The six hundred men of the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers were deployed the furthest south, a full half-mile from the crossroads. Peter d‘Alembord’s skirmishers were fifty yards in front of the battalion and having a hard time with the greater number of Voltigeurs. It seemed that Ford had not taken Sharpe’s advice to send out extra skirmishers, but was leaving d’Alembord’s men to cope as best they could. Sharpe, not wanting to interfere with Ford, reined in a good thirty yards behind the battalion, close to the tree line where the battalion’s band was playing. Mr Little, the rotund bandmaster, first greeted Sharpe with a cheerful grin, then with a quick and cheerful rendition of ‘Over The Hills and Far Away’, the marching song of the Rifles. Colonel Ford, who had just finished dressing his newly formed line, turned as the music changed. He blinked with surprise to see the two Riflemen, then nervously took off his spectacles and polished their round lenses on his red sash. ‘Come to see us fight, Sharpe?’
‘I’ve come to see you die.’ But Sharpe said it much too softly for anyone but Harper to hear. ‘Can I suggest you form square?’ he said more loudly.
Ford was clearly confused. He had only just been ordered to form the battalion into line, and now he was being asked to revert to square? He put his spectacles back into place and frowned at Sharpe. ‘Is that an order from brigade?’
Sharpe hesitated, was tempted to tell the lie, but he had no written authority to prove the order, so he shook his head. ‘It’s just a suggestion.’
‘I think we’ll manage quite well by following orders, Mr Sharpe.’
‘A pox on you, too.’ Again Sharpe spoke too softly for anyone but Harper to hear.
Mr Little’s bandsmen played merrily on while Colonel Ford took his place behind the battalion’s colours and Sharpe slowly drew his long sword which he rested on his pommel.
The Prince, waiting behind the gun line at the crossroads, felt that at long last he was beginning to impose his youthful genius on the battle.
On the shallow southern crest above Gemioncourt a French cavalry scout stared in disbelief at the long exposed line of infantrymen that had been stationed in front of the woods. He stared for a long time, seeking the implicit trap in the formation, but he could see none. He could only see men lined up for the slaughter and so, turning his horse, he spurred towards the dead ground.
While Sharpe and Harper, with two thousand two hundred men of Halkett’s Fifth Brigade, just waited.
CHAPTER 9
In Brussels the gun-fire sounded like very distant thunder, sometimes fading to a barely perceptible rumble, but at other times swollen by a vagary of wind so that the distinct percussive shocks of each gun’s firing could be distinguished. Lucille, troubled by the sound, walked Nosey to the southern ramparts where she joined the crowd who listened to the far-off noise and speculated what it might mean. The majority hoped it signified Napoleon by nightfall, a torchlight parade and dancing. The Empire would be restored and safe, for surely the Austrians and Russians would not dare attack France if Britain and Prussia had been defeated?
The first news from the battlefield gave substance to those Imperial hopes. Belgian cavalrymen, their horses sweating and exhausted, brought tales of a shattering French victory. It had been more of a massacre than a battle, the horsemen said. British corpses were strewn across the landscape, Wellington had been killed, and the troops of the Emperor were even now advancing on Brussels with drums beating and Eagles flying.
Lucille noted that the guns were still firing, which seemed to cast doubt on the Belgian claims of victory, though some of the hundreds of English civilians still in Brussels were more ready to give the news credence. They ordered their servants to load the travelling boxes and trunks onto the coaches that had been standing ready since dawn. The coaches were whipped out of the city on the Ghent road; their passengers praying that they would reach the Channel ports before the Emperor’s scavenging and victorious horsemen cut the roads. Others of the English, more cautious, waited for official news.
Lucille, unwilling to flee with her child into an unknown future, walked beside one of the first carts of wounded that reached the city. A British infantry sergeant, his face bandaged and one arm crudely splinted, told her that the battle had not been lost when he left Quatre Bras. ‘It was hard work, ma’am, but it weren’t lost. And as long as Nosey’s alive it won’t be lost.’
