A Royalist Volunteer

A Royalist Volunteer (Un voluntario realista) is the eighth novel in the second series of the National Episodes by Benito Pérez Galdós.
The author leaves the city of Madrid in this novel to approach the Lleida town of Solsona and more specifically the convent of San Salomó. Within its walls and next to the nuns, we will meet Pep Armengol, also known as Tilín, protagonist of this episode. The young man, raised among the nuns and destined to be their sacristan, with a desire for heroism involuntarily stoked by a young nun of the convent, will embark on the traditionalist Catalan rebellion and supporter of Infante Carlos. In the midst of what was known as the Ominous Decade, a time of repression of everything liberal and starring the powerful Fernando minister Francisco Tadeo Calomarde, many thought that the repression of the liberals was not enough and that the king was surrounded by companies that were not recommended.
Tilin’s tragic adventure will end with his death at the hands of royal troops. As secondary characters we will see the two central protagonists of this second series appear again: the liberal Salvador Monsalud, smuggled back from England under a false name, and the traditionalist Carlos Navarro, his political rival and half-brother. In this novel, Galdós opens the way to introduce us to the origins of Carlism.