Sharpe's Sword Part 28

Connelley was drunk, asleep, and there was no answer.

There was no Harper. Sharpe remembered the body on the stairs, his friend, and the blood that puddled on the step, and Sharpe cried because he was alone, and was dying, and no one was there. There was no one. No Harper, no Teresa, no mother, no family, just a damp cellar of rats, cold in death's kingdom, and all the glory of Colours carried into battle-smoke, of a soldier's pride, of the bayonets rippling in sun and the boots going forward across the sparks towards victory ended here. In a death room. No Harper. No slow grin, no shared thoughts without words, no more laughter.

He sobbed, and in his sobs he swore he would not die.

The pain was all over so he forced his right hand down and found his naked legs, and then he moved his left hand and found the bandage and he felt round the bandage, round to his lower stomach, and the pain screamed up inside him in a vast red swell of breaking agony that drove him into unconsciousness again.

He dreamed his sword was broken, splintered grey shards, useless. He dreamed.

A man screamed in the room, a high-pitched quavering scream that startled the rats and woke Connelley. "Whoa there, lad! It's all right, so it is, and sure I'm here. Hey lad, lad! Gentle now. Die well!"

"Where am I?" Sharpe's voice was unheard in the noise. He knew, though. He had seen death rooms before.

The man who had screamed was crying now, small yelps that peaked in pathetic gulps, and Sergeant Connelley swiftly swallowed some rum, thrust the bottle in a gaping pocket, and lumbered down the room with his bucket of water. Other men were stirring, crying for water, for their mothers, for light, for help, and Connelley called out to them all. "I'm here, lads, I'm here, and you're brave boys, are you not? Now be brave! We have the French, so we do, and would you want them to think that we're weak?"

Sharpe breathed in short, shallow gasps, and he swore he would not die. He tried to blank the pain out, but he could not, and he tried to remember men who had come out of the death room alive. He could not. He could only think of his enemy, Sergeant Hakeswill, who had lived through a hanging, and Sharpe swore he would not die.

Connelley shushed the men with his rough tenderness. He walked down the room, pausing by some, finding some dead, comforting others. Sharpe drifted in the pain; it was like a live thing, trapping him, and he struggled with it. Connelley knelt by him, talked to him, and Sharpe heard the Irish voice.

"Patrick?"

"Are you called Patrick now? And us thinking you was a Frenchie." Connelley stroked the dark hair.

"Patrick?"

"And a good name it is, lad. Connelley's my name, and Kilkieran Bay's my country, and you and I will walk on the cliffs there."

"Dying." Sharpe had meant it as a question, but the word came as a statement.

"And sure you're not! You'll be chasing the women yet, Paddy, so you will." Connelley took his rum bottle, lifted Sharpe's head gently, and poured the smallest amount between the lips. "You sleep now, Paddy, you hear me?"

"I'm not going to die." Each word was soft, each almost edged with a sob.

"Sure you're not!" Connelley lowered the head. "They can't kill us Irish." He backed into the aisle and stood up. The room was quieter now, but Connelley knew that the noise could break cut-again. They were like puppies the dying. Once one was excited, the whole litter began yelping, and a man deserved some quiet to drink and die in. He sang to them, walking up and down the aisle, and he sang the Corporal's Song that told of the soldier's life and he repeated the refrain over and over again as if he wanted to sing them softly into a soldier's death. "It's a very merry, hey down deny, sort of life enough. A very merry, hey down deny, sort of life enough."

CHAPTER 15.

The next morning Lieutenant Price marched the Company to the field, west of the city, where a common grave had been dug for the French. The Company were shocked, unbelieving. They stopped by the pit. Price stared into the hole. It looked as if dogs had been clawing at the part where the shrouded bodies had been already covered with earth. A sentry shrugged. "We caught some b.l.o.o.d.y madman here this morning, sir. He was trying to dig up the bodies."

They were in two ranks. Price nodded at McGovern. "Carry on, Sergeant."

It seemed terribly inadequate. The commands were given, the muskets and rifles went into the shoulders, the volley echoed back from the houses. It all seemed so flat, so wrong, so inadequate.

As the volley and its echo died away there came a sudden burst of bells from the city, pealing bells, victorious and joyful, and the Company marched away from them, going north, leaving a small cloud of smoke that hung over the grave.

Hogan heard the volley, very distantly, and then came the bells clamouring and he straightened his uniform, took off his bicorne hat, and went into the Cathedral. It was Sunday. A Te Deum was to be sung for the liberation of Salamanca, for the destruction of the forts, yet it was a half-hearted celebration. The Cathedral was full, packed with gaudy uniforms, sombre citizens, and robed priests, and the organ thundered in the great s.p.a.ce, yet Hogan knew nothing but an immense sadness. The congregation sang and responded, went through the motions, yet they knew that Salamanca was only temporarily freed, that the army of Marmont still had to be destroyed, and some of them, the better informed, knew that four other French armies were in Spain and that no city would be free till all had been defeated. And the price would be high. Already a great part of Salamanca had been destroyed to clear a s.p.a.ce around the fortresses. The city had lost cloisters, courts, colleges, and houses; all ground to rubble.

