Major Ferreira, at the far end of the room, spoke in Portuguese to his brother. “He said,” Sarah translated for Sharpe, “that you will shoot them in the back if they go.”
“Tell them I won’t. And tell them that if they go fast they’ll live.”
“The door’s unblocked, sir,” Read said.
Sharpe looked at Vicente. “Get all the riflemen out of the attic.” He would miss their fire and he could only hope that the absence of powder smoke from the battered roof did not encourage the French, but he had an idea, one that could just do some real damage to the enemy. “Sergeant Harper!”
“Sir?”
“You’re going to line up six riflemen and six redcoats, match them for size and make them change jackets.”
“Change jackets, sir?”
“You heard me! Get on with it. And when the first six are done, do another six. I want every rifleman in a red coat. And once they’re dressed they can put their packs on.” Sharpe turned to look at the wounded men who were in the room’s center. “We’re going out,” he told them, “and you’re staying here.” He saw the alarm on their faces. “The French won’t hurt you,” he reassured them. The British looked after French wounded and the French did the same. “But they won’t take you with them either, so when this mess is over we’ll come back for you. But the Frogs will steal anything valuable, so if you’ve got something that’s precious give it to a friend to keep for you.”
“What are you doing, sir?” one of the wounded men asked.
“Going to help the battalion,” Sharpe said, “and I’ll be back for you, that’s a promise.” He looked at the first riflemen reluctantly pulling on the yellow-faced red coats. “Get on with it!” he snapped, and just then Perkins, who had been helping to guard the civilian prisoners, gave a grunt of pain and surprise. Sharpe half turned, thinking an errant bullet must have come through the window, and he saw that Ferragus, released from his bonds, had hit Perkins, and that the redcoats dared not fire at the brute for fear of hitting the wrong man in the crowded room, and Ferragus, free, vengeful and dangerous, was now coming for Sharpe.
COLONEL LAWFORD WATCHED the voltigeurs thicken to the west and north. There were only a few to the south, and none to the east where the ground was flooded or waterlogged. The cavalry waited behind the voltigeurs, ready for the moment when the musket fire so weakened the South Essex’s square that another charge would be possible. For now the French musketry was still at too long a range, but it was hurting and the center of the square was slowly filling with wounded men. The gunners on the hilltop were helping a little, for as the voltigeurs concentrated on the square they made a more inviting target for the shells and shrapnel, but the French skirmishers to the north, who were facing one of the square’s narrower sides, were receiving less shell fire because the gunners feared striking the South Essex, and so those skirmishers pressed ever closer and inflicted increasing damage. More voltigeurs ran to that side, understanding that they would receive less volley fire there than from the longer side of the square that faced west.
“I’m not sure,” Major Forrest came across to Lawford, “that we can reach the farm now, sir.”
Lawford did not answer. The implication of Forrest’s remark was that the attempt to rescue the light company should be abandoned. The way south, back to the fort on the hill, was clear enough and, if the South Essex moved back towards the heights, they would survive. The French would see it as a victory, but at least the battalion would live. The light company would be lost, and that was a pity, but better to lose one company than all ten.
“The fire is definitely slacking,” Forrest said, and he was not talking of the incessant musketry of the voltigeurs, but of the action at the farm.
Lawford twisted in the saddle and saw that the farmhouse was virtually free of powder smoke. He could see a group of Frenchmen crouched behind a shed or barn, which told him the farmhouse itself had not fallen, but Forrest was right. There was less firing there and that suggested the light company’s resistance was being abraded. “Poor fellows,” Lawford said. He thought for a second of trying to reach the farm by cutting across the floods and the marshland, but a riderless horse, one of those whose saddles had been emptied by the South Essex square, was floundering in the swamp and, from its struggles, it was plain that any attempt to cross the waterlogged ground would be inviting trouble. The horse heaved itself onto a firmer patch and stood there, shivering and frightened. Lawford felt a flicker of fear himself and knew he must make a decision. “The wounded will have to be carried,” he said to Forrest. “Detail men from the rear rank.”
“We’re going back?” Forrest asked.
