Sharpe’s Triumph: The Battle of Assaye, September 1803. Bernard Cornwell

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      Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1998

      SHARPE’S TRIUMPH. Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 1998.

      Map by Ken Lewis

      Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018. Cover photographs © AKG-Images

      The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      Source ISBN: 9780007338757

      Ebook Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780007338757

      Version: 2018-04-13

      Dedication

      Sharpe’s Triumph is for Joel Gardner, who walked Ahmednuggur and Assaye with me

      Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Maps

      Chapter 1

      It was not Sergeant Richard Sharpe’s fault. He was not…

      Chapter 2

      Sharpe sat in the open shed where the armoury stored…

      Chapter 3

      Colonel McCandless led his small force into Sir Arthur Wellesley’s…

      Chapter 4

      Sharpe followed McCandless into the gatehouse’s high archway, using the…

      Chapter 5

      Sharpe was curiously relieved when Colonel McCandless found him next…

      Chapter 6

      Colonel McCandless excused himself from Pohlmann’s supper, but did not…

      Chapter 7

      Dodd called his new gelding Peter. ‘Because it’s got no…

      Chapter 8

      General Wellesley was like a gambler who had emptied his…

      Chapter 9

      ‘There!’ Dodd said, pointing.

      Chapter 10

      The redcoats advanced in a line of two ranks. The…

      Chapter 11

      Colonel McCandless had stayed close to his friend Colonel Wallace,…

      Chapter 12

      Assaye alone remained in enemy hands, for the rest of…

       Keep Reading

      Historical Note

      About the Author

       The SHARPE Series (in chronological order)

       The SHARPE Series (in order of publication)

       Also by Bernard Cornwell

       About the Publisher

      Maps

      CHAPTER 1

      It was not Sergeant Richard Sharpe’s fault. He was not in charge. He was junior to at least a dozen men, including a major, a captain, a subadar and two jemadars, yet he still felt responsible. He felt responsible, angry, hot, bitter and scared. Blood crusted on his face where a thousand flies crawled. There were even flies in his open mouth.

      But he dared not move.

      The humid air stank of blood and of the rotted egg smell made by powder smoke. The very last thing he remembered doing was thrusting his pack, haversack and cartridge box into the glowing ashes of a fire, and now the ammunition from the cartridge box exploded. Each blast of powder fountained sparks and ashes into the hot air. A couple of men laughed at the sight. They stopped to watch it for a few seconds, poked at the nearby bodies with their muskets, then walked on.

      Sharpe lay still. A fly crawled on his eyeball and he forced himself to stay absolutely motionless. There was blood on his face and more blood had puddled in his right ear, though it was drying now. He blinked, fearing that the small motion would attract one of the killers, but no one noticed.

      Chasalgaon. That’s where he was. Chasalgaon: a miserable, thorn-walled fort on the frontier of Hyderabad, and because the Rajah of Hyderabad was a British ally the fort had been garrisoned by a hundred sepoys of the East India Company and fifty mercenary horsemen from Mysore, only when Sharpe arrived half the sepoys and all of the horsemen had been out on patrol.

      Sharpe had come from Seringapatam, leading a detail of six privates and carrying a leather bag stuffed with rupees, and he had been greeted by Major Crosby who commanded at Chasalgaon. The Major proved to be a plump, red-faced, bilious man who disliked the heat and hated Chasalgaon, and he had slumped in his canvas chair as he unfolded Sharpe’s orders. He read them, grunted, then read СКАЧАТЬ