After the service, Wellington stood beneath the fantastic carvings of the great western doors, opposite the Bishop's palace, and acknowledged the applause of the crowd. He pushed through them, nodding and smiling, sometimes waving with his plain hat, but his eyes flicked over the faces looking for someone. He saw Hogan, and the hat gestured at the Irishman.

"My lord?"

"Is it done?"

"Yes, my lord."

Wellington nodded. "We march tonight."

Hogan was left behind by the General's progress. What had been done was to put a discreet guard on El Mirador. It had not been an easy decision. To guard El Mirador meant telling the chosen guard who their ward was and why he was important, yet with Leroux at liberty it was the only course left. Lord Spears, his arm mending, but not yet fully fit for normal duties, had been given the task. At first he had been reluctant, but when told that El Mirador was not to be close-guarded at home, only out in public places, he relented. He would still have time, it seemed, for his relentless gambling. Then he was told El Mirador's ident.i.ty and he shook his head, disbelieving. "Bless my soul, sir! One would never have guessed!" No one at Headquarters, apart from Wellington himself and Hogan, knew what Lord Spears' new duties were. Hogan was mindful that Leroux had a source within the British Headquarters.

All had been done, then, that could be done, and it had been done heavily, reluctantly, because Hogan still had not fully understood that Sharpe was dead. Twice that morning he had seen Rifle Officers walking in the streets and both times his heart had leapt because he thought he saw Sharpe, and then he remembered. Richard Sharpe was dead, and the army would march on without him, and Hogan let the crowds disperse and walked slowly, disconsolately through the streets.

"Sir! Sir!" The voice shouted at him from down the hill. "Major Hogan!"

Hogan looked down the steep street he had been pa.s.sing. A group of chained prisoners were being led by Provosts, one of whom clubbed with reversed musket at a shackled man. Hogan had recognised the voice. He ran. "Stop it! Stop it!"

The Provosts turned round. They were the police force of the army, universally disliked, and they watched Hogan's approach with silent truculence. Sergeant Harper, who had shouted, was still on the ground. He looked up at Hogan. "Would you be telling this sc.u.m to let me go, sir?"

Hogan felt an immense relief when he saw Patrick Harper. There was something intensely rea.s.suring about his fellow Irishman, and Harper was so inseparable from Sharpe that Hogan felt a sudden, crazy hope that if Harper lived, then Sharpe must, too. He crouched beside the Sergeant who was rubbing his shoulder where the Provost had clubbed him. "I thought you were in the hospital."

"So I was. I got the h.e.l.l out." Harper was angry. He spat on the ground. "I woke up this morning, sir, early, with a head like the very devil. I went to look for the Captain."

Hogan wondered if Harper did not know yet. He wondered how the big Sergeant came to be arrested. The Provosts stirred sullenly and one suggested to the other that he go and find their own Captain. The man left. Hogan sighed. "I think he's dead, Patrick."

Harper shook his head stubbornly. "He's not, sir." The chains clinked as he held up a hand to silence Hogan. "The guard on the gate told me he was, he said that he'd been buried with the French."

"That's right." Hogan had told the gate Sergeant at the Irish College. "I'm sorry, Patrick."

Harper shook his head again. "He's not there, sir."

"What do you mean?"

"I looked. He's not there."

"You looked?" Hogan noticed for the first time that Harper's trousers were stained with earth.

Harper stood up, towering over the other prisoners. "I slit up more than twenty shrouds, sir, right down to the ones that stank. He wasn't there." He shrugged. "I thought at the very least the man should have a proper burial."

"You mean?" Hogan stopped. The hope fluttered in him, and he pushed it down. He turned to the Provost. "Set him free."

"Can't do that, sir. Regulations."

Hogan was a small man, usually mild, but he could be roused to a wrath that was awesome. He released it on the Provost, threatened him with the same shackles, threatened him with punishment Battalions in the Fever Isles, and the Provost, wilting under the onslaught, knocked the bolts out of the manacles. Harper rubbed his wrists as the other Provost, with his Captain, came back. The Captain took one look at the freed prisoner, saluted Hogan, and launched into an explanation. "The prisoner was found this morning, sir, desecrating the dead.'

"Quiet." Hogan's voice cracked with anger. He looked at Harper. "Where are your weapons?"

Harper jerked his head at the Provosts. "These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have them, sir."

Hogan looked at the Captain. "Sergeant Harper's weapons are to be delivered to me, Major Hogan, at Army Headquarters, within one hour. They are to be cleaned, polished, and oiled. Understand?"