The Adventures Of Captain Alatriste

Madrid of 1623. Spain's King Philip IV and his prime minister, the Count Duke of Olivares, rule over half the world. But perennial warfare has drained the finances, transforming the streets of Madrid into a constant struggle for survival.

Grand Inquisitor Bocanegra and his allies, are eliminating all witness of the failed assassination attempt on Prince Charles, but Alatriste manages to escape to a church as sanctuary. Not one to be easily outsmarted, Bocanegra has Maria's sister incarcerated for blasphemy, knowing that she is Alatriste's soft spot, and he will do anything to help his lover.

After a bond of sorts is established between Alatriste and Prince Charles, Guadalmedina assigns him his next job: bodyguard to Charles wherever he may choose to roam. When the destination of his choice is, of all places, the Infanta's convent, the master swordsman's next predicament is just around the corner.

After selflessly enabling Prince Charles' escape from the convent, Alatriste is locked away. And while it looks like Maria is ready to do some covert work for Bocanegra to save her sister Ines' life, another spy heads for Spain with instructions from Cardinal Richelieu to prevent the Spanish Match at all cost: Madame de Brissac.

Alatriste finds himself between one woman from his past, Maria, and one from his present, Caridad. But final verdicts of the heart are postponed when two recently orphaned children of an old friend and comrade of Diego seek his help in retrieving a mysterious statuette of Saint George, their father's only inheritance, whose value seems not to lie in the holy but in what it holds.

Madame de Brissac looks to make Padre Ferrán her ally in driving a wedge between the English prince and the infanta. With Alatriste's help, Elvira Barragas takes revenge on the assassins who killed her brother and uncle and Inigo finds out what it means to kill with one's own hands.

The Captain and his old friend Ferrán, who out of penitence has become a radical priest, have struck a deal which would save Maria's sister Ines from certain death. When only Alatriste keeps his promise, he is as furious as Maria, but it is Maria who resorts to more drastic measures.

Pressured by Buckingham that an unmarried prince's return to England will mean war between their two nations, Olivares suggests a secret wedding to circumvent the all too catholic obstacles in the way and requests that Alatriste and Quevedo undertake all necessary preparations.

The moment Prince Charles and Infanta Maria Ana have waited for for so long goes up in smoke when it the Captain realizes they have been betrayed. Not a moment too soon, for only moments later, Malatesta and his henchmen show up - Alatriste making an ever so close escape with the prince and the infanta.

After saving Maria from Guadalmedina's henchmen and hiding her with Copons keeping watch, Alatriste rides back to team up with his poet comrade Quevedo to find out the real traitor from conniving Luis de Alquezar.

Grand Inquisitor Bocanegra contends the death of the Infanta Maria Ana's confessor is an omen for even more evil that will befall Spain if the wedding goes through or King Philip's play he wrote for Queen Isabel were to be staged as planned.

While Malatesta has his mind set on revenge, the Captain smells the rat, knowing that if he can get his hands on the kidnapper and Sabine, they will be the ideal pawns for a trade-off against innocent Inigo... but time is running out.

Alatriste's plans to trade off Inigo's life for that of the kidnapper and merchant Hinterhofen's wife Sabine are shattered by the arrival of Alquezar and his troops in Domine Perez' church where they are hiding out. At the very last moment, Angelica decides to speak the truth - the equivalent of a death sentence for her very own nanny.

Alatriste is under pressure to solve the mystery of the cardinal's death to save Sebastian Copons' life who awaits his execution. But when Diego and Quevedo turn up to question Sheriff Saldana, they don't come upon him but surprise his wife Sagrario in bed with her lover. Alatriste makes her promise she will confess it to him, or he will...

Madrid is besieged by the black death. While Domine Perez' church once again serves as a sanctuary, this time not for the hunted but for the ill. All the the more reason for Buckingham to go through with his plan to get the Prince of Wales back to England with the help of Alatriste, Copons, and Inigo.

When Bocanegra hears that Prince Charles has pledged to convert to Catholicism to finally marry Infanta Maria Ana, he sends Malatesta off to do whatever it takes to prevent the wedding once and for all.

The Spanish Match - the alliance between Spain and England - has failed, and so the troops are gathering once again, among them Diego, Inigo, and Copons, until, at the last moment, Malatesta, gravely wounded by Diego's previous assault, appears with a last message for the Captain, one which turns his life upside down...

Raging mad, Sheriff Saldana duels Alatriste to take revenge for turning him into a cuckold. In self-defense, Diego wounds his friend. When Caridad and Domine Perez visit Saldana later at his home to treat him, they find him close to death but it appears not from the wounds inflicted by Diego...