Sharpe's EscapeRichard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, 1810

It is the late summer of 1810 and the French mount their third and most threatening invasion of Portugal. Captain Richard Sharpe, with his company of redcoats and riflemen, meets the invaders on the gaunt ridge of Bussaco where, despite a stunning victory, the French are not stopped. Sharpe, meanwhile, has made enemies among the Portuguese and when the British army falls back through Coimbra, he and Sergeant Harper are lured into a trap designed to kill them. With the help of an Englishwoman, Sharpe survives, but is cut off from his own army, and has to rejoin his regiment if the command of the Light Company is not to fall to the ambitious Lieutenant Slingsby. At the Lines of Torres Vedras, the vast defences built to stop the French before Lisbon, he confronts his enemies in a climactic battle.