261
Ibid.
262
«Pero el agrado con que el público recibió La Corte de Carlos IV sirviome como de luz o inspiración, sugiriéndome, con el plan completo de los Episodios Nacionales, el enlace de las diez obritas de que se compone y la distribución graduada de los asuntos, de modo que resultase toda la unidad posible en la extremada variedad que esta clase de narraciones exige». (Benito Pérez Galdós, «Prólogo 2.º a los Episodios nacionales», in Shoemaker, op. cit., p. 55). Although Galdós' reasoning is again evasive (in its attribution to public demand of a previous authorial decision), the novelistic structure of the first series of episodios is commenced only in La Corte de Carlos IV: the introduction of Inés and the Countess Amaranta, the beginning of the love intrigue, the stress on character interaction, the pastiche of literature, and the ironic treatment of Gabriel's ambitions.
263
The Battle of Talavera (1809) has, of course, been widely treated by historians. The Battle of San Marcial, with an account of which Galdós originally intended to finish the first series of episodios, is less widely-known. It was fought on August 31, 1813, when the Spaniards, under Freire, decisively defeated the French who had recrossed the Bidasoa in an attempt to relieve the garrison besieged in San Sebastián. It was the last battle of the War of Independence fought outside Catalonia.
264
Trafalgar, 2nd ed., p. 15. The chronology is corrected (placing Gerona before Arapiles) for the Illustrated Edition of 1881. Curiously, the seventh edition (Madrid: La Guirnalda, 1888) reproduces the text of the second edition.
265
Benito Pérez Galdós, Gerona (Madrid: Hernando, 1940), pp. 8-9.