Sharpe 3-Book Collection 7: Sharpe’s Revenge, Sharpe’s Waterloo, Sharpe’s Devil. Bernard Cornwell

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СКАЧАТЬ this moment.’

      ‘We are fortunate,’ Wigram said fulsomely, ‘that you yourself showed no such reluctance, Monsieur Roland.’

      Roland bowed at the compliment, then explained that he had travelled with a party of British officers to London where he had taken this matter to the Judge Advocate General in Whitehall. That official had ordered the Adjutant-General to establish an investigative tribunal, and ordered the Royal Navy to bring Monsieur Roland to Bordeaux. The Frenchman picked up his papers again. ‘You will notice, gentlemen, that on the final page of Commandant Lassan’s account, he states that when the fortress was finally reoccupied by the French, the baggage was gone.’ Roland paused to look at his copy of the report. ‘You will further note from Commandant Lassan’s testimony that before the fort was evacuated by the British he saw heavy objects being transported from the seaward bastions to the American’s vessel.’

      The Adjutant-General’s lawyer frowned. ‘Do we have any other evidence which confirms that the baggage was hidden in the fortress? What about this General,’ he leafed through his papers, ‘Calvet. He eventually reoccupied the fort, so wouldn’t he have known about it?’

      ‘General Calvet was never informed of its presence,’ Roland said, ‘the Emperor’s instructions were adamant that as few men as possible were to know of his preparations for exile. France was still fighting, gentlemen, and it would not have served the Emperor well if men had thought he was already contemplating defeat and flight.’

      ‘But Calvet’s evidence would be instructive,’ the English lawyer insisted. ‘He could, for instance, confirm whether baggage was indeed removed to the American’s ship?’

      Roland paused, then shrugged. ‘General Calvet, gentlemen, has proclaimed an unswerving loyalty to the deposed Emperor. I doubt whether he would co-operate with this tribunal.’

      ‘I would have thought we had quite sufficient evidence anyway,’ Wigram said.

      Roland smiled his thanks for Wigram’s help, then continued. ‘The inference of Commandant Lassan’s report, gentlemen, is that the Emperor’s baggage was taken by the British forces under Major Sharpe’s command. They had every right to do so, of course, for the baggage was properly a seizure of war.’

      ‘Then why are you here?’ the Provost officer asked in a pained voice.

      Roland smiled. ‘Permit me to remind you that I am here on behalf of his Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVIII. It is the opinion of His Majesty’s legal advisers, myself among them, that if the seizure of the imperial baggage was a legitimate act of war, and as such was duly reported to the proper authorities, then it now belongs to the government of Great Britain. If, however,’ and here Roland turned to look at the two Riflemen, ‘the seizure was for private gain, and was never so reported, then our opinion holds that the said baggage is now the property of the Emperor’s political successor, which is the French Crown, and that the French Crown would be justified in any attempts to recover it.’

      Lieutenant-Colonel Wigram dipped a quill in ink. ‘Perhaps it would help the tribunal, Monsieur Roland, if you were to tell us the contents of the Emperor’s baggage?’

      ‘With the greatest pleasure, Colonel.’ Roland picked up another sheet of paper. ‘There were some personal items. These were not inventoried properly, for they were packed in great haste, but we know there were some uniforms, decorations, portraits, snuff boxes, swords, candlesticks, and other keepsakes of a sentimental nature. There was also a valise of monogrammed small clothes.’ He mentioned the last item with a deprecating smile, and was rewarded with appreciative laughter. Roland was making his revelations with a lawyer’s innate skill, though in truth the clumsiest of speakers could have held the room spellbound. For years the Emperor Napoleon had been an apparently superhuman enemy endowed with an exotic and fascinating evil, yet now, in this magnificent room, the tribunal was hearing from a man who could provide them with an intimate glimpse of that extraordinary being. ‘Some of these possessions,’ Roland went on, ‘belonged to Joseph Bonaparte, but the bulk of the baggage belonged to the Emperor, and the greatest part of that baggage was coin. There were twenty wooden boxes, five in each crate, and each box contained ten thousand gold francs.’

      Roland paused to let each man work out the fabulous sum. ‘As I said earlier,’ he went on blandly, ‘His Most Christian Majesty will have no claim upon this property if it should transpire that it was a seizure of war. If, however, the baggage is still unaccounted for, we shall take a most strenuous interest in its recovery.’

      ‘Jesus Christ,’ Frederickson hissed. He had written the sum of two hundred thousand francs under his drawing of the beleaguered Riflemen, and now, beside it, he wrote its crude equivalent in English pounds, £89,000, os, od. It was a fabulous sum, even dwarfing Sharpe’s fortune. Frederickson seemed dissatisfied with that simple total, for he went on feverishly totting up other figures.

      Wigram’s twin lenses turned on Sharpe. ‘I believe I am correct in saying that you reported no capture of money on your return from the Teste de Buch expedition, Major?’

      ‘I did not, because there was none.’

      ‘If there had been,’ the provost Lieutenant-Colonel broke in, ‘you would agree that it would have been your duty to hand it over to the competent authorities?’

      ‘Of course,’ Sharpe said, though he had never known a single soldier actually to surrender such windfalls of enemy gold. Neither Sharpe nor Harper had declared the fortunes they had taken from the French baggage at Vitoria.

      ‘But you are insisting that you did not discover any money in the fort?’ the provost pressed Sharpe.

      ‘We found no money,’ Sharpe said firmly.

      ‘And you would deny,’ the Lieutenant-Colonel’s tone was sharper now, ‘that you divided such a spoil with the American, Killick, and that, indeed, your only motive for delaying your departure from the fort, which delay, I must say, occasioned many deaths among your men, was solely so that you could make arrangements to remove the gold?’

      ‘That’s a lie.’ Sharpe was standing now.

      Frederickson touched a hand to Sharpe’s arm, as if to calm him. ‘By my reckonings,’ Frederickson said calmly, ‘that amount of gold would weigh somewhat over six tons. Are you suggesting that two companies of Riflemen and a handful of Marines somehow managed to remove six tons of gold, their own wounded men, and all their personal baggage while they were under enemy fire?’

      ‘That is precisely what is being suggested,’ the provost said icily.

      ‘Have you ever been under fire?’ Frederickson enquired just as icily.

      Wigram, disliking the twist that the questions were taking, slapped the table and stared at Frederickson. ‘Did you enrich yourself with captured gold at the Teste de Buch fort, Captain?’

      ‘I emphatically deny doing any such thing, sir,’ Frederickson spoke with dignity, ‘and can state with certain knowledge that Major Sharpe is equally innocent.’

      ‘Are you, Major?’ Wigram asked Sharpe.

      ‘I took no money.’ Sharpe tried to match Frederickson’s calm dignity.

      Wigram’s face flickered with a smile, as though he was about to make a very telling point. ‘Yet not a month ago, Major, your wife withdrew more than eighteen thousand pounds …’

      ‘God damn СКАЧАТЬ