Sharpe felt an immense relief. Hardacre had treated the query very casually, which suggested to Sharpe that nothing important could have occurred during the Chileans’ visit. “So Bonaparte’s at Longwood still?” Sharpe asked.
“At Longwood, sir?” Hardacre repeated the question, but very hesitantly, and this time Sharpe knew something was wrong. The Lieutenant blushed, then frowned. “You haven’t heard, sir?”
“Heard? Heard what?”
“The Emperor’s dead, sir. He died last month. He’s buried in the hills. The grave isn’t far from the house. I’m sure if you’d like to visit the grave we can find some mules. Not that there’s much to see there. Some people like to visit the house and take a keepsake.”
Sharpe could say nothing. He was not sure he had heard right or, if he had, that such news could be true. Napoleon, dead? He touched the locket about his neck, suddenly glad that he possessed it.
Harper crossed himself.
Vivar, whose prayer had come true, also crossed himself. “How did he die, Lieutenant?”
“The doctors said it was a cancerous ulcer, sir.”
“It sounds painful,” Vivar said. He gazed up into hills, to where a mist clung to the high green slopes. “Poor man. To die so far from home.”
“Would you like to visit the grave, sir?” Hardacre asked.
“I would,” Vivar said.
“And me,” Harper added.
“But not me,” Sharpe said. “Not me.”
Vivar, Harper and the brig’s Captain rode mules up into the hills to see the plain grave where an Emperor lay buried. Sharpe waited on the quay. The wind blew fresh from the south and an Emperor was dead, his mischief stilled forever. Sharpe wanted to laugh, for it had all been for nothing, for absolutely nothing, and nothing had changed despite the banging of guns and the clangor of swords, but even that did not matter, for he was full of happiness, and he was at peace, and he was going home. For good and forever, he was going home.
HISTORICAL NOTE
Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, was an extraordinary and eccentric figure, a radical politician as well as one of the greatest naval commanders of the early nineteenth century. After a brilliant career in the Royal Navy, and an ignominious one in the House of Commons, he was expelled from both after being convicted of stock fraud in 1814. There is some evidence that the case against him was rigged, but Cochrane was never a man to behave sensibly when lawyers were arrayed against him, and so he went down to defeat and imprisonment. He escaped from prison (of course) and after a series of adventures, became Admiral of the Chilean Navy in that country’s war of independence against Spain. He eventually fell out with Bernardo O’Higgins, but not before he had scoured the Spanish Navy from the Pacific coast of South America, effectively making independence a reality for both Chile and Peru. Probably the most astonishing victory of the many he gained in that war was his attack on Valdivia, which occurred much as described in these pages. It was a stunning victory that destroyed the last vestige of Spanish power in Chile.
After Valdivia, Cochrane took himself off to become an Admiral in the Brazilian Navy during its struggle against the Portuguese, before transferring his flag to the Greek Navy during that country’s fight for independence from the Turks. Restored to grace in his homeland, he was reinstated in the Royal Navy in the 1830s and was bitterly disappointed not to be given command of a fleet in the Crimean War, by which time he was over eighty years old. Cochrane, by Donald Thomas (London 1978), is a most readable biography of this extraordinary man, and I am indebted to Donald Thomas’s book for the delicious account of how Cochrane was vicariously ejected from the Order of the Bath in a sinister midnight ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
I am indebted to Donald Thomas also for the extraordinary story of how Cochrane plotted to bring Napoleon to Valdivia and thus begin a campaign for a United States of South America. The plot was so far advanced that, following the capture of Valdivia, Cochrane did indeed send a rescue ship to Saint Helena. When Lieutenant Colonel Charles reached the island he found Napoleon in his last illness, and so abandoned the attempt to free the emperor. What might have occurred had Bonaparte lived, and had Cochrane rescued him, remains one of the great tantalizations of history.
But Bonaparte was dead, probably poisoned by French royalists who feared his return to France. He remained in his grave on Saint Helena until 1840, when his body was returned to France to be interred in the Dome Church of Les Invalides in Paris. Sharpe also returned to France, and Harper to Ireland, where, so far as I know, they lived happily ever after.
About the Author
BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Richard Sharpe series; the Grail Quest series, featuring The Archer’s Tale, Vagabond, and Heretic; the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles; the Warlord Trilogy; and many other novels, including Redcoat, Stonehenge 2000 B.C., and Gallows Thief. Bernard Cornwell lives with his wife in Cape Cod.
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PRAISE FOR
Bernard Cornwell
“One of today’s truly great storytellers.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The direct heir to Patrick O’Brian.”
—The Economist
“Perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today.”
—Washington Post
PRAISE FOR
Sharpe’s Devil
“A rousing read.”
—Booklist
“With a plot up to its neck in blood and guts, this is adventure naked and unashamed.”
—Mail on Sunday (London)
PRAISE FOR
the Richard Sharpe Series
“Richard Sharpe has the most astounding knack for finding himself where the action is…and adding considerably to it.”
—Wall Street Journal
“Excellently entertaining. If you love historical drama…then look no further.”
—Boston Globe
“Cornwell’s blending of the fictional Sharpe with historical figures and actual battles gives the narrative a stunning sense of realism…. If only all history lessons could be as vibrant.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A hero in the mold of James Bond, although his weapons are a Baker carbine and a giant cavalry sword.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Eminently successful historical fiction.”
—Booklist
“The Sharpe novels do for the early-nineteenth-century land campaigns what Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series does for the sea…. His books do what good historical fiction must do—bring the period to life, and teach the reader something without making him feel as if he is back in school. On both counts, Cornwell succeeds admirably.”
—American Way
BOOKS BY BERNARD CORNWELL
The Sharpe Novels (in chronological order)
SHARPE’S TIGER*
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799
SHARPE’S TRIUMPH*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803
SHARPE’S FORTRESS*
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803
SHARPE’S TRAFALGAR*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805
SHARPE’S PREY*
Richard Sharpe and the Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807
SHARPE’S RIFLES
Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809
SHARPE’S HAVOC*
Richard Sharpe and the Campaign in Northern Portugal, Spring 1809
SHARPE’S EAGLE
Richard Sharpe and the Talavera Campaign, July 1809
SHARPE’S GOLD
Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810
SHARPE’S ESCAPE*
Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, September to October 1810
SHARPE’S BATTLE
*
Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, May 1811
SHARPE’S COMPANY
Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812
SHARPE’S SWORD
Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812
SHARPE’S ENEMY
Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812
SHARPE’S HONOUR
Richard Sharpe and the Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813
SHARPE’S REGIMENT
Richard Sharpe and the Invasion of France, June to November 1813
SHARPE’S SIEGE
Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814
SHARPE’S REVENGE
Richard Sharpe and the Peace of 1814
SHARPE’S WATERLOO
Richard Sharpe and the Waterloo Campaign, 15 June to 18 June, 1815
SHARPE’S DEVIL*
Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820-21
THE GRAIL QUEST SERIES
The Archer’s Tale*
Vagabond*
Heretic*
THE NATHANIEL STARBUCK CHRONICLES
Rebel*
Copperhead*
Battle Flag*
The Bloody Ground*
THE WARLORD CHRONICLES
The Winter King
The Enemy of God
Excalibur
OTHER NOVELS
Redcoat*
Gallows Thief*
Stonehenge, 2000 B.C.: A Novel*
*Published by HarperCollins Publishers
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SHARPE’S DEVIL. Copyright © 2006 by Bernard Cornwell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2006 ISBN: 9780061834134
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Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Devil
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