Sharpe's Challenge Page #6

get you out of Ferraghur at first opportunity.

Have you a proposal

whereby our prospects might be improved?

I'm working upon it, ma'am.

But I'm also here to reconnoitre

the fort's defences against our attack.

Sergeant, if there is a choice

between getting me out

and taking what intelligence

you have to my father...

Whatever we do,

wherever we go, we'll go together.

Now, I must back to my building

before I am missed.

Don't you worry.

-Good night, ma'am.

-Thanks.

Barrel caked in powder.

Come on.

Missing frisson spring.

SHARPE:
Rusted dog screw. Would you say

this was good enough, Corporal Harper?

HARPER:
That I wouldn't, Sergeant.

No, that I wouldn't.

What would happen if any of our men

kept their pieces in such a condition,

Corporal Harper?

Well, they'd have cause to curse their mothers

for ever bringing them

into this sorry world, Sergeant.

What the hell are two English soldiers

doing on my parade ground?

They are deserters, sir.

Eager to serve His Highness.

So you just thought you'd just let

two Englishmen walk into Ferraghur?

-My orders were to build an army.

-Colonel.

I think General Dodd's point is

how do we know they're not spies?

How can one tell, Highness? But I think not.

-I have questioned them.

-Oh, I think we can tell.

I think we can discover

what sort of soldiers they are, too.

How many rounds can you fire a minute?

One, maybe?

A good soldier, he can fire maybe three,

four rounds a minute.

DODD:
Perhaps you should demonstrate, Sergeant.

Oh, aye.

Who might you be?

I'd be General Dodd, Sergeant...?

Sharpe.

Corporal Harper, sir.

Load them.

Getting slow, Pat.

So, you can load.

-Can you shoot?

-Oh, aye, I can shoot.

-I can kill and all.

-Good. Good.

Then kill him.

What?

Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

What's this?

Proof of your new-found loyalty to His Highness.

Kill him or I'll have you both shot as spies.

Sir, I've...served with this man for six years, sir.

Well, you must be bored of his conversation.

Don't try His Highness' patience, kill him.

-Pat.

-God love you, Richard.

Aim true for Christ's sake.

Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

I know who the traitors are in here! I know!

Your army is gonna be utterly destroyed.

Charge! Enter!

Fire!

You want me to go back to India?

I'm looking for a friend. A man called Harper.

SHARPE:
Saving Celia Burroughs

ain't a mission, Pat.

We're going to Ferraghur to stop a rebellion.

(MEN SHOUTING)

Go and die.

And after you've made the Plains

run red with English blood?

-You're deserters?

-No, sir, we're volunteers.

What the hell are two English soldiers

doing on my parade ground?

-I can kill and all.

-Then kill him.

-Wait a minute.

-I've served with this man for six years, sir.

Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women...

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour...

Bide your business, Sergeant.

I gave you an order.

Pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Bad powder. Good one that, General.

I'll remember that.

Be sure that you do.

Let this test of your loyalty serve as a reminder

that you have sworn

to live or die at His Highness's word.

-Continue your drill.

-Yes, sir.

Not bad, English, not bad.

(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(LAUGHING)

That Dodd's got a rare sense of humour,

so he has.

(TRADITIONAL INDIAN MUSIC PLAYING)

Off your grub, Pat?

That isn't like you.

You did know that shot wouldn't carry, didn't you?

Of course I did.

The powder Dodd gave me was blended wrong.

There weren't nowhere near enough saltpeter in it.

How in the name of God

would you have known that?

Three years in the army at Srirangapattam.

A man gets to know powder, the smell of it,

the taste of it.

Yeah, well, I mean, all the same.

You could have, you know...

Well, you think Dodd would let us

have loaded guns if he didn't trust us?

And His Majesty not ten foot away.

Yeah, well, you might have had a notion

to let me know.

I was getting my excuses ready for St Peter.

It had to look real, Pat. Sorry.

But we are in the cushoon, aren't we?

Yeah, yeah.

We're in a cushoon all right.

Up to our bloody necks.

(HORSE NEIGHING)

Get those feet up, you!

Heave them, bastards!

It ain't a tea party we're marching to!

It's to war.

GUDIN:
Old comrades.

Magnificent, are they not?

Yet I do pity them.

They will be pounded to dust.

You'll never break a besieging army

sat in a fort, sir.

And there's the weather to think about.

And the rains may make them withdraw to Agra.

But they'll be back for sure

in greater numbers than before.

It is not the ''when'' of their assault

which need concern us, gentlemen.

It is the ''where.''

Highness.

I never thought of them to be so many.

Be not dismayed, Your Highness.

There will be far fewer of them

presently, I promise.

(WHISTLING)

Ah, McRae, you are done with your promenade?

Major Stokes has completed

his initial service, sir, aye.

Stokes?

I regret to report I'm unable to advance

my artillery pieces

against the north or the south ramparts.

Now, there is a possible approach

against the east.

And how long do you estimate it will take you

to establish a practicable breach?

-A few weeks, sir.

-A few weeks?

Which, with the arrival of the rains

almost upon us,

we do not have.

No, sir.

Well, thankfully, while you have been

walking up and down the earth,

I have made some certain enquires.

This man tells me that his sons were taken away

by Khande Rao's troops a few months ago,

to help construct an inner wall inside the fortress.

-An inner wall?

-Just so.

Mr Harper made no mention

of such a development in his report.

Yes, well, you may set great store

upon him, McRae.

But to my mind, the Irish

have always proved themselves

an altogether undependable race.

Happily, for all the gaps in your intelligence,

I have uncovered

the weakness in Khande Rao's plans.

Building of this inner wall upon the west

is not yet complete.

At that point

we have only the outer wall to breach.

The west. Are you sure, sir?

-Have I not just said so?

-Aye, seems a mite convenient is all, sir.

-Convenient?

-Like Laocoon, sir,

experience has taught me to be wary of Greeks

even when they are bearing gifts.

What?

It is not beyond Khande Rao

to seek vantage through subterfuge.

-Nonsense.

-Maybe, sir.

But my mind would be eased

if we could get confirmation from Colonel Sharpe.

Sharpe be damned!

I told you, the man is a bloody adventurer

and cannot be relied upon.

The west it is, Stokes, that's the place.

See there, how the wall is in poor repair.

That's where we'll make our breach.

And we'll do it in strength.

By God, I'll pour the whole damn army in.

There'll be a show to put

Richard bloody Sharpe in his place.

(SCOFFING)

Looking for the Colonel. Colonel Gudin.

(MEN SPEAKING IN HINDI)

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