Sharpe's Battle

coats of Brigadier General Loup's brigade. 'That fellow had a lucky escape, General,' Sharpe said, 'those are Loup's dragoons.'

'Loup?' Runciman asked.

'Brigadier Loup, General. He's a nasty Frog who dresses his men in wolf fur and likes to cut off his enemies' balls before they die.'

'Oh, my word.' Runciman paled. 'Are you sure?'

'I've met him, General. He threatened to geld me.'

Runciman was driven to fortify himself by taking a handful of sugared almonds from a pocket and putting them one by one into his mouth. 'I do sometimes wonder if my dear father was not right,' he said between mouthfuls, 'and that perhaps I should have chosen a churchman's career. I would have made a very serviceable bishop, I think, though perhaps a bishop's life might not have proved full enough for a man of my energies. There's little real work to do as a prelate, Sharpe. One preaches the odd sermon, of course, and makes oneself pleasant to the better sort of people in the county, and from time to time a fellow has to whip the lesser clergy into line, but there's not much else to the job. It's hardly a demanding life, Sharpe, and, quite frankly, most episcopal palaces are inhabited by very mediocre men. My dear father excepted, of course. Oh, my word, what's happening?'

Lord Kiely had ridden ahead to greet the fugitive, but, after stretching out a hand and offering a hasty word, his Lordship had spurred on towards the French pursuers who, recognizing that their quarry had escaped, had already reined in their horses. But now Kiely crossed the stream, drew his sword and shouted a challenge to the Frenchmen.

Every man in the valley knew what Kiely intended. He was challenging an enemy officer to a duel. Men of sense, like infantrymen or anyone given half a set of wits, disapproved of the practice, but cavalrymen could rarely resist the challenge. To take part in such a combat required pride and bravery, but to win such a fight was to forge a name as a warrior and every cavalry regiment in every army had officers whose fame went back to just such a fight: one man against one man, single sword against single sword, a duel between strangers that invited fame or death. 'Kiely's trying to get himself killed, General,' Sharpe told Runciman. Sharpe sounded sour, yet he could not deny a reluctant admiration for Kiely who, for this moment at least, had thrown off his hangover and his morose bitterness to become what he was in his own daydreams: the perfect knight and king's champion. 'Kiely's got a fancy to die famous,' Sharpe said. 'He wants to be Roland or that Spartan fellow who thumped the Persians.'

'Leonidas, Sharpe, King Leonidas,' Runciman said. 'Mind you, Sharpe, Kiely's a fine swordsman. I've watched him at practice, and the drink scarcely slows him a beat! Not that we'll see any evidence of that today,' Runciman said as Kiely turned away from the unmoving Frenchmen. 'None of them will fight!' Runciman sounded surprised, but also a little relieved that he would not have to witness any bloodshed.

'Kiely hardly gave them time to accept,' Sharpe said. And Kiely had indeed stayed only a few seconds, almost as though he had wanted to make the defiant gesture, but was scared lest any of the enemy might accept his challenge.

Then one of the enemy did accept. Kiely had reached the stream's bank when a shout sounded behind him and a dragoon officer spurred out from among his companions. Kiely twisted in his saddle and Sharpe could have sworn that his Lordship blanched as the Frenchman rode towards him. 'Oh, my word,' Runciman said in alarm.

Kiely could not refuse to fight now, not without losing face, and so he returned to the grey dragoon who threw back his wolf-fur pelisse, tugged down on his helmet's brim, then drew his long-bladed straight sword. He twisted its strap about his wrist, then held the blade upright in salute of the man who would be either his killer or his victim. Lord Kiely returned the salute with his own straight blade. His Lordship might have made the challenge as a gesture that he never expected to be taken up, but now that he was committed to the fight he showed neither reluctance nor nervousness.

