??igo de Balboa, Captain Alatriste's fourteen-year-old page, accompanies the captain to the Dutch city of Breda, to wage war and participate in the Spanish siege against the city, in the name of King Phillip IV and Catholicism.
Captain Diego Alatriste along with his two comrades Sebastian Copons and Moor Gurriato are ordered to intervene against a crucial Spanish crown conspiracy, an assassination during Christmas Mass in Venice.
