Wellington needed gold, the Spaniards’ gold, or the war would be over, Spain and Portugal lost causes both. 'Something that you, Captain Sharpe, must bring me. Must, do you hear? Must.'

And Richard Sharpe, Captain of the Light Company of the South Essex Regiment, knew that the General had never been more insistent.

But between Sharpe and the gold lay the French army – and Spanish Partisans with no belief that Spain's interest came first with the British. El Catolico, their leader was as ruthless as Sharpe and more savage by far. And when Sharpe took his woman, El Catolico was determined that the Englishman would die…

Bernard Cornwell paints a vivid picture of war in all its brutality, of passion in all its moods, in this superb adventure set in the Peninsular War.

Reviews

‘Exciting, exuberant… leaves the reader waiting for the next’
Irish Times