Sharpe 12 - Sharpe's Battle Read Online Free PDF

shall ride away.”
    Sharpe paused, thinking, then finally shrugged and turned. “Sergeant Harper!”
    “Sir?”
    “Bring the two Frogs out!”
    Harper hesitated as though he wanted to know what Sharpe intended before he obeyed the order, but then he turned reluctantly towards the houses. A moment later he appeared with the two French captives, both of whom were still naked below the waist and one of whom was still half doubled over in pain. “Is he wounded?” Loup asked.
    “I kicked him in the balls,” Sharpe said. “He was raping a girl.”
    Loup seemed amused by the answer. "You're squeamish about rape, Captain
    Sharpe?"
    “Funny in a man, isn't it? Yes, I am.”
    “We have some officers like that,” Loup said, “but a few months in Spain soon cures their delicacy. The women here fight like the men, and if a woman imagines that her skirts will protect her then she is wrong. And rape is part of the horror, but it also serves a secondary purpose. Release soldiers to rape and they don't care that they're hungry or that their pay is a year in arrears. Rape is a weapon like any other, Captain.”
    “I'll remember that, General, when I march into France,” Sharpe said, then he turned back towards the houses. “Stop there, Sergeant!” The two prisoners had been escorted as far as the village entrance. “And Sergeant!”
    “Sir?”
    “Fetch their trousers. Get them dressed properly.”
    Loup, pleased with the way his mission was going, smiled at Sharpe. “You're being sensible, good. I would hate to have to fight you in the same way that I fight the Spanish.”
    Sharpe looked at Loup's pagan uniform. It was a costume, he thought, to scare a child, the costume of a wolfman walking out of nightmare, but the wolfman's sword was no longer than Sharpe's and his carbine a good deal less accurate than Sharpe's rifle. “I don't suppose you could fight us, General,” Sharpe said, “we're a real army, you see, not a pack of unarmed women and children.”
    Loup stiffened. “You will find, Captain Sharpe, that the Brigade Loup can fight any man, anywhere, anyhow. I do not lose, Captain, not to anyone.”
    “So if you never lose, General, how were you taken prisoner?” Sharpe sneered.
    “Fast asleep, were you?”
    “I was a passenger on my way to Egypt, Captain, when our ship was captured by the Royal Navy. That hardly counts as my defeat.” Loup watched as his two men pulled on their trousers. “Where is Trooper Godin's horse?”
    “Trooper Godin won't need a horse where he's going,” Sharpe said.
    “He can walk? I suppose he can. Very well, I yield you the horse,” Loup said magniloquently.
    “He's going to hell, General,” Sharpe said. “I'm dressing them because they're still soldiers, and even your lousy soldiers deserve to die with their trousers on.” He turned back to the settlement. “Sergeant! Put them against the wall! I want a firing squad, four men for each prisoner. Load up!”
    “Captain!” Loup snapped and his hand went to his sword's hilt.
    “You don't frighten me, Loup. Not you nor your fancy dress,” Sharpe said. "You draw that sword and we'll be mopping up your blood with your flag of truce.
    I've got marksmen up on that ridge who can whip the good eye out of your face at two hundred yards, and one of those marksmen is looking at you right now."
    Loup looked up the hill. He could see Price's redcoats there, and one greenjacket, but he plainly could not tell just how many men were in Sharpe's party. He looked back to Sharpe. "You're a captain, just a captain. Which means you have what? One company? Maybe two? The British won't entrust more than two companies to a mere captain, but within half a mile I have the rest of my brigade. If you kill my men you'll be hunted down like dogs, and you will die like dogs. I will exempt you from the rules of war, Captain, just as you propose exempting my men, and I will make sure you die in the manner of my
    Spanish enemies. With a very blunt