“I fear so, Joseph. I fear so,” Lawford said, and just then a voltigeur’s bullet struck Lightning in the right eye and the horse reared, screaming, and Lawford kicked his boots from the saddle and threw himself to the left as Lightning twisted in the sky, hooves flailing. Lawford fell heavily, but managed to scramble clear as the big horse collapsed. Lightning tried to get up again, but only succeeded in kicking the ground and Lawford’s servant ran to the beast with the Colonel’s big horse pistol. Then he hesitated, for Lightning was thrashing. “Do it, man!” the Colonel called. “Do it!” The horse’s eyes were white, its bloodied head was beating against the ground and the servant could not aim the pistol, but Major Leroy snatched the gun, rammed his boot onto the horse’s head and then fired into Lightning’s forehead. The horse gave a last great spasm, then was still. Lawford swore. Leroy threw the pistol back to the servant and, his boots glistening with the horse’s blood, went back to the western face of the square.
“Give the orders, Major,” Lawford said to Forrest. He felt close to tears. The horse had been magnificent. He ordered his servant to unbuckle the girth and remove the saddle, and he watched as those wounded who could not crawl or limp were lifted from the ground and then the South Essex began to retreat. It would be a painfully slow withdrawal. The square had to stay together if the horsemen were not to charge, and it could only edge its way cautiously, shuffling rather than marching. The French, seeing it move south, gave an ironic cheer, and pressed closer. They wanted to finish the redcoats and go back to their side of the valley with a fine haul of prisoners, captured weapons and, best of all, the two precious colors. Lawford looked up at the two flags, both now punctured with bullet strikes, and he wondered if he should strip them from the poles and burn the heavy silk, then dismissed that thought as panic. He would get back to the hills and Picton would be angry, and doubtless there would be mockery from other battalions, but the South Essex would survive. That was what mattered.
The route back to the hills was clear of all enemy now because the right-hand battalion of cazadores had moved closer to the South Essex. The French had been repulsed by the Portuguese, defeated by their rifles, and instead had concentrated on the vulnerable redcoats, and now the Portuguese battalion moved to its right and its rifles were working on the men assailing Lawford, and that cleared the way south, but the cavalry drifted that way and the Portuguese formed square again. The cavalry, harassed by the endless shells, moved back towards the center of the valley, but the Portuguese rifles still kept the way home clear for the South Essex. In another two or three hundred yards, Lawford thought, he would be close to the hill and the French would give up and retreat, except that they would console themselves by capturing the farm. Lawford glanced at the buildings, saw no smoke coming from the roof or windows and reckoned it was all too late. “We tried,” he said to Forrest, “at least we tried.”
And failed, Forrest thought, but said nothing. The northern-most files of the square divided to edge about Lightning’s corpse, then closed up again. The voltigeurs, wary of the Portuguese rifles, were concentrating on that northern flank again and the half-company volleys were constant as the redcoats tried to drive the pestilential skirmishers away. The muskets flamed and the smoke thickened and the square shuffled south.
And the light company was alone.
 
; SHARPE DUCKED, just evading a blow of Ferragus’s right fist, and instead caught a left on his shoulder, which was like being hit by a musket ball. It almost knocked him over, and the following punch from Ferragus’s right hand, which was supposed to half crush Sharpe’s skull, only succeeded in glancing off the top of his head and knocking off his shako, but it still rocked Sharpe who instinctively rammed the butt of his rifle towards Ferragus and caught the big man on his left knee. The pain of that blow stopped Ferragus, and the second blow of the rifle caught him on his right fist which was still injured from the stone blow Sharpe had given him at the monastery. Ferragus flinched from the pain and two redcoats tried to haul him down but he shook them off like a bear shrugging off dogs, although they had slowed him for a second, giving Sharpe a chance to stand. He tossed the rifle to Harper. “Let him be,” Sharpe said to the redcoats, “let him be.” He unbuckled his sword belt and threw the weapon to Bullen. “Keep a watch out of the windows, Mister Bullen!”
“Yes, sir.”
