JК
Sharpes Havoc :: Корнуэлл Бернард
Страница: 105 из 242The fugitives who had fled from Oporto had now returned to thecity or found refuge elsewhere, but the French were making new fugitives. Wherever they were ambushed by partisans they sacked the closest villages and, even without the provocation of ambush, they plundered farms mercilessly to feed themselves. More and more folk came to Vila Real de Zedes, drawn there by rumors that the French had agreed to spare the village. No one knew why the French should do such a thing, though some of the older women said it was because the whole valley was under the protection of Saint Joseph whose life-size statue was in the church, and the village’s priest, Father Josefa, encouraged the belief. He even had the statue taken from the church, hung with fading narcissi and crowned with a laurel wreath, and then carried about the village boundary to show the saint the precise extent of the lands needing his guardianship. Vila Real de Zedes, folk believed, was a sanctuary from the war and ordained as such by God.
May arrived with rain and wind. The last of the blossoms were blown from the trees to make damp rills of pink and white petals in the grass. Still the French did not come and Manuel Lopes reckoned they were simply too busy to bother with Vila Real de Zedes. „They’ve got troubles,” he said happily. „Silveira’s giving them a bellyache at Amarante and the road to Vigo has been closed by partisans. They’re cut off! No way home! They’re not going to worry us here.” Lopes frequently went to the nearby towns where he posed as a peddler selling religious trinkets and he brought back news of the French troops. „They patrol the roads,” he said, „they get drunk at night and they wish they were back home.”
„And they look for food,” Sharpe said.
„They do that too,” Lopes agreed.
„And one day,” Sharpe said, „when they’re hungry, they’ll come here.”
„Colonel Christopher won’t let them,” Lopes said. He was walking with Sharpe along the Quinta’s drive, watched by Harris and Cooper who stood guard at the gate, the closest Sharpe allowed his Protestant riflemen to the village. Rain was threatening. Gray sheets of it fell across the northern hills and Sharpe had twice heard rumbles of thunder which might have been the sound of the guns at Amarante, but seemed too loud. „I shall leave soon,” Lopes announced.
„Back to Braganca?”
„Amarante. My men are recovered. It is time to fight again.”
„You could do one thing before you go,” Sharpe said, ignoring the implied criticism in Lopes’s last words. „Tell those refugees to get out of the village. Tell them to go home.
May arrived with rain and wind. The last of the blossoms were blown from the trees to make damp rills of pink and white petals in the grass. Still the French did not come and Manuel Lopes reckoned they were simply too busy to bother with Vila Real de Zedes. „They’ve got troubles,” he said happily. „Silveira’s giving them a bellyache at Amarante and the road to Vigo has been closed by partisans. They’re cut off! No way home! They’re not going to worry us here.” Lopes frequently went to the nearby towns where he posed as a peddler selling religious trinkets and he brought back news of the French troops. „They patrol the roads,” he said, „they get drunk at night and they wish they were back home.”
„And they look for food,” Sharpe said.
„They do that too,” Lopes agreed.
„And one day,” Sharpe said, „when they’re hungry, they’ll come here.”
„Colonel Christopher won’t let them,” Lopes said. He was walking with Sharpe along the Quinta’s drive, watched by Harris and Cooper who stood guard at the gate, the closest Sharpe allowed his Protestant riflemen to the village. Rain was threatening. Gray sheets of it fell across the northern hills and Sharpe had twice heard rumbles of thunder which might have been the sound of the guns at Amarante, but seemed too loud. „I shall leave soon,” Lopes announced.
„Back to Braganca?”
„Amarante. My men are recovered. It is time to fight again.”
„You could do one thing before you go,” Sharpe said, ignoring the implied criticism in Lopes’s last words. „Tell those refugees to get out of the village. Tell them to go home.