Prologue Summary

Sharpe's Devil is a novel about one of the many adventures of Richard Sharpe and his steadfast friend Patrick Harper. The two have been hired to find a missing Spanish nobleman. Sharpe left his home in Normandy, and Harper left his home in Dublin. The two must travel to Chile in their latest adventure.

The book opens with sixteen men waiting under heat and humidity at a small port on an island. Three sailing warships, two British and one Spanish, are moored nearby. All of the waiting men are wearing military uniforms. All but two of them are Spanish. Those two are Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper.

Richard Sharpe is described as tall and thin and scarred from years of battle. The uniform he wears, old and faded, bears the insignia for the rank of major, but the last time Sharpe was in...