Sir Arthur Wellesley takes the army into Spain. In camp, Sharpe and Harper watch the arrival of a new regiment – the South Essex. At its head is Col. Sir Henry Simmerson, accompanied by Simmerson’s nephew Lt. Gibbons, Lt. Berry, Maj. Lennox (a veteran of the Indian Campaign), Capt. Leroy (a loyalist American) and Countess Josefina who is under the ‘protection’ of Lt. Gibbons….