Barca d’Avintas was a small place, a straggle of houses built about the road that ran down to the river where a short jetty should have accommodated the ferry, but some of the smoke Sharpe had seen earlier was coming from a barge-like vessel with a blunt bow and a dozen rowlocks.
Now it was smoking in the water, its upper works burned almost to the waterline and its lower hull holed and sunken. Sharpe stared at the useless boat, looked across the river that was over a hundred yards broad and then swore.
Harper appeared beside him, his rifle slung. „Jesus,” he said, staring at the ferry, „that’s not a lot of good to man or beast, is it now?”
„Any of our boys hurt?”
„Not a one, sir, not even a scratch. The Portuguese are the same, all alive. They did well, didn’t they?” He looked at the burning boat again. „Sweet Jesus, was that the ferry?”
„It was Noah’s bloody ark,” Sharpe snapped. „What do you goddamned think it was?” He was angry because he had hoped to use the ferry to get all his men safe across the Douro, but now it seemed he was stranded. He stalked away, then turned back just in time to see Harper making a face at him. „Have you found the taverns?” he asked, ignoring the grimace.
„Not yet, sir,” Harper said.
„Then find them, put a guard on them, then send a dozen more men to the far side of the paddock.”
„Yes, sir!”
The French had set more fires among sheds on the river bank and Sharpe now ducked beneath the billowing smoke to kick open half-burned doors. There was a pile of tarred nets smoldering in one shed, but in the next there was a black-painted skiff with a fine spiked bow that curved up like a hook. The shed had been fired, but the flames had not reached the skiff and Sharpe managed to drag it halfway out of the door before Lieutenant Vicente arrived and helped him pull the boat all the way out of the smoke. The other sheds were too well alight, but at least this one boat was saved and Sharpe reckoned it could hold about half a dozen men safely, which meant that it would take the rest of the day to ferry everyone across the wide river. Sharpe was about to ask Vicente to look for oars or paddles when he saw that the young man’s face was white and shaken, almost as if the Lieutenant was on the point of tears. „What is it?” Sharpe asked.
Vicente did not answer, but merely pointed back to the village.
„The French were having games with the ladies, eh?” Sharpe asked, setting off for the houses.
„I would not call it games,” Vicente said bitterly, „and there is also a prisoner.”
„Only one?”
„There are two others,” Vicente said, frowning, „but this one is a lieutenant. He had no breeches which is why he was slow to run.”
Sharpe did not ask why the captured dragoon had no breeches. He knew why. „What have you done with him?”
„He must go on trial,” Vicente said.
Sharpe stopped and stared at the Lieutenant. „He must what?” he asked, astonished. „Go on trial?”
„Of course.”
„In my country,” Sharpe said, „they hang a man for rape.”
„Not without a trial,” Vicente protested and Sharpe guessed that the Portuguese soldiers had wanted to kill the prisoner straight away and that Vicente had stopped them out of some high-minded idea that a trial was necessary.
„Bloody hell,” Sharpe said, „you’re a soldier now, not a lawyer. You don’t give them a trial. You chop their hearts out.”
Most of Barca d’Avintas’s inhabitants had fled the dragoons, but some had stayed and most of them were now crowded about a house guarded by a half-dozen of Vicente’s men. A dead dragoon, stripped of shirt, coat, boots and breeches, lay face down in front of the church. He must have been leaning against the church wall when he was shot for he had left a smear of blood down the limewashed stones. Now a dog sniffed at his toes. The soldiers and villagers parted to let Sharpe and Vicente into the house where the young dragoon officer, fair-haired, thin and sullen-faced, was being guarded by Sergeant Macedo and another Portuguese soldier. The Lieutenant had managed to pull on his breeches, but had not had time to button them and he was now holding them up by the waist. As soon as he saw Sharpe he began gabbling in French. „You speak French?” Sharpe asked Vicente.
„Of course,” Vicente said.
But Vicente, Sharpe reflected, wanted to give this fair-haired Frenchman a trial and Sharpe suspected that if Vicente interrogated the man he would not learn the real truth, merely hear the excuses, so Sharpe went to the house door. „Harper!” He waited till the Sergeant appeared. „Get me Tongue or Harris,” he ordered.
„I will talk to the man,” Vicente protested.
„I need you to talk to someone else,” Sharpe said and he went to the back room where a girl-she could not have been a day over fourteen-was weeping. Her face was red, eyes swollen and her breath came in fitful jerks interspersed with grizzling moans and cries of despair. She was wrapped in a blanket and had a bruise on her left cheek. An older woman, dressed all in black, was trying to comfort the girl who began to cry even louder the moment she saw Sharpe, making him back out of the room in embarrassment. „Find out from her what happened,” he told Vicente, then turned as Harris came through the door. Harris and Tongue were Sharpe’s two educated men. Tongue had been doomed to the army by drink, while the red-haired, ever cheerful Harris claimed to be a volunteer who wanted adventure. He was getting plenty now, Sharpe reflected. „This piece of shit,” Sharpe told Harris, jerking his head at the fair-haired Frenchman, „was caught with his knickers round his ankles and a young girl under him. Find out what his excuse is before we kill the bastard.”
He went back to the street and took a long drink from his canteen. The water was warm and brackish. Harper was waiting by a horse trough in the center of the street and Sharpe joined him. „All well?”
„There’s two more Frogs in there.” Harper flicked a thumb toward the church behind him. „Live ones, I mean.” The church door was guarded by four of Vicente’s men.
„What are they doing in there?” Sharpe asked. „Praying?”
The tall Ulsterman shrugged. „Looking for sanctuary, I’d guess.”
„We can’t take the bastards with us,” Sharpe said, „so why don’t we just shoot them?”
„Because Mister Vicente says we mustn’t,” Harper said. „He’s very particular about prisoners is Mister Vicente. He’s a lawyer, isn’t he?”
„He seems halfway decent for a lawyer,” Sharpe admitted grudgingly.
„The best lawyers are six feet under the daisies, so they are,” Harper said, „and this one won’t let me go and shoot those two bastards. He says they’re just drunks, which is true. They are. Skewed to the skies, they are.”
„We can’t cope with prisoners,” Sharpe said. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, then pulled his shako back on. The visor was coming away from the crown, but there was nothing he could do about that here. „Get Tongue,” he suggested, „and see if he can find out what these two were up to. If they’re just drunk on communion wine then march them out west, strip them of anything valuable and boot them back where they came from. But if they raped anyone… „
„I know what to do, sir,” Harper said grimly.
„Then do it,” Sharpe said. He nodded to Harper, then walked on past the church to where the stream joined the river. The small stone bridge carried the road eastward through a vineyard, past a walled cemetery and then twisted through pastureland beside the Douro. It was all open land and if more French came and he had to retreat from the village then he dared not use that road and he hoped to God he had time to ferry his men over the Douro and that thought made him go back up the street to look for oars. Or maybe he could find a rope? If the rope were long enough he could rig a line across the river and haul the boat back and forth and that would surely be quicker than rowing.