Sharpes Escape   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

The stream made a great double bend beneath the hill where Lawford spoke. It swerved from the northern side of the valley, almost reached the southern and then curved back to run into the Tagus. Inside the first bend, and on the British bank, was an ancient barn that was little more than a stone ruin in a grove of trees, while within the second curve, and thus on the French side of the stream, was what had once been a prosperous farm with a big house, some smaller cottages, a dairy and a pair of cattle sheds. All were abandoned now, people and livestock ordered south to escape the French, and the buildings looked forlorn in the inundated landscape. The farm itself was high and dry, perched on a small rise, so that it resembled an island in a wind-fretted lake, though as the tide ebbed the floods would slowly drain away, but the ground would still remain waterlogged and any French advance beside the Tagus would thus be forced to march westwards on the valley's far side until it reached the drier ground somewhere near the half-ruined barn. The enemy could cross the stream there and advance on the British works, a possibility that Lawford raised with his officers. "And if the devils manage to put some heavy guns in that barn," he went on, "or in those farm buildings," he pointed to the farm which lay a half mile east of the barn and was linked to the smaller building by an embanked track that was carried over the stream by a stone bridge, though the flooding meant that only the bridge's parapets were now visible, "then they can bombard these positions. That will not happen, gentlemen."

Major Leroy thought it a most unlikely proposition. To get to the dilapidated barn the French would have to cross the stream, while to reach the farm would mean negotiating a long stretch of waterlogged ground, and neither would make it easy to move guns and caissons. Leroy suspected Lawford knew that, but he also reckoned the Colonel did not want his men becoming complacent. "And to stop it from happening, gentlemen," Lawford said, "we're going to patrol. We're going to patrol vigorously. Company size patrols, down in the valley, so that any damned Frog who shows his nose will get it bloodied." Lawford turned and pointed at Captain Slingsby, "Your task, Cornelius…»

"Patrol," Slingsby said quickly, "vigorously."

"Is to establish a picquet in that barn," Lawford said, irritated at the interruption. "Day and night, Cornelius. The light company will live there, you understand?"

Slingsby stared down at the old barn beside the stream.