Part Three, Chapters 25 & 26 Summary

The French are retreating to a bridge near the town of Alba de Tormes. Wellington has placed a Spanish garrison in a castle over the bridge to stop the French retreat. News arrives in Wellington's camp that the Spanish have abandoned their posts and the French are free to escape. Wellington is normally cool and reserved, but at this news he explodes in anger. He claims that the British are fighting to restore Spain to the Spanish, but the Spanish seem to do little to save their own country.

Sharpe tells Hogan that the French have El Mirador's documents. Hogan at first wants to inform Wellington but discovers that he is preoccupied with the Spanish garrison that has allowed the French to escape. Hogan will have to act on his own, and Hogan finds that the King's German Legion...