“So you’re staying with us then?”
“No court of inquiry,” Sharpe said. “Runciman told me.”
“They should never have wanted one in the first place,” Harper said scornfully, then took the bottle from Sharpe and tipped it to his mouth.
They wandered through an encampment smeared with the smoke of cooking fires and haunted with the cries of wounded men left on the battlefield. Those cries faded as Sharpe and Harper walked further from the village. Around the fires men sang of their homes far away. The singing was sentimental enough to give Sharpe a pang of homesickness even though he knew his home was not in England, but here, in the army, and he could not imagine leaving this home. He was a soldier and he marched where he was ordered to march and he killed the king’s enemies when he arrived. That was his job and the army was his home and he loved both even though he knew he would have to fight like a gutter-born bastard for every step of advancement that other men took for granted. And he knew too that he would never be prized for his birth or his wit or his wealth, but would only be reckoned as good as his last fight, but that thought made him smile. For Sharpe’s last battle had been against the best soldier France had and Sharpe had drowned the bastard like a rat. Sharpe had won, Loup was dead, and it was over at last: Sharpe’s battle.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The royal guard of Spain in Napoleonic times consisted of four companies: the Spanish, American, Italian and Flemish companies, but alas, no Real Compañía Irlandesa. There were, however, three Irish regiments in Spanish service (de Irlanda, de Hibernia, and de Ultonia), each composed of Irish exiles and their descendants. The British army, too, had more than its share of Irishmen; some English county regiments in the Peninsula were more than one-third Irish, and if the French could ever have disaffected those men then the army would have been in a desperate condition.
It was in a fairly desperate condition in the spring of 1811 anyway, not because of disaffection, but simply because of numbers. The British government had yet to realize that in Wellington they had at last discovered a general who knew how to fight and they were still niggardly in sending him troops. The shortfall was partly remedied by the fine Portuguese battalions that were under Wellington’s command. Some divisions, like the Seventh, had more Portuguese than British soldiers and every account of the war pays tribute to the fighting qualities of those allies. The relationship with the Spanish was never so easy nor so fruitful, even after General Alava became liaison officer to Wellington. Alava became a close friend to Wellington and was with him, indeed, on the field of Waterloo. The Spanish did eventually appoint Wellington the Generalisimo of their armies, but they waited until after the battle of Salamanca in 1812 had driven the French out of Madrid and central Spain.
But in 1811 the French were still very close to Portugal which they had occupied twice in the previous three years. Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz barred Wellington’s progress into Spain and until those twin fortresses fell (in early 1812) no one could be certain that the French would not attempt another invasion of Portugal. Such an invasion became much less likely after the battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, but it would not have been impossible.
Fuentes de Oñoro was never one of Wellington’s “favorite” battles, which were those that he could recall with some pleasure at his own generalship. Assaye, in India, is the battle of which he was most proud and Fuentes de Oñoro is probably the one of which he was least proud. He made one of his rare mistakes when he allowed the Seventh Division to march so far from the rest of the army, but he was rescued by the brilliant performance of the Light Division under Craufurd on that Sunday morning. It was a display of soldiering that impressed everyone who witnessed it; the Division was far from help, it was surrounded, yet it withdrew safely and took only a handful of casualties. The fighting in the village itself was far worse, little more than a slaughterous brawl that left the streets glutted with the dead and dying, yet in the end, despite the French bravery and their one glorious moment when they did capture the church and the crest, the British and their allies held the ridge and denied Masséna the road to Almeida. Masséna, disappointed, distributed the rations he had been carrying for Almeida’s garrison among his own hungry army, then marched back to Ciudad Rodrigo.
So Wellington, despite his mistake, was left with a victory, but it was a victory soured by the escape of Almeida’s garrison. That garrison was being blockaded by Sir William Erskine who, sadly, did not have too many “lucid intervals.” The letter from the Horse Guards describing Erskine’s madness is genuine and shows one of the problems Wellington had in trying to prosecute a war. Erskine did nothing when the French blew up Almeida’s defenses and slept while the garrison slipped away in the night. The whole lot of them should have been made prisoner, but instead they escaped a feeble blockade and went to reinforce the vast French armies in Spain.
