Many thought the British would withdraw, ought to withdraw, that they should give up the game and let the French have Portugal. „Turn your head to the right,” Hagman said. The scissors clicked busily, not even pausing as a round shot buried itself in the church at the hill’s top. A mist of dust showed beside the whitewashed bell tower down which a crack had suddenly appeared. The Portuguese cavalry had been swallowed by the gun smoke and a trumpet called far away. There was a burst of musketry, then silence. A building must have been burning beyond the crest for there was a great smear of smoke drifting westward. „Why would someone call their home the House Beautiful?” Hagman wondered.

„Didn’t know you could read, Dan,” Sharpe said.

„I can’t, sir, but Isaiah read it to me.”

„Tongue!” Sharpe called. „Why would someone call their home House Beautiful?”

Isaiah Tongue, long and thin and dark and educated, who had joined the army because he was a drunk and thereby lost his respectable job, grinned. „Because he’s a good Protestant, sir.”

„Because he’s a bloody what?”

„It’s from a book by John Bunyan,” Tongue explained, „called Pilgrim’s Progress.”

„I’ve heard of that,” Sharpe said.

„Some folk consider it essential reading,” Tongue said airily, „the story of a soul’s journey from sin to salvation, sir.”

„Just the thing to keep you burning the candles at night,” Sharpe said.

„And the hero, Christian, calls at the House Beautiful, sir”-Tongue ignored Sharpe’s sarcasm-“where he talks with four virgins.”

Hagman laughed. „Let’s get inside now, sir.”

„You’re too old for a virgin, Dan,” Sharpe said.

„Discretion,” Tongue said, „Piety, Prudence and Charity.”