- Davi Lal: [Sharpe is asking him to steal from two merchants] But that would be stealing sahib. How am I to be a good British soldier if you make me into a thief again?
- Richard Sharpe: It isn't thieving when you're hungry, Davi. That's the first thing any soldier learns. Now go on.
- Gen. Burroughs: [to Simmerson] I had thought, Sir Henry, to spare you further ignominy, but since you are determined to prove as dull-witted and thick-skinned as a hippopotamus, let me speak plainly: I have no wish to die beside such a bloody fool as you!
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: You should be wary of this one, McRae. He thinks because Wellington raised him up from the sewer that it somehow makes him a gentleman. Don't know your place, do you Sharpie?
- Richard Sharpe: Maybe not, but I know how to stand before a French column. I know how to face fire without soiling my breeches and turning tail.
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: Easier to be brave, with rank and new sunlight behind! I hope you sleep light, Colonel, lest you find some morning you wake up to find your throat slit!
- Richard Sharpe: Is that a threat, Sergeant?
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: You take it as you please.
- Richard Sharpe: Oh, I do. So come on, let's sort it out here and now, just you and me.
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: [laughs] I weren't born yesterday neither, Colonel. 'Tis a hanging offense to strike an officer!
- Richard Sharpe: But like you said, I'm no company officer.
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: All the same, I'll not hit a man wearing the King's Uniform.
- Richard Sharpe: No? No? Well that's easily remedied.
- [starts unbuttoning his uniform when Bickerstaff sucker punches and kicks him in the face]
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: Officers?
- [laughs as he walks away]
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: I've shat 'em!
- Richard Sharpe: Shadrach.
- [Bickerstaff turns and Sharpe knocks his teeth out]
- Richard Sharpe: [after knocking Bickerstaff to the ground] Next time I give an order, you bloody jump to. Understand?
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: [groans incomprehensibly; as Sharpe walks away, he pulls a knife from his boot and charges]
- Patrick Harper: [notices the ambush] Richard!
- Richard Sharpe: [Sharpe turns and headbutts him in the face] Come at me with a knife, will ya? You little gutless bastard!
- [pummels him before being pulled off by Harper]
- Richard Sharpe: Had enough, Shadrach?
- Patrick Harper: Come on now lads... three to one? That's not fair odds.
- Richard Sharpe: They don't want fair odds, Pat.
- Patrick Harper: How long do you think the outer wall will hold?
- Richard Sharpe: It's not meant to hold. It's meant to *come down*!
- Patrick Harper: There's nothing more teasing to a besieging army than a great bloody breach...!
- Richard Sharpe: [grabs Bickerstaff while the sergeant is beating an Indian soldier] Damnit! Stand off!
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: Mind your damn business!
- Richard Sharpe: I'm not going to tell you again.
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: Who in the bloody hell are you to give me orders? You're no company officer!
- Richard Sharpe: No, Sgt. Bickerstaff, I'm not. I'm from a proper army, that knows how to deal with bullying bastards like you!
- Richard Sharpe: I thought you were dead, Pat!
- Patrick Harper: I can't be watching your arse if I'm dead, now can I?
- William Dodd: You see my love? The British will soon lie scattered across the plains, and Fattagar will be ours!
- Richard Sharpe: Bad powder! Good trick, that. I'll remember that one.
- William Dodd: Be sure that you do.
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: For a horse dealer, Mr. Harper, you seem remarkably well informed!
- Patrick Harper: Well sir you see, a horse dealer picks up more round and about, than just shit on his boots, sir.
- Richard Sharpe: What do you reckon then, Pat? This Khande Rao can be taken?
- Patrick Harper: Well, he has a reputation of being a real monster.
- Mohan Singh: [comes up from behind a tent] If he is a monster, Mr. Harper, then he's one of British making.
- Richard Sharpe: How's that, Captain?
- Mohan Singh: The Company have only maintained the peace here by keeping the princes at each other's throats. Khande Rao's father: he feared his neighbours more than he hated the British. And so it was your country that kept him supplied with arms.
- Patrick Harper: That sounds just like the English, getting someone else to do its dirty work!
- Mohan Singh: The son is not the father, however. Khande Rao wants you out of our country, once and for all. It is a view with which I cannot say I do not have some sympathy.
- Richard Sharpe: So why are you fighting with us?
- Mohan Singh: Khande Rao is... a sworn enemy of my blood. And that makes you my enemy's enemy, and therefore, a necessary evil. Good day to you
- [inclines his head]
- Mohan Singh: both.
- [Leaves]
- Patrick Harper: I don't think I like the sound of that. A necessary evil...
- Richard Sharpe: Have we ever been else?
- Patrick Harper: Oh... and there was me thinking we were always on the side of the angels.
