La Codoñera, and preparing to continue toward Alcañiz, where Marcela is said to be tending her brother.