Summary Chapter 9 Summary

The Spanish partisans have been set up in the village of Nave de Haver to keep watch on the southern flank of the British army. Early on the morning following the truce, the French dragoons on their huge horses pound through the village slaughtering the unprepared and unmounted partisans. Several officers try to organize the defenders but the attack is too swift and too overwhelming. As half the French dragoons track down survivors who have run to the west, the rest of them go house by house and kill anyone found alive. At a church, a mass is just beginning and the French smash into the church, slaughter all the people, including the priest and ransack the building for all its valuables. A message is sent to Massena that the village is dead and Poco Velha, the next village in line...