Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Major Richard Sharpe takes command of three companies of men during a diversionary attack on a French fortress and environs. Under Sharpe's resolute leadership, the men fight a series of engagements with decisive results until falling back on a largely-destroyed fortress where they discover they have been abandoned. They defend the fortress during a bloody but abbreviated siege that ends in an unusual surrender.

In early 1814, British forces led by Wellington have completed the invasion and conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and have pushed into southern France. Napoleon's armies are unbalanced and the dictator rushes fresh troops towards the new front. The British army advances to the southern bank of the Adour River and there is stopped by a natural barrier. The English decide a temporary bridge must be constructed, using dozens of small ships as a system of support. To...