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Sharpes Battle :: Корнуэлл Бернард
Страница: 23 из 244"The Real Companпa Irlandesa is permitted to leave Madrid, permitted to take ship, and permitted to come to us, and meanwhile a letter is smuggled out of France saying the company is a gift to you from His imprisoned Majesty. I smell Frog paws all over it, my Lord."
"So we tell these damn guards to go away?"
"I doubt we can. In London the Prince Regent will doubtless be flattered by the gesture and the Foreign Office, you may depend, will consider any slight offered to the Real Companпa Irlandesa to be an insult to our Spanish allies, which means, my Lord, that we are stuck with the bastards."
"Are they good for anything?"
"I'm sure they'll be decorative," Hogan allowed dubiously.
"And decoration costs money," Wellington said. "I suppose the King of Spain did not think to send his guard's pay chest?"
"No, my Lord."
"Which means I'm paying them?" Wellington inquired dangerously, and, when Hogan's only answer was a seraphic smile, the General swore. "God damn their eyes! I'm supposed to pay the bastards? While they stab me in the back? Is that what they're here for, Hogan?"
"I wouldn't know, my Lord. But I suspect as much."
A gust of laughter sounded from a fatigue party that had just discovered some intimate drawings concealed in a dead Frenchman's coat tails. Wellington winced at the noise and edged his horse further away from the raucous group. Some crows fought over a pile of offal that had once been a French skirmisher. The General stared at the unpleasant sight, then grimaced. "So what do you know about this Irish guard, Hogan?"
"They're mostly Spanish these days, my Lord, though even the Spanish-born guards have to be descended from Irish exiles. Most of the guardsmen are recruited from the three Irish regiments in Spanish service, but a handful, I imagine, will be deserters from our own army. I'd suspect that most of them are patriotic to Spain and are probably willing to fight against the French, but undoubtedly a handful of them will be afrancesados, though in that regard I'd suspect the officers before the men." An afrancesado was a Spaniard who supported the French and almost all such traitors came from the educated classes. Hogan slapped a horsefly that had settled on his horse's neck. "It's all right, Jeremiah, just a hungry fly," he explained to his startled horse, then turned back to Wellington. "I don't know why they've been sent here, my Lord, but I am sure of two things. First, it will be a diplomatic impossibility to get rid of them, and second we have to assume that it's the French who want them here. King Ferdinand, I've no doubt, was gulled into writing the letter. I hear he's not very clever, my Lord.
"So we tell these damn guards to go away?"
"I doubt we can. In London the Prince Regent will doubtless be flattered by the gesture and the Foreign Office, you may depend, will consider any slight offered to the Real Companпa Irlandesa to be an insult to our Spanish allies, which means, my Lord, that we are stuck with the bastards."
"Are they good for anything?"
"I'm sure they'll be decorative," Hogan allowed dubiously.
"And decoration costs money," Wellington said. "I suppose the King of Spain did not think to send his guard's pay chest?"
"No, my Lord."
"Which means I'm paying them?" Wellington inquired dangerously, and, when Hogan's only answer was a seraphic smile, the General swore. "God damn their eyes! I'm supposed to pay the bastards? While they stab me in the back? Is that what they're here for, Hogan?"
"I wouldn't know, my Lord. But I suspect as much."
A gust of laughter sounded from a fatigue party that had just discovered some intimate drawings concealed in a dead Frenchman's coat tails. Wellington winced at the noise and edged his horse further away from the raucous group. Some crows fought over a pile of offal that had once been a French skirmisher. The General stared at the unpleasant sight, then grimaced. "So what do you know about this Irish guard, Hogan?"
"They're mostly Spanish these days, my Lord, though even the Spanish-born guards have to be descended from Irish exiles. Most of the guardsmen are recruited from the three Irish regiments in Spanish service, but a handful, I imagine, will be deserters from our own army. I'd suspect that most of them are patriotic to Spain and are probably willing to fight against the French, but undoubtedly a handful of them will be afrancesados, though in that regard I'd suspect the officers before the men." An afrancesado was a Spaniard who supported the French and almost all such traitors came from the educated classes. Hogan slapped a horsefly that had settled on his horse's neck. "It's all right, Jeremiah, just a hungry fly," he explained to his startled horse, then turned back to Wellington. "I don't know why they've been sent here, my Lord, but I am sure of two things. First, it will be a diplomatic impossibility to get rid of them, and second we have to assume that it's the French who want them here. King Ferdinand, I've no doubt, was gulled into writing the letter. I hear he's not very clever, my Lord.