Lucille went back to her child. She closed the window in the hope that the glass would obscure the sound of the cannons, but the noise drummed on, insistent and threatening. To the west the thunderheads were heaping into a sombre bank that cast an unnaturally dark shadow across the city.
Five streets away from Lucille, in the expensive suite of rooms that had been so thoroughly fumigated, Jane Sharpe vomited.
Afterwards, gasping for breath from the stomach-griping heaves, she went to the window, rested her forehead on the cool glass, and stared at the great ridge of cloud that blackened the western sky. Beneath her, in the hotel yard, a groom whistled as he carried two pails of water from the pump. A flock of pigeons circled, then fluttered down to the stable roof. Jane was aware of none of it, not even of the harsh percussive grumble of gun-fire. She closed her eyes, took a deep, tentative breath, then groaned.
She was pregnant.
She had suspected as much before she and Lord John had left England, but now she was certain. Her breasts were sore and her stomach sour. She ticked the months down on her fingers, reckoning that she would have a January child; a winter’s bastard. She swore softly.
She stepped away from the window and crossed to the dressing-table where last night’s candles still stood in their puddles of cold wax. She still felt sick. Her skin was prickly with sweat. She hated the thought of being pregnant, of being lumpish and awkward and gross. She rang for her maid, then sat heavily to stare into the looking-glass.
‘Has Harris returned?’ Jane asked the maid.
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Tell him I shall want him to take a message to his lordship.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Jane waved the maid out of the room, then drew a heavy sheet of creamy writing paper towards her. She dipped a quill in ink, sat for a moment in thought, then began to write.
The guns fired on.
More troops were arriving at Quatre Bras; troops who had marched till their blistered feet were agony, but who now had to plunge straight into the humid, smoke-thickened air where, unit by unit, the Duke was building the force that would counter-attack the French and drive them back to Frasnes. More and more British guns crashed and jangled off the road and onto the crushed rye stalks. Fires were burning in the crops behind the French skirmishers as British howitzer shells exploded. The battle was not won yet, but the Duke was beginning to feel like a man who had escaped defeat. He knew his Guards Division was close, and there was even a rumour that the British cavalry might reach the crossroads before dark.
A small west wind was stirring the thick smoke. The British skirmishers, reinforced by newly arrived battalions of light infantry, were beginning to blunt the fire of the Voltigeurs. The French artillery was still taking its grievous toll of the infantry by the crossroads, but now the Duke could replace the men who fell. If Blücher held off the Emperor, and if Marshal Ney was thrown back from Quatre Bras, then in the morning the Prussian and British armies would combine and Napoleon would have lost.
The Duke opened his watch lid. It was half-past five of a summer’s evening. The battlefield was darkening, shadowed by the huge western clouds and shrouded by its pall of smoke, but plenty of daylight remained for the Duke’s counter-stroke. ‘Any news of the Guards?’ he asked an aide.
It seemed that the Guards were being apprehended by the Prince of Orange who, as company after company of the elite troops arrived, was sending them north through the great wood to reinforce Saxe-Weimar’s men. The Duke, muttering that the Prince was a bloody little boy who should be sent back to his nursery, ordered that the Guards were not to be so d
ispersed in penny packets, but were to be held ready for his orders.
‘Your Grace!’ an aide called in warning. ‘Enemy cavalry!’
The Duke turned to stare southwards. Through the smoke he saw a mass of French cavalry spurring up from dead ground and heading slantwise across the field. They were a half-mile away, and well spread out in four long lines. Their loose formation made them a poor target for artillery, but the British gunners loaded with common shell and did their best. The explosions knocked down a few men and horses, but the vast mass of French cavalry trotted safely through the bursting patches of flame and smoke.
The Duke extended his telescope. ‘Where are they going?’ He was puzzled. Surely his opponent had learned by now that cavalry could achieve nothing against the stalwart squares which had been reinforced with the newly arrived guns?
‘Perhaps they’re testing Halkett’s men?’ an aide suggested.
‘Then they’re committing suicide!’ The Duke had his glass trained on the front line of cavalry that was composed of the heavy Cuirassiers in their steel armour. Behind the Cuirassiers were the light horsemen with their lances and sabres. ‘They must be insane!’ the Duke opined. ‘Halkett’s in square, isn’t he?’