'They're both bloody fools,' Sharpe said, 'dying for bloody nothing.' He and Runciman had joined the Real Companпa Irlandesa's officers as had Father Sarsfield who had abandoned his catechism class to follow Kiely into the valley. The priest heard Sharpe's scorn and offered the rifleman a surprised glance. The priest, like Runciman, seemed uncomfortable with the imminent duel and was running the beads of his rosary through plump fingers as he watched the two horsemen face each other across a fifty-yard gap. Lord Kiely dropped his blade from the salute and both men put spurs to their horses' flanks.

'Oh, my word,' Runciman said. He fumbled another handful of almonds from his pocket.

The two horses closed slowly at first. Only at the very last moment did their riders release them to the full gallop. Both men were right-handed and looked to Sharpe to be well-matched in size, though Lord Kiely's black horse was the bigger by a clear hand.

The dragoon cut first. He seemed to have put his faith in a savage sweeping slash that would have disembowelled an ox, except that at the last moment he checked the swing to reverse the blade and cut back at his enemy's unprotected neck. It was done as fast as a man could blink and on the back of a horse at full gallop, and against any other rider it might have worked, but Lord Kiely simply turned his horse into his opponent's mount without even bothering to parry. The dragoon's smaller horse staggered as the weight of the stallion hit its hindquarters. The Frenchman's backslash cut thin air, then the horses parted and both men were sawing on their reins. Kiely turned faster and rammed his spurs back to add the horse's weight to the lunge of his straight sword. Masters-at-arms always taught that the point beats the edge, and Kiely now lanced his sword's point at the grey dragoon's belly and for a second Sharpe thought the lunge would surely pierce the Frenchman's defence, but somehow the dragoon parried and a second later the sound of the blades' ringing clash carried to Sharpe. By the time the harsh sound had echoed back from the far hills the two horses were already twenty yards apart and being turned into the attack again. Neither man had dared ride too far from his opponent in case he should be pursued and attacked from behind, so from now on the duel would be fought at close quarters and it would depend as much on the training of the two horses as on the riders' swordsmanship.

'Oh, dear,' Runciman said. He feared to watch the horror of a man dying, yet dared not take his eyes from the spectacle. It was a sight as old as warfare: two champions clashing in full view of their comrades. 'It's a wonder Kiely can fight at all,' Runciman continued, 'considering how much he drank last night. Five bottles of claret by my count.'

'He's young,' Sharpe said sourly, 'and he was born with natural gifts for riding horses and fighting with swords. But as he gets older, General, those gifts will waste away and he knows it. He's living on borrowed time and that's why he wants to die young.'

'I can't believe that,' Runciman said, then winced as the two men hammered at each other with their swords.

'Kiely should go for the bastard's horse, not the man,' Sharpe said. 'You can always beat a horseman by crippling his bloody horse.'

'It isn't the way a gentleman fights, Captain,' Father Sarsfield said. The priest had edged his horse close to the two British officers.

'There's no future in being a gentleman in a fight, Father,' Sharpe said. 'If you think wars should only be fought by gentlemen then you should stop recruiting people like me out of the gutter.'

'No need to mention your origins, Sharpe,' Runciman hissed reprovingly. 'You are an officer now, remember!'

'I pray for the day when no gentleman fights at all, nor other men either,' Father Sarsfield said. 'I do so dislike fighting.'

'Yet you're a chaplain in the army?' Sharpe asked.

'I go where the need is greatest,' the chaplain said, 'and where will a man of God look to find the greatest concentration of sinners outside of a prison? In an army, I would suggest, begging your presence.' Sarsfield smiled, then flinched as the duellists charged and their long swords clashed again. Lord Kiely's stallion instinctively ducked its head to avoid the blades that hissed above its ears. Lord Kiely lunged at his opponent and one of Kiely's officers cheered when he thought that his Lordship had skewered the Frenchman, but the sword had merely pierced the cloak that was rolled onto the cantle of the dragoon's saddle. Kiely dragged his sword free of the cloak just in time to parry a vicious backslash from the dragoon's heavier blade.

'Will Kiely win, do you think?' Runciman asked Sharpe anxiously.

'God knows, General,' Sharpe said. The two horses were virtually motionless now, just standing still as the riders exchanged blows. The sound of the steel was continuous and Sharpe knew the men would be getting tired