Quick recap
Sharpe catches gray-uniformed French soldiers attacking a village and has two of them shot. Their commander, Brigadier Guy Loup, swears revenge. At the same time, Wellington hands Sharpe the Royal Irish Guard, the Spanish king's Irish bodyguard, who have never really fought. The British want them treated with honor, but they'd also like them to desert. Fake newspapers about abuses in Ireland spread through the ranks, and their commander, Lord Kiely, dies at Loup's hands. Sharpe turns the Irishmen into fighting men, loses young Perkins and ends the story by destroying the Wolf Brigade.
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