"Cornwell, Bernard - 07 - Sharpe'S Regiment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cornwell Bernard)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Cornwell, Bernard.
Sharpe's regiment.
1. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1814ЧFiction. 2. Great BritainЧHistory,
MilitaryЧ19th centuryЧFiction I. Title.
[PR6053.075S54 1987] 823'.914 87-11333
ISBN 0 14 02.4306 2

Printed in the United States of America Set in Times Roman

Except in the United States of America, this
book is sold subject to the condition that it
shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated
without the publisher's prior consent in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it
is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the
subsequent purchaser.

SHARPE'S REGIMENT

is respectfully dedicated to the men of
The Royal Green Jackets,
Sharpe's successors.


' . . . if any 'prentices have severe masters, any children have undutiful parents, if any servants have too little wages, or any husband too much wife, let them repair to the noble Sergeant Kite, at the sign of the Raven in this good town of Shrewsbury, and they shall receive present relief and entertainment. Gentlemen, I don't beat my drum here to ensnare or inveigle any man, for you must know, gentlemen, that I am a man of honour!'
From The Recruiting Sergeant
by George Farquhar (1678-1707)
PROLOGUE SPAIN, June 1813

PROLOGUE

Regimental Sergeant Major MacLaird was a powerful man and the pressure of his fingers, where they gripped Major Richard Sharpe's left hand, was painful. The RSM's eyes opened slowly. 'I'll not cry, sir.'
'No.'
'They'll not say they saw me cry, sir.'
'No.'
A tear rolled down the side of the RSM's face. His shako had fallen. It lay a foot from his head.
Sharpe, leaving his left hand in the Sergeant Major's grip, gently pulled back the red jacket.
'Our Father, which art in heaven.' MacLaird's voice choked suddenly. He lay on the hard flints of the roadway. Some of the dark flints were flecked with his blood. 'Oh, Christ!'
Sharpe was staring into the ruin of the Sergeant Major's belly. MacLaird's filthy shirt had been driven into the wound that welled with gleaming, bright blood. Sharpe let the jacket fall gently onto the horror. There was nothing to be done.
'Sir,' the RSM's voice was weak, 'please, sir?' Sharpe was embarrassed. He knew what this hard man, who had bullied and whored and done his duty, wanted. Sharpe saw the struggle on the strong man's face not to show weakness in death and he gripped MacLaird's hand as if he could help this last moment of a soldier's pride. MacLaird stared at the officer. 'Sir?'
'Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,' the words came uncertainly to Sharpe's lips. He did not know if he could remember the whole prayer. 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Sharpe had no belief, but perhaps when he died then he too would want the comfort of old phrases. 'Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.' One pound of twice-baked bread a day and it had been the bastard French who had trespassed. What were the next words? The flints dug into his knee where he knelt. 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, Amen.' He thought he had remembered it all, but it did not matter now. MacLaird was dead, killed by a piece of stone the size of a bayonet that had been driven from a rock by the strike of a French cannon ball. The blood had stopped flowing and there was no pulse in his neck.
Slowly Sharpe uncurled the fingers. He lay the hand on the breast, wiped the tears from the face, then stood. 'Captain Thomas?'
'Sir?'
'RSM's dead. Take him for burial. Captain d'Alembord!'
'Sir?'
'Push those picquets fifty yards further up the hill, this isn't a god-damn field-training day! Move!' The picquets were perfectly positioned, and everyone knew it, but Sharpe was venting an anger where he could.
The ground was wet, soaked by overnight rain. There were puddles on the track, some discoloured with blood. To Sharpe's left, where the hillside fell away, a party of men hacked at the thin soil to make graves. Ten bodies, stripped of their jackets and boots that were too valuable to be buried, waited beside the shallow trench. 'Lieutenant Andrews!'