Sharpes Siege   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

One reason for that French quiescence, apart from French weariness with Napoleon’s wars, was Wellington’s sensible treatment of the French population. Any criminal act against the French was punishable by summary execution though, like Sharpe, many officers found it hard to hang their own men. The Provosts, the military policemen, were less squeamish. Every item of food had to be purchased, and that endeared the British Army to a population accustomed to their own Army’s habit of legalized theft. That the food was paid for in counterfeit coin did not matter, for Wellington’s forgeries contained the proper amount of silver and were indistinguishable from the product of the Paris mint.

The British Army, richly blessed with gaol-birds, had no trouble in finding expert coiners in its ranks.

So, even though the merchants of Bordeaux, made poor by British blockade, are eager for the war’s end, and even though the French population is giving a guarded welcome to men whose discipline is so much greater than Napoleon’s troops, the war is still not over. The Emperor is at large and many die-hards in France believe that his genius can yet snatch glory from disaster. The last defences are often the toughest to take, so Sharpe and Harper must march again.