“A good watch! Make sure the men are looking out there, not in here.”
“Let me murder him, sir,” Harper suggested.
“Let’s not be unfair to Mister Ferreira, Pat,” Sharpe said. “He couldn’t cope with you. And the last time he tried to deal with me he had to have help. Just you and me, eh?” Sharpe smiled at Ferragus who was flexing his right hand. Sarah was behind the big man and she cocked the musket, grimacing with the force needed to drag back the doghead. The sound of the ratchet made Ferragus glance behind and Sharpe stepped forward and drove his right knuckles into Ferragus’s left eye. He felt something give there, the big head jerked back and Sharpe was out of range by the time he had recovered. “I know you’d like to kill him,” Sharpe said to Sarah, “but it’s not very ladylike. Leave him to me.” He went forward again, aimed a blow at Ferragus’s closing left eye and stepped back before he delivered it, moving to his left, making sure Ferragus followed him, and pausing just a heartbeat too long because Ferragus, faster than Sharpe expected, delivered a straight left. It did not travel far, it did not even look particularly powerful, but it struck Sharpe in his bandaged ribs and was like a cannonball’s strike, and if he had not already decided to step back he would have been floored by the blow, but his legs were already moving as the pain seared up his ribs. He flicked out his own left hand, aiming again at the swollen eye, but Ferragus swatted it aside, released his left hand again, but Sharpe was safely back now.
Ferragus could see nothing from his left eye, and the pain of it was a flaring red agony in his skull, but he knew he had hurt Sharpe and knew if he could get close he could do more than just hurt the rifleman, who was now stepping back between the wounded redcoats and the big hearth. Ferragus hurried, reckoning to take Sharpe’s best blows and then get close enough to murder the English bastard, but Slingsby, drunk as a judge and sitting in the hearth, stuck out his right leg and Ferragus tripped on it and Sharpe was back in his face, the left fist again pulping Ferragus’s damaged eye and ramming the heel of his right hand into Ferragus’s nose. Something broke there and Ferragus, swatting at Slingsby with his left hand, threw out his right to stop Sharpe, but Sharpe had stepped back again. “Let him be, Mister Slingsby,” Sharpe said. “Are your men watching out the windows, Mister Bullen?”
“They are, sir.”
“Make damn sure they are.”
Sharpe was past the wounded men now, in the open space between the front and back windows where no one dared stand for fear of the French bullets, and he backed towards the window facing the yard, heard a bullet whack into the window frame, stabbed a quick left at Ferragus who swayed to let it pass and rushed at Sharpe. Sharpe stepped back, going to Ferragus’s left because that was his blind side, and Ferragus turned to face Sharpe who knew he had to take the punishment now and he stepped into the big man’s range and drove his fists one after the other into his enemy’s belly and it was like punching an oak board. Sharpe knew those blows would not hurt and he did not care because all he wanted to do was drive Ferragus backwards. He rammed his head forward, banging his forehead into the bloody mess of Ferragus’s face, and he heaved forward and his head rang as a blow struck him on the side of the skull. His vision went red and black. He pushed again and Ferragus’s left hand hit him on the other side of the head and Sharpe knew he could not take more than one other such blow, and he was not even sure he would survive that for his senses were reeling and he gave a last heave, and felt Ferragus jar up against the window sill. Sharpe ducked then, trying to avoid the next blow, which glanced off the top of his head, but even that glancing blow was enough to send a stab of pain down through his skull, but then he felt Ferragus quiver. And quiver again, and now Sharpe staggered back and saw that Ferragus’s remaining eye was dull. The big man was looking astonished and Sharpe, through his half daze, slashed out his left hand to hit Ferragus in the throat. Ferragus tried to respond, tried to plant two hammer-like blows into Sharpe’s vulnerable ribs, but his broad back was filling the window and it was the first easy target the French had been given since the siege of the farm had begun, and two musket balls struck him and he shook again, then opened his mouth and the blood spilled out. “Your men aren’t watching outside, Mister Bullen!” Sharpe said. A last bullet hit Ferragus, this one at the nape of his neck and he pitched forward like a felled tree.
