Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell Page B

man in his life, and that was not just because the

    Company forbade it in their army, but because William Dodd disliked the lash and hated to

    see a soldier flogged. Major Dodd liked soldiers. He hated most officers, especially

    those senior to him, but he liked soldiers. Good soldiers won battles, and victories made

    officers famous, so to be successful an officer needed soldiers who liked him and who

    would follow him. Dodd's sepoys were proof of that. He had looked after them, made sure they

    were fed and paid, and he had given them victory. Now he would make them wealthy in the

    service of the Mahratta princes who were famous for their generosity.
    He broke away from the regiment and marched back to its colours, a pair of bright-green

    flags marked with crossed tulwars. The flags had been the choice of Colonel Mathers, the

    Englishman who had commanded the regiment for five years until he resigned rather than

    fight against his own countrymen, and now the regiment would be known as Dodd's regiment.

    Or perhaps he should call it something else. The Tigers? The Eagles? The Warriors of

    Scindia? Not that the name mattered now. What mattered now was to save these nine hundred

    well trained men and their five gleaming guns and take them safely back to the Mahratta army

    that was gathering in the north. Dodd turned beneath the colours.
    “My name is Dodd!” he shouted, then paused to let one of his Indian officers translate

    his words into Marathi, a language Dodd did not speak. Few of the soldiers spoke Marathi

    either, for most were mercenaries from the north, but men in the ranks murmured their own

    translation and so Dodd's message was relayed up and down the files.
    "I
    am a soldier! Nothing but a soldier! Always a soldier!" He paused again.
    The parade was being held in the open space inside the gate and a crowd of townsfolk had

    gathered to gape at the troops, and among the crowd was a scatter of [ the robed Arab

    mercenaries who were reputed to be the fiercest of all the Mahratta troops. They were

    wild-looking men, armed with every conceivable weapon, but Dodd doubted they had the

    discipline of his regiment.
    “Together,” he shouted at his men, 'you and I shall fight and we shall win." He kept his

    words simple, for soldiers always liked simple things. Loot was simple, winning and

    losing were simple ideas, and even death, despite the way the damned preachers tried to tie

    it up in superstitious knots, was a simple concept.
    “It is my intent,” he shouted, then waited for the translation to ripple up and down

    the ranks, 'for this regiment to be the finest in Scindia's service! Do your job well and I

    shall reward you. Do it badly, and I shall let your fellow soldiers decide on your

    punishment." They liked that, as Dodd had known they would.
    “Yesterday,” Dodd declaimed, 'the British crossed our frontier!
    Tomorrow their army will be here at Ahmednuggur, and soon we shall fight them in a great

    battle!" He had decided not to say that the battle would be fought well north of the city,

    for that might discourage the listening civilians.
    “We shall drive them back to Mysore. We shall teach them that the army of Scindia is greater

    than any of their armies. We shall win!” The soldiers smiled at his confidence.
    “We shall take their treasures, their weapons, their land and their women, and those

    things will be your reward if you fight well. But if you fight badly, you will die.” That

    phrase sent a shudder through the four white-coated ranks.
    “And if any of you prove to be cowards,” Dodd finished, “I shall kill you myself.”
    He let that threat sink in, then abruptly ordered the regiment back to its duties

    before summoning Joubert to follow him up the red stone steps of the city wall to where

    Arab guards stood behind the merlons ranged along the fire step Far to the south, beyond the

    horizon, a dusky cloud was just visible. It could have been mistaken for a