Most of those armies were fighting guerrilleros, not British soldiers, and in another year some of them would be fighting an even more terrible enemy: the Russian winter. But the British too have their hardships to come, hardships that Sharpe and Harper will share, endure and, happily, survive.
About the Author
BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Richard Sharpe series; the Thomas of Hookton series, featuring The Archer’s Tale, Vagabond, and Heretic; the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles; the Warlord Trilogy; and the novels Redcoat, Stonehenge 2000 B.C., and Gallows Thief. Bernard Cornwell lives with his wife in Cape Cod.
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OTHER BOOKS BY BERNARD CORNWELL
(The Sharpe Novels (in chronological order)
SHARPE’S TIGER*
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799
SHARPE’S TRIUMPH*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803
SHARPE’S FORTRESS*
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803
SHARPE’S TRAFALGAR*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805
SHARPE’S PREY*
Richard Sharpe and the Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807
SHARPE’S RIFLES
Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809
SHARPE’S HAVOC*
Richard Sharpe and the Campaign in Northern Portugal, Spring 1809
SHARPE’S EAGLE
Richard Sharpe and the Talavera Campaign, July 1809
SHARPE’S GOLD
Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810
SHARPE’S ESCAPE*
Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, September to October 1810
SHARPE’S BATTLE*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, May 1811
SHARPE’S COMPANY
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812
SHARPE’S SWORD
Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812
SHARPE’S ENEMY
Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812
SHARPE’S HONOUR
Richard Sharpe and the Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813
SHARPE’S REGIMENT
Richard Sharpe and the Invasion of France, June to November 1813
SHARPE’S SIEGE
Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814
SHARPE’S REVENGE
Richard Sharpe and the Peace of 1814
SHARPE’S WATERLOO
Richard Sharpe and the Waterloo Campaign, 15 June to 18 June, 1815
SHARPE’S DEVIL*
Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820-21
THE THOMAS OF HOOKTON SERIES
The Archer’s Tale*
Vagabond*
Heretic*
THE NATHANIEL STARBUCK CHRONICLES
Rebel*
Copperhead*
Battle Flag*
The Bloody
Ground*
THE WARLORD CHRONICLES
The Winter King
The Enemy of God
Excalibur
OTHER NOVELS
Redcoat*
Gallows Thief*
Stonehenge, 2000 B.C.: A Novel*
*Published by HarperCollinsPublishers
Bernard Cornwell On:
I. The Origin of Richard Sharpe (Memo to the Sharpe Appreciation Society, http://www.southessex.co.uk)
Richard Sharpe was born on a winter’s night in 1980. It was in London, in a basement flat in Courtnell Street, not far from Westbourne Grove. I had decided to marry an American and, for a myriad of reasons, it was going to be easier if I lived in America, but I could not get a work permit and so, airily, I decided to earn a living as a writer. Love makes us into idiots.
But at least I knew what I wanted to write. It was going to be a land-based version of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower books. I wasted hours trying to find my hero’s name. I wanted a name as dramatic as Horatio Hornblower, but I couldn’t think of one (Trumpetwhistler? Cornetpuffer?), so eventually I decided to give him a temporary name and, once I had found his real name, I would simply go back and change it. So I named him after Richard Sharp, the great rugby player, and of course the name stuck. I added an “e” – that was all.
The book was finished in New Jersey. Now, eighteen years, innumerable battles and well over a million words later, he’s still going strong, and there are yet more books to write. I thought I had finished with Sharpe after Waterloo, but so many people wrote wanting more stories that he had to put on his green jacket and march again. Being a hero, of course, he has more lives than a basketful of cats, but maybe Sharpe’s greatest stroke of good fortune was meeting Sean Bean.
