Plot summary
In the winter of 1812, a band of deserters from all the armies of the Peninsular War - French, British, Spanish and Portuguese - descends on the isolated hamlet of Adrados, on the Spanish-Portuguese border, led by Pot-au-Feu (Sergeant Deron, formerly Marshal Soult's chef). They slaughter the residents, sparing a number of women on pilgrimage to a convent in the village, including Lady Farthingdale and Madame Dubreton, the English-born wife of a French colonel of cavalry.
Major General Nairn sends Richard Sharpe, recently promoted to the rank of major by the Prince Regent, who had followed his exploits with admiration, to deliver the ransom demanded for Lady Farthingdale. Upon reaching Adrados, Sharpe and Sergeant Patrick Harper encounter French Colonel Dubreton and his sergeant on a similar mission, to free Dubreton's wife. When they meet with "Maréchal" (Marshal) Pot-au-Feu, Sharpe is appalled to discover that Obadiah Hakeswill, his longtime bitter enemy (beginning from Sharpe's Tiger ), is Pot-au-Feu's "colonel". They see both ladies are safe and deliver the ransom, but Hakeswill informs them that the money only safeguards the women's virtue, and that they must continue making payments. Colonel and Madame Dubreton are careful to conceal their connection from the kidnappers. Sharpe notes that Adrados is extremely defensible, with a castle, a watchtower and a convent. Madame Dubreton gives Sharpe a clue that she is being held in the convent.
Sharpe proposes to take the Light Company and two companies of the 60th American Rifles to make a sneak attack on the watchtower and the convent to free and protect the ladies until Colonel Kinney and his 113th Fusilier Regiment arrive to capture or kill the deserters. Sharpe chooses Christmas Eve for the attack, as the gang will almost certainly be drunk. Nairn foists Captain Gilliland and his unwanted troop of "Rocket Cavalry" onto Sharpe to prove how useless they are. The Prince Regent thinks rocket artillery is a marvelous idea and wants it field tested; Sharpe finds the rockets to be wildly inaccurate.
Sharpe captures the convent and frees the women. Pot-au-Feu is taken prisoner, but Hakeswill gets away. Recently arrived, aged Colonel Sir Augustus Farthingdale is reunited with his beloved young "wife". "Lady Farthingdale" is actually Josefina Lacosta, a high-class courtesan with whom Sharpe is intimately acquainted; she plays Farthingale's wife for a sizable stipend.
Shortly afterward, Dubreton arrives with his own force. Dubreton repays Sharpe for saving his wife by handing over Hakeswill. He then invites Sharpe and the other British officers to dinner. There Sharpe first encounters Major Ducos, a French spy of great influence who will repeatedly trouble Sharpe in the future. The French demand that the British leave by nine o'clock the next morning. Farthingdale readily agrees, but Sharpe has misgivings. His Spanish partisan wife Teresa Moreno arrives and confirms his suspicions; she tells him that a sizable French force is advancing on the village, part of a diversionary overall plan to invade northern Portugal (to draw enemy forces away from the real point of attack). He sends Teresa to take the news to Nairn.
Sharpe decides to make a stand, since if the French can get through the mountain pass, they can advance in many directions, too many for the British to stop. He blackmails Lord Farthingdale into leaving (by threatening to reveal who "Lady Farthingdale" really is), thus leaving Sharpe in command. He sets a trap for the French, using Gilliland's Congreve rockets (at very close range) to stop the initial attack. The French launch another attack. British reinforcements arrive just in time to save Sharpe's greatly outnumbered men.
Hakeswill escapes during the last hours of the fighting, and encounters and kills Teresa. He tries to desert to the French, but Dubreton returns him to Sharpe. After a court martial, Hakeswill is shot by a firing squad. He survives, but the grief-stricken Sharpe administers the coup de grace himself.
