Sharpe's Enemy (novel)

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

In the winter of 1812 a group of deserters from all the armies of the Peninsular War - French, British, Spanish and Portuguese - descends on the isolated hamlet of Adrados, on the Spanish-Portuguese border, led by Obadiah Hakeswill, the antagonist of Sharpe's Company, and Pot-au-Feu aka Sergeant Deron, who appears in Sharpe's Havoc as Marshal Soult's cook. The seize a number of women on pilgrimage to a convent in the village, including Josefina Lacosta¹ who is travelling as "Lady Farthingdale", and an Madame Dubreton, the English-born wife of a French colonel of cavalry.

Sharpe, recently promoted to the rank of Major is sent, with Patrick Harper, to deliver the ransom demanded for the release of Lady Farthingdale.

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.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 battalions 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 ingeniously 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 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

• ^1 Josefina LaCosta 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.
• ^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.
• ^3 She uses a line from the poem "Eloise and Abelard" by Alexander Pope. She said "withering in my bloom, lost in [a convent's] solitary gloom."

External links

• Section from Bernard Cornwell's website on Sharpe's Enemy
• Independent Review of Sharpe's Enemy