"Idiots! Can you be sure no one is watching us? Contacting the Austrians now—isn't that just courting death? Leave this sort of thing to those holy charlatans.
They brought the Austrians here, so they must have a way to contact the Austrians now. The widows of every family, the unmarried girls—it is time they were put to use.
Given our current position, the more escape routes we have, the better."
Mayor Volta let out a long sigh. In the space of a single day, he seemed to have aged many years. For a Spaniard like Volta, born during the War of the Sixth Coalition, what he had longed for most in his life was peace.
When Volta was young, he had hoped that Spain, too, would produce a wise sovereign who, externally, would lead Spain like Napoleon, storm into Paris, seize money, grain, and women, and wash away the shame of the past.
Internally, he would lighten corvée and taxes, and love the people as his own children.
Yet after the War of the Sixth Coalition ended, Spain's kings became more indescribable one after another. Volta decided to use his family's influence to enter officialdom, cleanse the administration, uphold justice, become a good official, and safeguard peace for his corner of the world.
But how could mortal men withstand the turbid world and red dust? Volta spent half his life maneuvering in officialdom, and in the end, all he could do was preserve his own family's property.
As for those other fantasies, they had long since been thrown beyond the ninth heaven.
Yet now, even after all his efforts, it would not be easy to keep his family's wealth. Of course Volta could choose to become Carlos VI's dog; if his luck was good, perhaps he might even enter court