Sharpe 3-Book Collection 4: Sharpe’s Escape, Sharpe’s Fury, Sharpe’s Battle

‘Coimbra,’ Ferreira said, ‘is full of food.’

‘Full of food, eh?’ Barreto asked sceptically.

‘Wheat, barley, rice, beans, figs, salt cod, beef,’ Ferreira said flatly.

‘And how, in God’s name, do we reach Coimbra, eh?’ Barreto had switched to French because a group of Masséna’s other aides had come to listen to the conversation. The Colonel pointed to the ridge. ‘Those bastards, Ferreira, are between us and Coimbra.’

‘There is a road round the ridge,’ Ferreira said.

‘A road,’ Barreto said, ‘which goes through the defile of Caramula, and how many damn redcoats are waiting for us there?’

‘None,’ Ferreira said. ‘There is only the Portuguese militia. No more than fifteen hundred. In three days, Colonel, you can be in Coimbra.’

‘And in three days,’ Barreto said, ‘the British will empty Coimbra of food.’

‘My brother guarantees you three months’ supply,’ Ferreira said, ‘but only…’ He faltered and stopped.

‘Only what?’ a Frenchman asked.

‘When your army enters a town, monsieur,’ Ferreira spoke very humbly, ‘they do not behave well. There is plundering, theft, murder. It has happened every time.’

‘So?’

‘So if your men get into my brother’s warehouses, what will they do?’

‘Take everything,’ the Frenchman said.

‘And destroy what they cannot take,’ Ferreira finished the statement. He looked back to Barreto. ‘My brother wants two things, Colonel. He wants a fair payment for the food he will supply to you, and he wants his property guarded from the moment you enter the city.’

‘We take what we want,’ another Frenchman put in, ‘we don’t pay our enemies for food.’

‘If I do not tell my brother that you agree,’ Ferreira said, his voice harder now, ‘then there will be no food when you arrive in Coimbra. You can take nothing, monsieur, or you can pay for something and eat.’

There was a moment’s silence, then Barreto nodded abruptly. ‘I will talk to the Marshal,’ he said and turned away.

One of the French aides, a tall and thin major, offered Ferreira a pinch of snuff. ‘I hear,’ he said, ‘that the British are building defences in front of Lisbon?’

Ferreira shrugged as if to suggest the Frenchman’s fears were trivial. ‘There are one or two new forts,’ he admitted, for he had seen them for himself when he was riding north from Lisbon, ‘but they are small works,’ he went on. ‘What they are also building, monsieur, is a new port at São Julião.’

‘Where’s that?’

‘South of Lisbon.’

‘They’re building a port?’

‘A new harbour, monsieur,’ Ferreira confirmed. ‘They fear trying to evacuate their troops through Lisbon. There might be riots. São Julião is a remote place and it will be easy for the British to take to their ships there without trouble.’

‘And the forts you saw?’

‘They overlook the main road to Lisbon,’ Ferreira said, ‘but there are other roads.’

‘And how far were they from Lisbon?’

‘Twenty miles,’ Ferreira guessed.

‘And there are hills there?’

‘Not so steep as that.’ Ferreira nodded towards the looming ridge.

‘So they hope to delay us in the hills, yes, as they retreat to their new port?’

‘I would think so, monsieur.’

‘So we will need food,’ the Frenchman concluded. ‘And what does your brother want besides money and protection?’

‘He wants to survive, monsieur.’

‘It is what we all want,’ the Frenchman said. He was gazing at the blue bodies that lay on the ridge’s eastern slope. ‘God send us back to France soon.’

To Ferreira’s surprise the Marshal himself returned with Colonel Barreto. The one-eyed Masséna stared hard at Ferreira who returned the gaze, seeing how old and tired the Frenchman looked. Finally Masséna nodded. ‘Tell your brother we will pay him a price and tell him Colonel Barreto will take troops to protect his property. You know where that property is, Colonel?’

‘Major Ferreira will tell me,’ Barreto said.

‘Good. It’s time my men had a proper meal.’ Masséna walked back to his cold chicken, bread, cheese and wine while Barreto and Ferreira first haggled over the price to be paid, then made arrangements to safeguard the food. And when that was all done Ferreira rode back the way he had come. He rode in the afternoon sun, chilled by an autumn wind, and no one saw him and no one in the British or Portuguese army thought it strange that he had been away since the battle’s end.

And on the ridge, and in the valley beneath, the troops waited.

Part Two COIMBRA (#ulink_e94ec4f1-9cb1-581a-9cef-908729dd0f9a)

CHAPTER 6 (#ulink_1244d55e-1e37-53d4-a836-882aee3121ea)

The British and Portuguese army stayed on the ridge all the next day while the French remained in the valley. At times the crackle of muskets or rifles started birds up from the heather as skirmishers contested the long slope, but mostly the day was quiet. The cannons did not fire. French troops, without weapons and dressed in shirtsleeves, climbed the slope to take away their wounded who had been left to suffer overnight. Some of the injured had crawled down to the stream while others had died in the darkness. A dead voltigeur just beneath the rocky knoll lay with his clenched hands jutting to the sky while a raven pecked at his lips and eyes. The British and Portuguese picquets let the enemy work undisturbed, only challenging the few voltigeurs who climbed too close to the crest. When the wounded had been taken away, the dead were carried to the graves being dug behind the entrenchments the French had thrown up beyond the stream, but the defensive bastions were a waste of effort, for Lord Wellington had no intention of giving up the high ground to take the fight into the valley.

Lieutenant Jack Bullen, a nineteen-year-old who had been serving in number nine company, was sent to the light company to replace Iliffe. Slingsby, Lawford decreed, was now to be addressed as Captain Slingsby. ‘He was breveted as such in the 55th,’ Lawford told Forrest, ‘and it will distinguish him from Bullen.’

‘Indeed it will, sir.’

Lawford bridled at the Major’s tone. ‘It’s merely a courtesy, Forrest. You surely approve of courtesy?’

‘Indeed I do, sir, though I value Sharpe more.’

‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘I mean, sir, that I’d rather Sharpe commanded the skirmishers. He’s the best man for the job.’

‘And so he will, Forrest, so he will, just as soon as he learns to behave in a civilized manner. We fight for civilization, do we not?’

‘I hope we do,’ Forrest agreed.