- Rey: How beautiful... This is the first time I've seen a completely naked woman... Have you ever seen anything more beautiful in your life, Count? Paradise must be like this.
- Conde La Peña Andrade: Those in the Holy Office don't say the same thing, sir.
- Rey: What do they know about naked women?
- Conde La Peña Andrade: According to them, everything.
- Lucrecia: I myself spent the night in pure bliss. With the Count here on top of me, never leaving.
- [sighs]
- Lucrecia: I've never had anything like it. Well, I wasn't even there anymore, imagine I'd even lost count.
- Marfisa: You're exaggerating.
- Lucrecia: I swear, by the memory of my mother, who was also a whore like you, but repented in time.
- Rivadesella: What worries all of us theologians today is the King's idea of seeing the Queen naked.
- Devil: From my point of view, the matter is of no importance. What does it matter whether he sees her dressed or in a nightgown?
- Rivadesella: What about sin?
- Devil: At a glance, this doesn't matter to me, and I suppose the Other feels the same. On these matters, we usually agree.
- Rivadesella: So all this has no influence on the arrival of the Armada in Cádiz, or on our defeat in Flanders?
- Devil: The arrival of the ships depends only on the English arriving in time to prevent it, and the defeat in Flanders has much to do with the quality of the weapons, the discipline of the troops, and the situation of the contenders.
- Villaescusa: Before the Holy Tribunal of Penitence, there is no hierarchy or treatment. Now you are nothing more than a poor, humiliated penitent.
- Valido: [Kneeling] Yes, Father.
- Villaescusa: Confess, then, all the sins you have committed in your life.
- Valido: [Looks up] All of them, Father?
- Gran Inquisidor: It is not impossible, Father Almeida, that one day you will have to answer the questions of this Holy Tribunal regarding the orthodoxy of your particular doctrine. In the meantime, since you have my sympathies, I suggest we have lunch alone. Does tomorrow at noon sound appropriate?
- Almeida: And won't Your Excellency have to have me arrested before then?
- Valido: We have defeated the Protestants in Flanders.
- Correo 2: Courier from Cádiz, sir.
- Valido: And the entire fleet has arrived.
- Villaescusa: It's natural, Your Excellency. Prayer can achieve anything.
- Valido: Look at the dates, Father. The victory took place a week ago, and the fleet arrived in Cádiz the day before yesterday. The very day the king went whoring.
- Villaescusa: [pause] Your Excellency, it is well known...
- [visibly thinking an excuse]
- Villaescusa: that time does not exist in God's memory. He gave us victory in Flanders and favored the arrival of our fleet because He knew in advance of the prayers and sacrifices.
- Conde La Peña Andrade: What are you looking for, Your Majesty?
- Rey: Half a ducat I brought for Marfisa.
- Conde La Peña Andrade: Half a ducat, nothing more?
- Rey: That's what protocol dictates.
- Conde La Peña Andrade: Sire, Marfisa is the most expensive whore in the town. The right thing for Your Majesty to do would be to leave her ten ducats.
- Villaescusa: Does Your Excellency have any other news?
- Valido: That the pimp was a certain Count de La Peña Andrada, whom I know not.
- Villaescusa: I, on the other hand, have heard that name. A Galician, isn't he?
- Valido: Hmm. So it seems.
- Villaescusa: Everyone knows that ninety percent of Galicians, including clergy, are damned.
- Valido: Isn't that a lot, Father?
- Villaescusa: What do Your Excellency think? As for the women, those who aren't witches are whores! The reports from the Holy Office confirm this.
- Hombre 3: What kind of fools are Your Graces, who rejoice so much over something that can only bring us calamity? The laws of God and the Church already state so: A man may approach a woman for the purpose of procreation, and if his humors so demand it, to calm them, but never ever with such frivolous intentions as contemplating his own woman naked.
- Lucrecia: Well, the King was certainly looking at Marfisa naked this morning.
- Hombre 3: It is not the same, ignorant girl, to look at a prostitute, for that is what she is there for, as at a wife received in the Holy Sacrament, no matter how French she may be. The wife's body is sacrosanct. You may touch her, but not look at her.
- Villaescusa: Sire, to give full thanks to the Almighty, it would be necessary to celebrate a great Auto-da-Fé. It would be enough to burn eighty or ninety heretics.
- Rey: Burnt meat smells bad, and I don't like Autos-da-Fé.
- Marfisa: The King is young, Madam. Young people are in a hurry and rush everything. Calm him down. Dare to refuse, with tenderness. Let each "no" enclose an immediate "yes." And forget about the time that passes. It is not worthy of Kings, but there is nothing better.
- Villaescusa: I've been mulling over this audacity of the King. I can't find anyone responsible other than his confessor, that easy-going eighty-year-old who forgives everything with the slightest penance. Especially sins of the flesh!
- Rivadesella: Are you referring to Father Ferrán de Valdivieso?
- Villaescusa: That one exactly. The convert.
- Gran Inquisidor: Jews are not known for their tolerance. Remember my predecessor, Torquemada.