Word: catana
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Dates: during 1945-1945
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...Pedro de Vargas in Jaén in Old Spain. It is also the opening date of one of the most torrid, non-stop adventure stories since Anthony Adverse. Captain from Castile begins with Pedro going to confession (he had slept through the Bishop's sermon, and kissed Catana Pérez). The book ends, 633 pages later, with Pedro's bride being prepared by her mother-in-law for the nuptial bed ("And breasts so haughty! . . . Such a figure, too; skin like marble. ... I don't wonder he's mad about...
Love and the Inquisition. Pedro was redhaired, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered, hot-tempered, chivalrous, brave, a good swordsman, a bad liar, and a miser when it came to hanging on to his illusions. When Pedro came upon two ruffians in the forest attacking Catana Pérez (clad only in her shoes, stocking and a torn shift), he cut one with his whip and rode the other down with his horse, though Catana was only a tavern keeper's daughter. And without quite knowing what he was doing, he delivered himself and his family into the power...
Death and Old Mexico. There Pedro and the soldier he befriended met their old Spanish enemies and friends-Diego de Silva, Catana, even the Inquisitor who condemned Pedro to death in Spain. The Aztecs, who welcome the Spaniards at first, turn on them at last like warrior ants. The retreat of the invaders over the broken causeways out of the city-la noche triste, the climax of Captain from Castile as it is of every book about Cortés' exploits-is the bloody nightmare of Spain in the New World...
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