Sharpes Escape   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

He stooped to the eyepiece and gazed at the northern landscape. The hills across the valley were crowned with three broken windmills, nothing left of them but their white stone stumps. Those, he supposed, would become French watchtowers. He swung the glass to the right, coming at last to a glimpse of the Tagus which swept wide towards the sea. A Royal Navy gunboat was anchored in the river, its ensign hanging limp in the rain. "If they come," a voice spoke behind Lawford, "then they can't use the road because it's flooded, so they'll be forced to make a detour and come straight up here."

Lawford straightened from the glass and saw it was Major Hogan who was swathed in an oilskin cape and had a black oilskin cover over his cocked hat. "You're well?" Lawford greeted the Irishman.

"I can feel a cold coming on," Hogan said, "a damned cold. First of the winter, eh?"

"Not winter yet, Hogan."

"Feels like it. May I?" Hogan gestured at the telescope. "Be my guest," Lawford said, and courteously wiped the rain from the outer lens. "How's the Peer?"

"His lordship thrives," Hogan said, stooping to the glass, "and sends his regards. He's angry, of course."

"Angry?"

"All those damned croakers, Lawford, who say the war's lost. Men who write home and get their block-headed opinions in the newspapers. He'd like to shoot the whole damned lot of them." Hogan was silent for a few seconds as he gazed at the British gunboat in the river, then he turned a mischievous look on Lawford. "You're not writing home with a bad opinion of his lordship's strategy, are you, Lawford?"

"Good Lord, no!" Lawford said, honestly.

Hogan bent to the glass again. "The flooding isn't all we hoped for," he said, "or what Colonel Fletcher hoped for. But it should suffice. They can't use the road, anyway, so what the bastards will do, Lawford, is march inland. Follow the base of those hills," Hogan was tracking the possible French route with the telescope, "and somewhere near that abandoned barn they'll cross over and come straight at you."

"Exactly what I'd surmised," Lawford said, "and then they'll advance into that valley." He nodded to the low ground that curled about the hill.

"Where they'll die," Hogan said with an indecent satisfaction. He stood up straight and winced at a twinge in his back. "In truth, Lawford, I don't expect them to try. But they might get desperate. Any news of Sharpe?"

Lawford hesitated, surprised by the question, then realized that it was probably the reason Hogan had sought him out. "None.