"Cornwell, Bernard - Sharpe 00 - Sharpe's Fortress" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cornwell Bernard)

The Starbuck Chronicles

REBEL

COPPERHEAD

BATTLE FLAG

THE BLOODY GROUND

SHARPE'S TRIUMPH

Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803

HarperColVmsPuhhshers

Harper Collins Publishers 77 - 85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith,
London w6 SJB www.fireandwater.com Published by HarperCollins Publish
1999 Copyright (c) Bernard Cornwell 1999 The Author asserts the moral
right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record
for this book is available from the British Library ISBN o oo 225930 3
Maps by Ken Lewis Set in Postscript Monotype Baskerville and Linotype
Meridien by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Caledonian International Book
Manufacturing Ltd, Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the publishers.

Sharpens Fortress is for Christine Clarke, with many thanks

CHAPTER 1

Richard Sharpe wanted to be a good officer. He truly did. He wanted
it above all other things, but somehow it was just too difficult, like
trying to light a tinderbox in a rain-filled wind. Either the men
disliked him, or they ignored him, or they were over-familiar and he
was unsure how to cope with any of the three attitudes, while the
battalion's other officers plain disapproved of him. You can put a
racing saddle on a cart horse Captain Urquhart had said one night in
the ragged tent which passed for the officers' mess, but that don't
make the beast quick. He had not been talking about Sharpe, not
directly, but all the other officers glanced at him.

The battalion had stopped in the middle of nowhere. It was hot as hell
and no wind alleviated the sodden heat. They were surrounded by tall
crops that hid everything except the sky. A cannon fired somewhere to
the north, but Sharpe had no way of knowing whether it was a British
gun or an enemy cannon.