JК
Sharpes Siege :: Корнуэлл Бернард
Страница: 92 из 223He went into the yard, stared upwards, and sure enough the Union flag that the sailors had raised to the flagpole’s peak was hanging utterly limp in the still, misting air.
It was a flat calm, an utter stillness; no airs in which to hang a sailorman, and so Richard Sharpe would let an enemy go and he would say he did it for honour, or because the war was so close to ending that there was no need for more death, or because it was just his pleasure to do it.
He felt tears in his eyes that had been earlier closed with blood, then walked to the gate to make sure that no man stopped the Thuella’s crew from leaving. His wife would live and Sharpe, for the first time since the Amelie had sailed, felt that he, just like the Americans, was free.
CHAPTER 9
“Be Pleased to acquaint the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,” wrote Captain Horace Bampfylde as he drafted his first despatch to the Secretary of the Admiralty, which gentleman would not only acquaint the Lords Commissioners, but also the unlordly editor of the Naval Gazette who was in a position to do much honour to Captain Bampfylde, “that judging it to be of Consequence that their Lordships should have as early Information as possible of the Defeat of the French Forces in the Basin of Arcachon, I have this day ordered the Lily cutter to sail with this Despatch.” The Lily was waiting in the roads outside.
“I had established,” Bampfylde’s quill squeaked on the thick paper, “from picquets sent ahead, that an Artillery Fortification, of Breastwork, Ditch, and Emplacements, in which six pieces of artillery were arrayed, which pieces were defended by musketeers, had been constructed against just such an approach as I had the honour to make.” Bampfylde had decided not to reveal that the ‘breastwork’ was manned by American sailors, for victory over such opponents would not be considered as praiseworthy as a triumph over French land forces. By default, therefore, Bampfylde would allow the Lords Commissioners to believe that he had faced and overcome a part of Napoleon’s Army.
He refought the battle with quill and ink. not as it had actually taken place, but as he was convinced it ought to have taken place; indeed in a manner that precisely described what Bampfylde believed would have happened if Major Sharpe had not disobeyed his orders and assaulted the Teste de Buch instead of marching inland.
It was a flat calm, an utter stillness; no airs in which to hang a sailorman, and so Richard Sharpe would let an enemy go and he would say he did it for honour, or because the war was so close to ending that there was no need for more death, or because it was just his pleasure to do it.
He felt tears in his eyes that had been earlier closed with blood, then walked to the gate to make sure that no man stopped the Thuella’s crew from leaving. His wife would live and Sharpe, for the first time since the Amelie had sailed, felt that he, just like the Americans, was free.
CHAPTER 9
“Be Pleased to acquaint the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,” wrote Captain Horace Bampfylde as he drafted his first despatch to the Secretary of the Admiralty, which gentleman would not only acquaint the Lords Commissioners, but also the unlordly editor of the Naval Gazette who was in a position to do much honour to Captain Bampfylde, “that judging it to be of Consequence that their Lordships should have as early Information as possible of the Defeat of the French Forces in the Basin of Arcachon, I have this day ordered the Lily cutter to sail with this Despatch.” The Lily was waiting in the roads outside.
“I had established,” Bampfylde’s quill squeaked on the thick paper, “from picquets sent ahead, that an Artillery Fortification, of Breastwork, Ditch, and Emplacements, in which six pieces of artillery were arrayed, which pieces were defended by musketeers, had been constructed against just such an approach as I had the honour to make.” Bampfylde had decided not to reveal that the ‘breastwork’ was manned by American sailors, for victory over such opponents would not be considered as praiseworthy as a triumph over French land forces. By default, therefore, Bampfylde would allow the Lords Commissioners to believe that he had faced and overcome a part of Napoleon’s Army.
He refought the battle with quill and ink. not as it had actually taken place, but as he was convinced it ought to have taken place; indeed in a manner that precisely described what Bampfylde believed would have happened if Major Sharpe had not disobeyed his orders and assaulted the Teste de Buch instead of marching inland.