À un prince ignorant (French Edition)
Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (1878–1920)
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During the same visit to the East End, asked a professional fundraiser "do you have any friends left? Napoleon having escaped from Elba , Richard Sharpe leaves his farm in Normandy to rejoin the British Army, and is created a Lieutenant Colonel of a Dutch-Belgian cavalry regiment, a sinecure to give him standing as one of the Prince of Orange 's staff officers. Sharpe's lover Lucille has followed him to Belgium with their infant son, Henri-Patrick , as has Sharpe's friend Patrick Harper , now a civilian who has ostensibly come to Belgium to trade in horses, but unofficially to resume his old place at Sharpe's side.
While patrolling the roads connecting the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian forces, Sharpe witnesses the main body of Napoleon's Army of the North crossing the border from France, revealing that Napoleon does not intend to maneuver around the flank of the allied armies, via Mons , as the Duke of Wellington expected, but instead to ram his army into the gap between the two allied forces and defeat them in detail. Encountering a cavalry patrol of the King's German Legion , Sharpe sends an urgent message to Wellington, while Sharpe stays behind to continue spying on the invading French.
Unfortunately, the cavalry's commander, General Dornberg , decries Sharpe's message as a French deception, and tears it up rather than forward it to Wellington. Later that day, after the French have entered Charleroi , Sharpe returns to the Prince of Orange's headquarters and is aghast to find that the army is ignorant of the French invasion. Although the French are checked as evening falls, Sharpe knows they will make a much stronger attack in the morning, and rides to Brussels to warn Wellington. Sharpe's entrance into the Duchess of Richmond's ball - covered in dirt, sweat, and the blood of a slain French dragoon - causes a stir to which Sharpe is oblivious as he informs Wellington of the invasion.
Wellington is equal parts dismayed and admiring at being "humbugged" by Napoleon, who has brought his army to the allies' doorstep before the Anglo-Dutch army can converge, much less link with the Prussians. Exiting his conference with the Duke, Sharpe is outraged to encounter Lord John Rossendale , the lover of his estranged wife Jane. He insults Rossendale in public and demands the return of the money Jane took from him. Rossendale, knowing full well that he will lose any combat with Sharpe, meekly acquiesces, but Jane encourages him to use the impending battle as a cover to kill Sharpe.
On the field at Quatre Bras , it quickly becomes apparent that the Belgian contingent of the Dutch-Belgian army will not fight against their old comrades in the French army, and the Belgians brought up to reinforce Saxe-Weimar's men break and run as soon as the first French column appears in the fields. Likewise, the Prince of Orange comically attempts, twice, to lead a charge of his Dutch-Belgian cavalry against an opposing force of French lancers , but is forced to turn back when his horsemen refuse, twice, to move. Wellington arrives at Quatre Bras in time to see the Belgian troops fleeing, and details General Picton to deploy the British reinforcements, while Wellington rides east to confer with the Prussians.
The Prince of Orange, humiliated by his own troops' poor performance, becomes outraged at Picton deploying brigades from I Corps, of which the Prince is the nominal commander, without consulting him. To assert his authority, the Prince orders General Halkett 's brigade to form line and advance, but Sharpe objects that the French cavalry are lurking in a depression in the field, and will massacre any infantry in line.
The Prince disregards this advice, and dismisses Sharpe from his staff when Sharpe refuses to carry the orders to Halkett's brigade.
The Prince's orders are carried out, and, shortly, the 69th Regiment is all but wiped out by a cavalry charge led by General Kellermann , although Sharpe and Harper rush to the side of their old regiment, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers and save the majority of them by urging them to run and take cover in the forest. The rest of the brigade likewise takes casualties, and the French cavalry capture the King's Colour from the remains of the 69th.
Although more reinforcements arrive in time to check the French advance, making Quatre Bras a technical victory, Sharpe rages at the needless loss of life caused by the Prince. Rebecque attempts to mend fences between Sharpe and the Prince of Orange, saying the Prince needs Sharpe at his side more than ever, now that the entire army knows he made a mistake.
As much as he despises the Prince, Sharpe makes a token apology for his "rudeness," not wanting to lose the earnings from his colonelcy. The British army began the day expecting to pursue a routed French army, but Sharpe is dismayed to hear that the Prussians are falling back from their defeat at Ligny , and the British will likewise need to retreat to the fallback position chosen by Wellington: A third of adults thought Brazil was Australia and China was Canada when they were asked to fill in the names of countries on a blank world map. The study was carried out by online travel agency sunshine.
Chris Clarkson, managing director of sunshine.
Ignorant Brits couldn’t find France or the USA on a map in a shock geography poll - Mirror Online
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