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: Sharpe! I see time has done nothing to improve a want of etiquette in you. Still the same, whore-mongering, gutter trash of memory!
- Richard Sharpe: Aye, and you're still the same cruel, flogging bastard!
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: Cruel, sir? I calls it discipline!
- Madhuvanthi: You want someone younger to rule beside you? Lalima perhaps? I've seen how you watch after where she walks.
- William Dodd: [smiles] I keep a close eye on her because I do not think she is entirely to be trusted.
- Madhuvanthi: She's of no consequence. She'll do as her brother orders and if she does not, she'll suffer for it. All I ask, my love, is that you do not make me wait too long for what is rightfully ours.
- Mohan Singh: Mr. Harper! Well, it would appear we have been premature in our prayers at your passing.
- Patrick Harper: Luck of the Irish, captain. You can't beat it!
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: A battle's no place for private vengeance, Captain. Not when there's a job to be done.
- Mohan Singh: Sir, whether I fight for my blood, or for the sake of his Britannic Majesty, a dead bandit is a dead bandit!
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: Very well, if you're so resolved, I suppose you must go.
- Mohan Singh: Thank you sir.
- Khande Rao: [about India] This culture was here long before you, and will doubtless be here long after you are gone.
- Gudin: [about the British force besieging them] The door of opportunity is closing, Madame. If the rains come, they will have to abandon the campaign until the autumn.
- Madhuvanthi: You sound almost eager to avoid the confrontation.
- Gudin: I have never walked away from a battle, Madame. Neither have I run toward one. Like any soldier, I wish for peace, and prepare for war.
- Richard Sharpe: [examining the Indian guns] Rusted dog screw. Would you say this is good enough, Corporal Harper?
- Patrick Harper: That I wouldn't, Sergeant. No, that I wouldn't!
- William Dodd: [Cecilia is bathing, and Dodd has snuck in] I trust your new quarters are more to your liking!
- Celia Burroughs: [surprised, Cecilia hides her body] General Dodd!
- [Recovers herself]
- Celia Burroughs: I hardly think it proper for you to be alone in a woman's quarters!
- William Dodd: Fortunately, madam, there lies a region in which I am well traveled.
- Celia Burroughs: What is it you want?
- William Dodd: Merely to ask after your comfort.
- Celia Burroughs: To the best of my knowledge, sir, you were once an officer in the British army.
- William Dodd: It was the East India Company in which I serve. But let's not split hairs over such trifling matters. Your point?
- Celia Burroughs: My point, sir, is that if any vestige of gentlemanly conduct you absorbed while in British company remains, I would urge you to act upon it.
- William Dodd: [grins] Alas, madam, these past years I find I'm moved by impulses far more... corporeal.
- Celia Burroughs: If I understood you were right the other evening, general, you made a gift of me to the rajah.
- William Dodd: What of it?
- Celia Burroughs: Nothing. I am merely imagining his disappointment to find that his gift had already been unwrapped!
- William Dodd: [frowns in anger for a moment] Any man would wish you health under his Highness. For he'll take more care in its opening than I will!
- [walks out, leaving Celia speechless]
- General Sir Henry Simmerson: [staring at the head sent by Khande Rao] They killed with a nail, McRae. A nail! Driven into his *skull!*
- Patrick Harper: He was, general, but not by any hammer. This is the work of jettis. Professional strongmen: killing people in interesting ways is part of their remit.
- Simmerson: The second rule of war, Sharpe, which you'd know if you'd ever learned anything beyond insolence towards your superiors, is: never reinforce failure!
- Sharpe: Oh, i know that rule. Though judging by that birchet on your shoulder, it seems *this* army is resolved to prove you its living exception!
- Sharpe: [trying to get official permission to leave on a special mission] If Captain Singh and his Lancers help me, Mr. Harper and I should prove sufficient to the job.
- Simmerson: You and Harper, eh? - I don't mind if you do die, Sharpe. It's long past your time, ain't it?
- Sharpe: If that's permission...
- Simmerson: Oh, by all means. Go and die, Sharpe!
- Khande Rao: [referring to the Brahmins] They say the rains are coming very soon.
- William Dodd: Not too soon, Your Highness. Or how else will we swill the plain clean of English blood?
- Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff: May I say, how grateful I am, sir, for giving me this chance to prove myself...
- William Dodd: You've proven yourself already. As a model of self-interest! I confess, you put even my *own* ambitions to shame!
- Richard Sharpe: It's a right bloody mess. Simmerson's attack failed, Khande Rao's men are still all over the woods - and Gudin has recommended me for a medal for my part in the victory.
- Patrick Harper: Well, it wasn't an entirely unprofitable evening, then!
- Celia Burroughs: [Trying to persuade Sharpe to stay] How might *General* Sharpe sound?
- Richard Sharpe: No disrespect to your father ma'am, but I think this place has seen enough generals for a while!
