Then a sudden pain like the blow of a red-hot poker slammed through Sharpe. He almost cried aloud, but instead he stiffened and flinched. The Tippoo had thrust the tiger hilt of his sword against the deepest wound to see Sharpe's reaction. He ordered Sharpe to turn around and peered up to see whether there were any tears showing. Tears were pricking at Sharpe's eyes, but none spilt onto his cheeks.

The Tippoo nodded approval and stepped back. 'So tell me about them,' he ordered Gudin.

'Ordinary deserters,' Gudin said in French to the interpreter. 'That one' — he indicated Sharpe — 'is a tough soldier who'd probably be a credit to any army. The other one's just a clerk.'

Lawford tried not to show his disapproval of the judgement. The Tippoo glanced at him, saw nothing to interest him, and looked at Mary instead. 'The woman?' he asked Gudin.

'She's with the tall one,' Gudin said, again indicating Sharpe, then waited as the interpreter turned his answer into Persian.

The Tippoo gave Mary a brief inspection. She was slouching, trying to accentuate her drab, bruised and dirty appearance, but when she saw his pensive gaze she became flustered and tried to make a curtsey. The Tippoo seemed amused by the gesture, then looked back to Gudin. 'So what do they know of the British plans?' he asked, gesturing at Lawford and Sharpe.

'Nothing.'

'They say they know nothing,' the Tippoo corrected Gudin. 'And they're not spies?'

Gudin shrugged. 'How can one tell? But I think not.'

'I think we can tell,' the Tippoo said. 'And I think we can discover what kind of soldiers they are too.' He turned and rapped some orders to an aide, who bowed, then ran out of the courtyard.

The aide returned with a pair of hunting muskets. The long-barrelled weapons were like no guns Sharpe had ever seen, for their stocks were crusted with jewels and inlaid with a delicate ivory filigree. The jewelled butts had an extravagant flair at their shoulder pieces and the two guns' trigger guards were rimmed with small rubies. The dogheads that held the flints had been fashioned into tiger heads with diamonds for the tigers' eyes. The Tippoo took the guns, made sure their flints were properly seated within the tiger jaws, then tossed one gun to Lawford and the other to Sharpe. The aide then placed a pot filled with black powder on the ground and beside it a pair of musket balls that Sharpe could have sworn were made of silver. 'Load the guns,' the interpreter said.

A British soldier, like any other, learned to load with a paper cartridge, but there was no mystery about using naked powder and ball. Plainly the Tippoo wished to see how proficient the two men were and, while Lawford hesitated, Sharpe stooped to the pot and took out a handful of powder. He straightened up and let the black powder trickle down the gun's chased barrel. The powder was extraordinarily fine and a fair bit blew away on the small wind, but he had enough to spare and, once the charge was safe inside the barrel, he stooped again, picked up the bullet, shoved it into the muzzle and scraped the ramrod out of its three golden hoops. He twirled the ramrod, let it slide through his hand onto the bullet and then slammed the missile hard down onto the powder charge. The Tippoo had provided no wadding, but Sharpe guessed it did not matter. He pulled the ramrod out, reversed it and let it fall into the precious loops beneath the long barrel. Then he stooped again, took a pinch of powder, primed the gun, closed the frizzen and stood to attention with the gun's jewelled butt grounded beside him. 'Sir!' he said, signifying he was done.

Lawford was still trying to trickle powder into the muzzle. The Lieutenant was just as proficient at loading a gun as Sharpe, but being an officer he was never required to do it quickly, for that was the one indispensable skill of a private soldier. Lawford only loaded guns while hunting, but in the army he had a servant who loaded his pistols and never in his life had he needed to be quick with a gun and now he demonstrated a lamentable slowness. 'He was a clerk, sir,' Sharpe explained to Gudin. He paused to lick the powder residue off his fingers. 'He never needed to fight, like.'

The interpreter translated the words for the Tippoo who waited patiently as Lawford finished loading the musket. The Tippoo, like his entourage, was amused at the Englishman's slowness, but Sharpe's explanation that Lawford had been a clerk seemed to convince them. Lawford at last finished and, very self-consciously, stood to attention.

'You can evidently load,' the Tippoo said to Sharpe, 'but can you shoot?'

'Aye, sir,' Sharpe answered the interpreter.

The Tippoo pointed over Sharpe's shoulder. 'Then shoot him.'

Sharpe and Lawford both turned to see an elderly British officer being escorted through the courtyard's gate. The man was weak and pale, and he stumbled as the bright sunlight struck his eyes. He cuffed with a manacled hand at his face, then looked up and recognized Lawford. For a second an expression of disbelief crossed his face, then he managed to hide whatever emotion he was feeling. The officer was white-haired and dressed in a kilt and red jacket, both garments stained with dust and damp, and Sharpe, horrified to see a British officer so dishevelled and humiliated, presumed this had to be Colonel McCandless.

'You can't shoot...' Lawford began.

'Shut up, Bill,' Sharpe said and brought the musket up to his shoulder and swung its muzzle to face the horrified Scots officer.

'Wait!' Gudin shouted, then spoke urgently to the Tippoo.

The Tippoo laughed away Gudin's protest. Instead he had his interpreter ask Sharpe what he thought about British officers.

'Scum, sir,' Sharpe said loudly enough for Colonel McCandless to hear. 'Goddamn bloody scum, sir. Think they're better than us because the bastards can read and were born with a bit of money, but there ain't one I couldn't beat in a fight.'

'You are willing to shoot that one?' the interpreter asked.

'I'd pay for the chance,' Sharpe said vengefully. Lawford hissed at him, but Sharpe ignored the warning. 'Pay for it,' he said again.

'His Majesty would like you to do it very close,' the interpreter said. 'He wants you to blow the man's head off.'

'It'll be a bloody pleasure,' Sharpe said enthusiastically. He cocked the gun as he walked towards the man he presumed he had been sent to save. He stared at McCandless as he approached and there was nothing but brute pleasure on Sharpe's hard face. 'Stuck-up Scotch bastard,' Sharpe spat at him. He looked at the two guards who still flanked the Colonel. 'Move out the way, you stupid sods, else you'll be smothered in the bastard's blood.' The two men stared blankly at him, but neither moved and Sharpe guessed that neither man spoke any English. Doctor Venkatesh, who had been trying to hide in the gateway's shadows, shook his head in horror at what was about to happen.

Sharpe raised the musket so that its muzzle was no more than six inches from McCandless's face. 'Any message for General Harris?' he asked softly.

McCandless again hid his reaction, other than sparing one glance at Lawford. Then he looked back to Sharpe and spat at him. 'Attack anywhere but from the west,' the Scotsman said quietly, and then, much louder, 'May God forgive you.'

'Bugger God,' Sharpe said, then pulled the trigger. The flint fell, it snapped its spark on the frizzen and nothing else happened. McCandless's face jerked back as the flint sparked, then an expression of pure relief crossed his face. Sharpe hesitated a second, then drove the gun's muzzle into the Colonel's belly. The blow looked hard, but he checked it at the last moment. McCandless still doubled over, gasping, and Sharpe raised the jewelled butt to bring it hard down on the officer's grey head.

'Stop!' Gudin shouted.