Sharpe’s Havoc recap

As Soult's French army overruns northern Portugal in 1809, Sharpe and his riflemen are ordered to remain near Oporto with intelligence officer Colonel James Christopher. Christopher disappears, leaving Sharpe to join the inexperienced Portuguese lieutenant Jorge Vicente during the city's collapse. They survive behind French lines and discover that Christopher is cultivating both Marshal Soult and Kate Savage, a wealthy young Englishwoman. French officer Captain Argenton secretly asks for British help against Soult's political ambitions, but Christopher betrays the conspiracy and tries to secure Kate and her fortune for himself. Wellesley returns to command, crosses the Douro by surprise, and drives the French from Oporto. Sharpe and Vicente pursue through the mountains, using narrow roads and broken bridges to strip Soult's retreat of guns and baggage. Christopher is exposed and killed, Kate is rescued, and Argenton's betrayed allies are avenged too late to save them. Sharpe rejoins the victorious British with Harper, Hagman, Harris, and a new Portuguese ally in Vicente.

Previously: Lieutenant Richard Sharpe returned to the Peninsula with the 95th Rifles during Sir John Moore's winter retreat. Cut off after a French attack, he inherited command of a small group that distrusted him, especially the Irish rifleman Patrick Harper. Sharpe joined Spanish officer Blas Vivar and helped carry the sacred banner of Santiago to the occupied city. Raising it triggered an uprising and preserved Vivar's resistance. Shared danger turned Harper into Sharpe's closest ally and won the riflemen's loyalty. Rather than evacuate with the defeated British army, Sharpe led the survivors south, intending to join the renewed campaign in Portugal.

In early 1809 Marshal Soult's army drives into northern Portugal and threatens Oporto. British forces and Portuguese civilians retreat amid collapsing authority and crowded roads. Sharpe's rifle detachment is attached to Colonel James Christopher, an exploring officer who claims to be maintaining valuable contacts. Christopher orders Sharpe to remain behind as protection rather than withdraw with the army. When the colonel fails to keep the expected rendezvous, Sharpe must choose between obeying an increasingly doubtful instruction and saving his men. He encounters Lieutenant Jorge Vicente, a former lawyer commanding inexperienced Portuguese soldiers who have courage but little preparation for the advancing French.

Oporto falls amid panic and heavy civilian loss as Soult secures the city and the British withdrawal continues south. Sharpe and Vicente survive with a mixed band north of the main allied forces. Shared danger begins to overcome their different ideas of discipline: Sharpe values whatever works in battle, while Vicente insists that Portugal's renewed army must be worthy of the country it defends. Christopher is not a stranded officer awaiting rescue. He moves comfortably around the occupation authorities and around Kate Savage, a young English heiress whose family's wine interests and fortune give him a personal reason to control her future. Sharpe's original mission has become a search for the truth about the man who issued it.

Sharpe and Vicente operate through hostile countryside, protecting their small force and gathering signs of what Christopher is doing. Captain Argenton and other French officers oppose Soult's political ambitions and seek secret communication with the British. Christopher appears to serve as their channel, placing him at the center of information valuable to every side. He also presents himself to Kate as the gentleman best able to preserve her life and inheritance. Sharpe becomes convinced that Christopher's loyalties follow his own advantage rather than his commission. Proving that conclusion is difficult while French troops control Oporto and Major Dulong pursues resistance with aggressive speed.

Christopher betrays Argenton's conspiracy to Soult, sacrificing the French officers who trusted him and buying favor with the occupation. His plan for Kate likewise treats protection and marriage as means to possess her wealth. Sharpe and Vicente try to reach her while avoiding Dulong's troops and carrying what they know toward British authority. Major Hogan recognizes the danger in the compromised intelligence channel, but events are moving faster than messages. Wellesley has returned to Portugal and is preparing a rapid advance on Oporto. If he can cross the Douro unexpectedly, Soult will have to retreat; if he cannot, the river and the occupied city give the French a formidable defensive position.

Wellesley finds boats and sends troops across the Douro east of Oporto, establishing a foothold in a seminary before the French understand that the river barrier has been breached. Reinforcements cross under pressure, and Soult abandons the city rather than be trapped. Christopher attempts to leave with Kate and preserve the rewards of his betrayal. Sharpe and Vicente join the pursuit north as the French seek mountain roads back toward Spain. Bridges, ravines, and narrow tracks offer the smaller allied forces chances to delay a much larger army. Soult's soldiers can still escape, but only by discarding the artillery, baggage, and loot that slow them.

The French escape through the northern mountains, but the retreat becomes a costly scramble in which guns, baggage, and plunder are abandoned. Sharpe, Harper, the riflemen, and Vicente use the constricted routes and damaged crossings to harry Dulong's troops and increase the losses without sacrificing their small force in a conventional battle. Sharpe overtakes Christopher, exposes his service to Soult, and kills him, freeing Kate from the future he meant to impose on her. Argenton and the other conspirators have already been executed because of Christopher's betrayal. Wellesley's surprise at the Douro has nevertheless liberated Oporto and driven Soult out of Portugal. Sharpe rejoins the renewed campaign with his command intact, while Vicente has become an experienced officer and trusted ally.

Wellesley's surprise crossing of the Douro forces Soult to abandon Oporto before the French can organize a conventional defense. The retreating army escapes through the northern mountains, but it must leave guns, baggage, and much of its plunder behind while British and Portuguese forces harry the narrow routes. Sharpe and Vicente help turn damaged bridges and difficult passes into obstacles that magnify the French losses. Christopher's bargain with the occupiers is exposed; after betraying Argenton's conspiracy and trying to carry Kate away under his control, he is overtaken and killed. Kate is freed from him, though the safety and inheritance he claimed to protect have been instruments of his ambition. Argenton and fellow conspirators pay with their lives after Christopher gives them to Soult. Sharpe emerges with his riflemen intact and with Vicente as a proven ally. Northern Portugal is no longer held by Soult's army, and the renewed British campaign has its first dramatic victory.