Sharpe's Enemy (novel)

Infobox_Book |
name = Sharpe's Enemy


image_caption = Recent edition cover
author = Bernard Cornwell
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Richard Sharpe stories
genre = Historical novels
publisher = Harper Collins
release_date = January 1984
media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD
pages = 351 pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-14-010430-5 (paperback edition)
preceded_by = Sharpe's Skirmish
followed_by = Sharpe's Honour

"Sharpe's Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812" is a historical novel by Bernard Cornwell set during the Napoleonic Wars. "Sharpe's Enemy" was the sixth book in the Sharpe series written by Cornwell, but after the addition of many more novels to the successful series it resides about two thirds of the way through the series and Sharpe's military career.

Plot Summary

The book begins with an attack by a marauding combined British-French-Spanish-Portuguese group of deserters on the isolated hamlet of Adrados on the Spanish-Portuguese border. The attack is led by Obadiah Hakeswill, last seen in Sharpe's Company, and Marshal Pot-au-Feu, the former French cook, Sergeant Deron. Lady Farthingdale, Josefina Lacostafn|1, and an Englishwoman married to a French colonel, Madame Dubreton, are the only women in the village at the time who were not raped or assaulted as the deserters expect to receive a large ransom for their safe return. Josefina had been in Adrados to pray at the convent for her sick mother.fn|2

Meanwhile, Sharpe, having just learnt that he has been promoted to the rank of Major, is supervising the training of the Rocket Troop who were sent to assist the war in Spain by the Prince Regent. They are a form of light artillery but their rockets are wildly inaccurate. However, their plentiful horse train attracts the attention of other British regiments. Fearful that sermons about heretical British soldiers raping and killing Spanish nuns, and of word of a mecca for deserters spreading, the British want the deserters rooted out. There is also considerable pressure from Sir Augustus Farthingdale , whose wife is a hostage, and who has considerable influence in Lisbon. Farthingdale, a foppish landed gentleman with a bought commission, believes himself an authority on how men should behave while at war and dislikes Sharpe's lack of breeding. Major-General Nairn is deputising for Wellington who is on leave fox-hunting and planning his Spring invasion of France. He sends Sharpe and Sergeant Patrick Harper to deliver the ransom. Upon reaching Adrados they meet Colonel Dubreton and his Sergeant on a similar mission. They see both ladies are safe and deliver the ransom but Hakeswill then demands more by the New Year. Colonel and Madame Dubreton are careful not to let the fact that they know each other be picked up by the deserters. Sharpe and Harper note that Adrados is extremely defensible with a castle, a watchtower and a convent all defensible buildings against attack. Madame Dubreton gives Sharpe a clue that she is in the convent.fn|3

Nairn believes that the deserters will not agree to a release at all regardless of ransom and thinks a rescue is the best option. It is proposed that Sharpe and the Light Company, with two companies of the 60th American Rifles, will attack the watchtower and the convent to free the ladies and then wait for Colonel Kinney to come with his regiment of Fusiliers and Sir Augustus to supervise the surrender of the deserters. They propose to capture the convent on Christmas Eve when the deserters will be almost certainly inebriated.

They capture the convent and free the women. Unfortunately, Sharpe discovers that multiple French batallions are on their way to capture the village in order to occupy South Portugal. Sharpe decides to make a stand and blackmails Lord Farthingdale into leaving the village, thus making Sharpe the commanding officer. He ingenuously defends the village by setting a trap for the French, using the rockets to destroy a battalion, mining a building, and generally anticipating his enemies' moves. His wife, a Spanish partisan commander Teresa (La Aguja) Moreno, rides to fetch reinforcements who arrive just in time to assist the tiring men. Hakeswill, who was kept as a prisoner, escapes during the last hours of the fight and kills Teresa. Hakeswill tries to desert to the French, but falls in the hands of Dubreton who returns him to Sharpe as a thank you for rescuing the Colonel's wife. Hakeswill is executed by a firing squad and the last shot at the man is taken by Sharpe himself.

Notes

*fnb|1 Josefina was the female lead in Sharpe's Eagle and Sharpe's love interest. She was last seen in Sharpe's Gold where she had set up house in Lisbon entertaining wealthy allied officers. It transpires that she is not actually entitled to be called Lady Farthingdale, she has never married Colonel Sir Augustus Farthingdale, but is merely pretending to be his wife in exchange for his maintaining her in a life of luxury.
*fnb|2 Cornwell describes Adrados as the Gateway of God where outnumbered Spanish knights defeated Moors during the Wars of Spain. The convent in Adrados was set up to commemorate the piety of this event.
*fnb|3 She uses a line from a poem by Alexander Pope. She said "withering in my bloom, lost in [a convent's] solitary gloom."

External links

* [http://bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm?page=2&BookId=12 Section from Bernard Cornwell's website on "Sharpe's Enemy"]