He has also been outrageously lucky in his other friends who, collectively, are the Sharpe Appreciation Society. He would not think there was that much to appreciate (“Bloody daft, really”), but on his behalf, I can thank you for being his friends and assure you that, so long as I have anything to do with him, he will not let you down.
And, finally, time for confession: Years and years ago I was a journalist in Belfast and I remember a night just before Christmas when a group of us were sitting in a city-centre pub getting drunk and maudlin, and discussing, as journalists are wont to do, how much easier life would be if only we were novelists. No more hard work, just storytelling, and somehow we invented the name of an author and a bet was laid. The bet was a bottle of Jameson Whiskey from everyone about the table to be given to whichever one of us first wrote the book with the author’s name. Years later I collected the winnings (long drunk) which is why, in second-hand shops, you might find the following: A Crowning Mercy; The Fallen Angels;Coat of Arms – all by Bernard Cornwell, writing as Susannah Kells.
II. Sharpe’s Adventures
I thought, when I began writing Sharpe, that there could not possibly be more than ten novels in him, but there are now eighteen and more are on the way.
So who and what is he?
Richard Sharpe is a soldier, one of the thousands of Britons who fought against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France between 1793 and 1815. He shadows the career of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who becomes the first Duke of Wellington, and in so doing he takes part in some of the most extraordinary exploits of the era – from the storming of Seringapatam in 1799 to the bloodbath at Waterloo in 1815.
By 1814, when Napoleon is first defeated and sent into exile, the Duke of Wellington leads what is arguably the finest army that Britain ever raised. About one in twenty of its officers had come up from the ranks, and Richard Sharpe is one of them. Is he real? No, there was no Rifle officer called Sharpe, though there was a cavalryman whose rise from trooper to Lieutenant Colonel took the same amount of time that it takes Sharpe to be promoted from private to Lieutenant Colonel. Sharpe is also a Rifleman, a new breed of soldier in the British army who fought, not with a smoothbore musket, but with the much more accurate rifle. Above everything, though, Sharpe has adventures. That is the point of the poor man’s existence.
— Bernard Cornwell
(Material culled from http://www.bernardcornwellbooks.com and from The Sharpe Appreciation Society website, http://www.southessex.co.uk.)
The Sharpe Appreciation Society
The Sharpe Appreciation Society was formed in 1996 amid growing demands from fans wanting more information about the books, television series, the people involved in making the series, the Napoleonic period, weaponry – in fact anything remotely connected with Sharpe.
After finding there was no central point of contact for fans, Chris Clarke, now secretary, made contact with Richard Rutherford-Moore (historical and technical advisor to the television series) and wrote to the author Bernard Cornwell as well as to Malcolm Craddock, one of the producers.
With Richard Moore’s help, Chris started the fan club in July 1996, expecting fifty to 100 fans to join her. We now have over 1,500 fans across the world and they are still joining! In May 1998, we held our first convention, where we were joined by Bernard Cornwell, Malcolm Craddock, Muir Sutherland and some of the actors involved in bringing the world of Sharpe to life.
We are the official fan club, approved by the author, producers, Carlton Television and Central Television. For more information, please write to Chris who will be pleased to send you an application form.
The Sharpe Appreciation Society
P.O. Box 14
Lowdham
Nottingham
NG14 7HU
England
Sharpe Query Line:
Tel: 0(044) 115 966 5405
Secretary: Christine Clarke
[email protected]
http://www.southessex.co.uk
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
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http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
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http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Sharpe's Escape
Dedication
Contents
Part One
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part Two - Coimbra
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Part Three - The Lines of Torres Vedras
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Historical Note
Shape's Fury
Contents
PART ONE - The River
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
PART TWO - The City
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
PART THREE - The Battle
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
HISTORICAL NOTE
Sharpe's Battle
Contents
MAP
PART I
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART II
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
HISTORICAL NOTE
About the Author
Origin of Richard Sharpe
The Sharpe Appreciation Society
About the Publisher
Sharpe 3-Book Collection 4: Sharpe's Escape, Sharpe's Fury, Sharpe's Battle Page 108