First in a series of novels about the Napoleonic Wars, this covers the Talavera Campaign of July 1809. Richard Sharpe ("a low-born bastard") has risen through the ranks and after ten years has become a lieutenant in the 95th Rifles fighting the French on the Spanish peninsula. We meet him amid lice and maggots (from his leg wound), wishing his battalion would be posted home: he's too poor to buy his next promotion.