Almost in unison the telescopes of the Duke’s staff officers swept to the right of the field, racing past the patches of smoke to focus on the four battalions of Halkett’s brigade which stood in front of the wood. The brigade was obscured by cannon smoke, but there were enough rifts in the dirty screen to show that something had gone terribly wrong. ‘Oh, Christ.’ The voice spoke helplessly from the Duke’s entourage. There was a moment’s silence, and then again. ‘Oh, Christ.’
‘Sir?’ Rebecque handed the Prince his telescope and pointed towards Gemioncourt farm. ‘There, sir.’
The Prince trained the heavy glass. Thousands of horsemen had appeared from the dead ground and now, in four long lines, swept either side of the farm. Dust spurted from the road as the horsemen crashed across. The enemy cavalry was trotting, but, even as the Prince watched, he saw them spur into a canter. The Cuirassiers had their heavy straight swords drawn. Long horsehair plumes tossed and waved from the steel brightness of their helmets. A Cuirassier was hit by a British roundshot and the Prince involuntarily jumped as, magnified in his lens, the steel clad horseman seemed to explode in blood and metal. The Lancers and Hussars, cantering behind, divided to pass the butcher’s mess left on the ground.
‘They’re going for Halkett’s brigade, sir,’ Rebecque warned.
‘Then tell Halkett to form square!’ The Prince’s voice was suddenly high-pitched, almost sobbing. ‘They’ve got to form square, Rebecque!’ he shouted, spraying Rebecque with spittle. ‘Tell them to form square!’
‘It’s too late, sir. It’s too late.’ The French were already closer to the infantry brigade than any of the Prince’s staff. There was no time to send any orders. There was no time to do anything now, except watch.
‘But they’ve got to form square!’ the Prince screamed like a spoilt child.
Too late.
The French cavalry was led by Kellerman, brave Kellerman, hero of Marengo, and veteran of a thousand charges. In most of those charges he had led his men steadily forward, not going from the canter to the gallop till he was just a few yards from the enemy, for only by such discipline could he guarantee that his horsemen would crash in an unbroken line against the enemy.
But this evening he knew that every second’s delay would give the redcoats a chance to form square and that once they were in square his horsemen were beaten. A horse would not charge a formed square with its four ranks bristling with muskets spitting fire and bright with bayonets. The horses would swerve round the square, receiving yet more fire from its flanks, and Kellerman had already lost too many men to the British squares this day.
But these redcoats were in line. They could be attacked from their flank, from their front and from behind, and they must not be given time to change formation and thus Kellerman abandoned the discipline of a slow methodical advance and instead shouted at his trumpeters to sound the full charge. Damn the unbroken line hitting home together; instead Kellerman would release his killers to a bloody gallop and loose them to the slaughter.
‘Charge!’
Now it was a race between Cuirassiers, Hussars and Lancers. The Cuirassiers raked their horse’s flanks and let their heavy horses run free. The Lancers dropped their points and screamed their war cries. The sound of the charge was like a thousand demented drummers as the hooves beat the earth and churned up a mass of blood and soil and straw that flecked the sky behind the four charging lines, which slowly unravelled as the faster horses raced ahead. A cannon-ball screamed between the horses, ploughed a furrow and disappeared southwards. A Lancer swerved round a dead skirmisher. The Lancer’s gloved hand was tight on his weapon’s grip which was made from cord lashed about the long ash staff. The lance’s blade was a smooth spike of polished steel, nine inches long and sharpened like a needle. A shell erupted harmlessly in front of the leading horsemen; the smoke of its explosion whipping back past the galloping killers. A red-plumed trumpeter played mad wild notes. Ahead, beyond the Cuirassiers, the redcoats seemed frozen in terror. This was a ride to death, to a triumph, to the glory of the best and most lethal cavalry in all the world.
‘Charge!’ Kellerman bellowed, the trumpeters echoed his call, and the French torrent surged on.