Sharpe bent to recover his shako, took a deep breath and felt the pain in his ribs. “You want some advice, Mister Bullen?” Sharpe said.
“Of course, sir.”
“Never fight fair.” He took his sword back. “Detail two men to escort Major Ferreira and another two to help Lieutenant Slingsby. And those four men carry those bags.” He pointed to the bags that had belonged to Ferragus and his men. “And what’s inside, Mister Bullen, belongs to Miss Fry, so make sure the thieving bastards keep the bags buckled.”
“I will, sir.”
“And maybe,” Sharpe said to Sarah, “you’ll be kind enough to give Jorge some coins? He has to pay for that boat.”
“Of course I will.”
“Good!” Sharpe said, then turned to Harper. “Is everyone changed?”
“Almost, sir.”
“Get on with it!” It took another moment, but finally every rifleman, even Harper, was in a red jacket, though the largest red coat looked ludicrously small on the Irishman. Sharpe changed coats with Lieutenant Bullen and hoped the French would really mistake the riflemen for men with muskets. He had not made the men change their breeches because he reckoned that would take too much time, and a sharp-eyed voltigeur might wonder why the redcoats had dark-green trousers, but he would risk that. “What we’re going to do,” he told the company, “is rescue a battalion.”
“We’re going out?” Bullen sounded alarmed.
“No, they are.” Sharpe pointed to the three Portuguese civilians. He took his rifle from Harper and cocked it. “Out!”
The three men hesitated, but they had seen what the rifleman had done to their master and they were terrified of him. “Tell them to run to the square,” Sharpe said to Vicente. “Tell them they’ll be safe there.” Vicente looked dubious, suspecting that what Sharpe was doing was against the rules of war, but then he looked into Sharpe’s face and decided not to argue. Nor did the three men. They were taken to the front door and, when they hesitated, Sharpe leveled his rifle.
They ran.
Sharpe had not lied to them. They were fairly safe and the farther they went from the farmhouse, the safer they became. None of the French reacted at first, for the last thing they had expected was for anyone to break from the house, and it was a full four or five seconds before the first musket fired, but the voltigeurs were shooting at running men, men going away up the farm track, and the bullets went wild. After fifty yards the three men cut across the marshland, and the going was much harder for them, but they were also farther away from the French who, frustrated by their escape, tried to close the distance. They moved out from behind the farm buildings, going to the edge
of the marsh, aiming their muskets at the three men who were trying to pick a path through the morass. “Rifles,” Sharpe said, “start killing those bastards.”
The French, by running from cover, had made themselves easy targets for rifles shooting from the farm windows. There were a few seconds of panic among the voltigeurs, then they ran back to the sides of the farm. Sharpe waited as the riflemen reloaded. “They won’t do that again,” he said, then told them what he planned.
The red-jacketed riflemen were to leave the farm first and, like the three Portuguese, were to run as fast as they could up the track and then angle across the swamp towards the flooded stream. “Except we’re going to stop by the dungheap out front,” Sharpe told them, “and give the others some covering fire.” Major Ferreira, his escorts, Slingsby, Sarah and Joana would go next, shepherded by Vicente, and finally Lieutenant Bullen would bring the rest of the company out. “You’re our rearguard,” Sharpe told Bullen. “You hold off the voltigeurs. Proper skirmish work, Lieutenant. Fight in pairs, nice and calm. The enemy will see green jackets so they won’t be eager to close, so you should be fine. Just retreat after us, get into the marsh, and go for the battalion. We’ll all have to wade the stream and we’ll drown if it’s too bloody deep, but if those three make it then we know it’s safe. That’s what they’re doing, showing us the way.”
The three Portuguese were halfway across the boggy ground now, splashing into the receding floodwaters, and their flight had proved that once they were away from the farmhouse they were in no real danger from the voltigeurs. Sharpe reckoned he would be unlucky to lose two men in this foray. The French had been shocked by the volume of fire from the farm, and they were sheltering now, most of them just wanting to get back to their encampments. So give them what they wanted. “Rifles, are you all ready?”