From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, the tenth installment in the world-renowned   Sharpe series, chronicling the rise of Richard Sharpe, a Private in His Majesty’s Army at the siege of Seringapatam. Sharpe’s job as Captain of the Light Company is under threat and he has made a new enemy, a Portuguese criminal known as Ferragus. Discarded by his regiment, Sharpe wages a private war against Ferragus – a war fought through the burning, pillaged streets of Coimbra, Portugal’s ancient university city. Sharpe’s Escape begins on the great, gaunt ridge of Bussaco where a joint British and Portuguese army meets the overwhelming strength of Marshall Massena’s crack troops. It finishes at Torres Vedras where the French hopes of occupying Portugal quickly die. “Perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today.” - Washington Post “Richard Sharpe has the most astounding knack for finding himself where the action is…and adding considerably to it.” - Wall Street Journal “Sharpe aficionados will rejoice....With fully fleshed-out characters and keen human insight, Cornwell just keeps getting better.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Highly recommended ... A worthy entry in the Sharpe series, this book will be eagerly anticipated by Cornwell’s many readers.” - Library Journal “An altogether rousing tale of revenge and derring-do....Cornwell’s cinematically detailed battle pieces [are] literal tours de force.” - Michael Dirda in The Washington Post “Presents to the contemporary reader an important part of history that Americans know little about.” - Los Angeles Times “Prepare to have your buckles swashed.” - People “An action-packed story....Even those new to Sharpe’s adventures will find the pages fly by like gunsmoke on the breeze.” - Charleston Post & Courier Only two obstacles stand between Napoleon's mighty army and its seemingly certain conquest of Portugal: a land wasted and stripped of food at Wellington's orders . . . and Captain Richard Sharpe. But perils from within and without threaten the bold captain of the Light Company -- the hatred and incompetence of a superior officer, the vicious treachery of a false ally . . . and the overwhelming numbers of a fierce, determined enemy, combining to make Sharpe's escape a near impossibility. Bernard Cornwell is the author of over fifty novels, including the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales, which serve as the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charleston, South Carolina. Sharpe's Escape Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, 1810 By Bernard Cornwell HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Bernard Cornwell All right reserved. ISBN: 0060561556 Chapter One Mister Sharpe was in a bad mood. A filthy mood. He was looking for trouble in Sergeant Harper's opinion, and Harper was rarely wrong about Captain Sharpe, and Sergeant Harper knew well enough not to engage his Captain in conversation when Sharpe was in such a black temper, but on the other hand Harper liked to live dangerously. "I see your uniform's been mended, sir," he said cheerily. Sharpe ignored the comment. He just marched on, climbing the bare Portuguese slope under the searing sun. It was September 1810, almost autumn, yet the heat of late summer hammered the landscape like a furnace. At the top of the hill, another mile or so ahead of Sharpe, stood a barn-like stone building next to a gaunt telegraph station. The station was a black timber scaffolding supporting a high mast from which signaling arms hung motionless in the afternoon's heat. "It's a rare nice piece of stitching on that jacket," Harper went on, sounding as though he did not have a care in the world, "and I can tell you didn't do it yourself. It looks like a woman's work, so it does?" He inflected the last three words as a question. Sharpe still said nothing. His long, straight-bladed cavalry sword banged against his left thigh as he climbed. He had a rifle slung on his shoulder. An officer was not supposed to carry a longarm like his men, but Sharpe had once been a private and he was used to carrying a proper gun to war. "Was it someone you met in Lisbon, now?" Harper persisted. Sharpe simmered, but pretended he had not heard. His uniform jacket, decently mended as Harper had noticed, was rifle green. He had been a rifleman. No, he still thought of himself as a rifleman, one of the elite men who carried the Baker rifle and wore the dark green instead of the red, but the tides of war had stranded him and a few of his men in a redcoat regiment and now he commanded the light company of the South Essex who were following him up the hill. Most wore the red jackets of the British infantry and carried smoothbore muskets, but a handful, like Sergeant Harper, still kept their old green jackets and fought with the rifle. "So who was she?" Harper finally asked. "Sergeant Harper," Sharpe was finally g