‘Oh, God. Dear God!’ Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Ford gazed into the battlefield and saw nightmare. The rye was filled with horsemen and the evening light was glinting off hundreds of swords and breastplates and lance heads. Ford could hear the drumming sound of the earth being beaten by thousands of hooves, and all he would do was stare and wonder what in God’s name he was supposed to do about it. A small part of his brain knew he was supposed to make a decision, but he was paralysed.
‘Cavalry!’ d‘Alembord shouted unnecessarily. His skirmishers were racing back to the battalion. D’Alembord, like any good skirmish officer, had abandoned his horse to fight with his men on foot, and now he was running like a flushed hare from the threat of hunters. He could scarcely believe the speed with which the enemy horsemen had erupted from the dead ground beyond the highway.
‘We should form square?’ Major Micklewhite, his horse next to Ford’s, suggested to the Colonel.
‘Are they French?’ Ford had nervously plucked off his spectacles and was frenetically polishing their lens on his sash.
For a second Micklewhite could only gape at the Colonel. He wondered why on earth Ford should suppose that British cavalry might be charging the battalion. ‘Yes, sir. They’re French.’ Major Micklewhite’s voice was edged with panic now. ‘Do we form square?’
Sharpe had ridden forward, taking position just behind d’Alembord’s men who were hastily ranking themselves on the left of the battalion’s line. At the right flank of the line, where the Grenadier Company was nearest to the French, an avalanche of cavalry was storming at the battalion’s open flank. More cavalryman were slanting in to the battalion’s front. To Sharpe’s left, beyond the 33rd, the 30th were already forming square, though the 33rd, like the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers, seemed frozen in line.
‘We should form square!’ Major Vine, the battalion’s senior Major, shouted at Ford from the right of the line.
‘Get out of here, Dally!’ Sharpe called to d‘Alembord, then raised his voice so all the men of the battalion could hear him. ‘Run! Back to the trees! Run!’
It was too late to form square. There was only one chance of living, and that was to gain the shelter of the wood.
The men, recognizing Sharpe’s voice, broke and fled. A few sergeants hesitated. Colonel Ford tried desperately to hook his spectacles into place. ‘Form square!’ he called.
‘Square!’ Major Vine yelped at the closest companies. ‘Form square!’
‘Run!’ That was Harper, once Regimental Sergeant-Major of this battalion, and still the possessor of a pair o
f lungs that could jar a regiment from eight fields away. ‘Run, you buggers!’
The buggers ran.
‘Move! Move! Move!’ Sharpe galloped along the front of the line, slashing with the flat of his sword to hasten the redcoats back towards the tree line. ‘Run! Run!’ He was racing straight towards the enemy’s charge. ‘Run!’
The men ran. The colour party, encumbered by the heavy squares of silk, were the slowest. One of the Ensigns lost a boot and began limping. Sharpe slammed his horse between the Sergeants whose long axe-bladed spontoons protected the flags and he grabbed a handful of silk with his left hand and speared his sword into the King’s colour on his right. ‘Run!’ He spurred the horse, dragging the two flags behind him. The first refugees were already in the trees where Harper was shouting at them to take firing positions.
A sergeant screamed behind Sharpe as a Cuirassier stabbed a sword down, but the Sergeant’s long spontoon tripped the Frenchman’s horse that sprawled down into the path of a Lancer who was forced to rein in behind the thrashing beast. An Hussar galloped in from the left, aiming at the colours, but Major Micklewhite slashed from horseback and the Hussar had to parry. He drove Micklewhite’s light sword aside, then thrust with his sabre’s point to slice Micklewhite’s throat back to bone. The Ensign who had lost his boot was ridden over by a Cuirassier whose heavy horse smashed the boy’s spine with its hooves. A lance, thrown like a javelin, ripped the yellow silk of the regimental colour, then hung there to be dragged along the ground. Two more Lancers spurred forward, but their attack came close to the trees where Patrick Harper lurked with his seven-barrelled gun. His one shot emptied both saddles and the very noise of the huge weapon seemed to drive the other Frenchmen away in search of easier pickings.
Sharpe 3-Book Collection 7: Sharpe’s Revenge, Sharpe’s Waterloo, Sharpe’s Devil Page 48
