Sharpes Battle   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

The soldier's uniform, he now saw, was not British. The waistcoat and sash, the half boots and the plumed bicorne were all too fancy for British taste, indeed they were so fancy that for a second Loup wondered if the captive was an officer, then he realized that Braudel would never have treated a captured officer with such disdain. Braudel clearly liked the woman who now raised shy eyes to stare at Loup. She was dark-haired, attractive and probably, Loup guessed, about fifteen or sixteen. Loup had heard that the Spanish and Portuguese peasants sold such daughters as wives to allied soldiers for a hundred francs apiece, the cost of a good meal in Paris. The French army, on the other hand, just took their girls for nothing. "What's your name?" Loup asked the deserter in Spanish.

"Grogan, sir. Sean Grogan."

"Your unit, Grogan?"

" Real Companпa Irlandesa , seсor ." Guardsman Grogan was plainly willing to cooperate with his captors and so Loup signalled the Sergeant to release him.

Loup questioned Grogan for ten minutes, hearing how the Real Companпa Irlandesa had travelled by sea from Valencia, and how the men had been happy enough with the idea of joining the rest of the Spanish army at Cadiz, but how they resented being forced to serve with the British. Many of the men, the fugitive claimed, had fled from British servitude, and they had not enlisted with the King of Spain just to return to King George's tyranny.

Loup cut short the protests. "When did you run?" he asked.

"Last night, sir. Half a dozen of us did. And a good many ran the night before."

"There is an Englishman in the fort, a rifle officer. You know him?"

Grogan frowned, as though he found the question odd, but then he nodded. "Captain Sharpe, sir. He's supposed to be training us."

"To do what?"

"To fight, sir," Grogan said nervously. He found this one-eyed, calm-spoken Frenchman very disconcerting. "But we know how to fight already," he added defiantly.

"I'm sure you do," Loup said sympathetically. He poked at his teeth for a second, then spat the makeshift toothpick away. "So you ran away, soldier, because you didn't want to serve King George, is that it?"

"Yes, sir."

"But you'd certainly fight for His Majesty the Emperor?"

Grogan hesitated. "I would, sir," he finally said, but without any conviction.

"Is that why you deserted?" Loup asked. "To fight for the Emperor? Or were you hoping to get back to your comfortable barracks in the Escorial?"

Grogan shrugged. "We were going to her family's house in Madrid, sir.