- Gudin: [intercepting Sharpe and Harper as they are trying to leave] You really must decide whose side you're on, Colonel Sharpe!
- Patrick Harper: So, wait a minute - you and me, we're gonna stop a rebellion, just the two of us?
- Richard Sharpe: Well, I see no bugger else.
- Patrick Harper: Yeah... that sounds just about right, just as long as you let me know!
- Richard Sharpe: Dodd. 'General Dodd will insist', Gudin said.
- Patrick Harper: Who is he?
- Richard Sharpe: The Company renegade you've been trying to find, for one.
- Patrick Harper: And for two?
- Richard Sharpe: A murdering bastard.
- Patrick Harper: Do you know him?
- [Sharpe nods]
- Patrick Harper: - Does *he* know *you*?
- Richard Sharpe: He had a lot on his mind that day at Chaselgaon.
- Patrick Harper: Chaselgaon? - Shite! I'll take that as a 'Let's hope not', then.
- Crosby: [ln a flashback to 1803, when Sharpe was still a Sergeant with the33rd Regiment in India] It's a six day's' march! How the devil do you expect to transport 80,000 cartridges? On your back?
- Sharpe: [Deadpan] Bullocks, sir!
- [as Major Crosby reacts]
- Sharpe: - Ox-carts, sir.
- Crosby: Which you mean to hire with what? Promises?
- Sharpe: With money, sir.
- [Indicates the bag on his belt]
- Crosby: Oh! Speak the language, too, do you? - Sergeant, banker and interpreter?
- Sharpe: Brought an interpreter, sir!
- Crosby: Did you? - Did you?
- [Eyes Sharpe with disapproval. Sarcastically]
- Crosby: Every inch the Crown soldier! - Go and find your damn carts, Sergeant Sharpe, and let me know when you're ready!
- Richard Sharpe: There's me thinking, for once all that blood was about something more than making rich men richer.
- Sharpe: Now will you take me to Wellington, or should I dig the bugger out myself?
- Rawlinson: Splendid! Splendid!
- [they enter Wellington's study]
- Wellington: What's this nonsense I hear? You've turned swords to plowshares and become a farmer in France?
- Sharpe: Aye, it's true enough, Your Grace.
- Wellington: Suits you, this life?
- Sharpe: Well, no buggers trying to shoot me the livelong day, so aye, suits me!
- Mohan Singh: Where are you going?
- Richard Sharpe: [points at the scene of the massacre] After the bastards that did this, where do you think?
- William Dodd: I like to give a fellow Englishman a proper salute. You are English, aren't you?
- Leonard: Yes, sir, from N-N-Norfolk, sir.
- William Dodd: Good. Too many damned Scots in the Company these days. Have you noticed that? Too many Scots and Irish, glib sorts of fellow, they are. But then they aren't English, are they? Not English at all.
- Crosby: Who the devil are you?
- William Dodd: Major William Dodd -
- [shoots Crosby]
- William Dodd: - at your service!
- William Dodd: What's the matter, Captain? Cat got your T-t-tongue?
- [runs Leonard through with his sword]
- William Dodd: Sergeant. Can you use a sword?
- Richard Sharpe: Aye sir, sometimes sir, when I need to.
- William Dodd: Good, then oblige me. It's been a while since I matched steel with an Englishman.
- Richard Sharpe: Begging your pardon sir, but - I'm drilled as a rifleman, and no match for your Generalship.
- William Dodd: I'll be the judge of that, choose your blade.
- Richard Sharpe: I'd sooner not, sir, if it's all right with you.
- William Dodd: ...Choose your blade.
- [Sharpe goes to the table of swords]
- William Dodd: So what brings you to His Highness's service?
- Richard Sharpe: [sets down a blade and picks up another] As we told Colonel Gudin, sir...
- William Dodd: [Dodd lunges and Sharpe barely blocks with the still-sheathed sword] You weren't ready for me.
- Richard Sharpe: No, sir.
- William Dodd: Well let that serve as a lesson to you. The enemy won't announce his intention to strike, and neither will I!
- [Sharpe unsheathes his sword and they begin dueling]
- William Dodd: That's better, Sharpe, much better.
- Richard Sharpe: I learn fast, sir.
- William Dodd: So it seems.
- Richard Sharpe: [Dodd slashes Sharpe across the stomach during their duel] I thought this were just practicing!
- William Dodd: You're holding back. Is that how you'll fight the redcoats when it comes to close quarters? Test me, man! Test me!
- Madhuvanthi: [to Dodd] And after you have made the plain run red with English blood, once you have ground them into the dirt, what then, my love?
- Richard Sharpe: It's a poor bloody spot for a tea party, Captain. Bandit country, and that one picket horse along the track, might call that reckless.