- Charlie Weller: [speaking about the French] Then they must be quaking in terror!
- Major Richard Sharpe: Oh they are, Charlie. They know they face us!
- Marriott: [Sharpe has saved him from drowning after he attempts desertion; he is being pulled to shore by Sharpe] No! I must not be flogged! She will not have me! I MUST not be flogged.
- Major Richard Sharpe: [Sgt. Lynch shoots Marriot, to Harper and Sharpe's shock] You will not be now.
- Sgt. Major Patrick Harper: [grabs Lynch] Treachurous murdering filth! By God the fact that you're an Irishman is terrible. Terrible!
- Major General Ross: Your regiment's to be broken up.
- Major Richard Sharpe: What!
- Major General Ross: Lord Fenner suggested your men be given to other battalions, that your colours be sent home, and that your officers either exchange their regiments, sell their commissions, or make themselves available for our disposal.
- Sgt. Horatio Havercamp: Regiment. Where'd ye serve?
- Major Richard Sharpe: 33rd. India.
- Sgt. Horatio Havercamp: You didn't desert?
- Major Richard Sharpe: I wasn't caught, so I didn't.
- Major Richard Sharpe: Can I trust you Smith?
- Capt. Smith: Yes. I was always uneasy. Always sir. But I'd been purchased over several times. I obtained a Captaincy I could not afford.
- Major Richard Sharpe: I know what that means, Smith.
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: I am well aware of Horse Guards, and they are well of me! Is lord Fenner secretary of state, or is he not that position sir?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Is the Duke of York Commander in Chief, or is he not, sir? To whom do you look for advancement? Your chief or your friends, sir?
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: I command here!
- Major Richard Sharpe: No. I command here.
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: No, no...
- Major Richard Sharpe: [hits Girdwood with his own cane] Yes!
- Capt. Carline: [walks in] Colonel Girdwood...
- Major Richard Sharpe: Colonel Girdwood is under arrest! And you are under my command.
- Major Richard Sharpe: You will confine Colonel Girdwood to his quarters, and obtain all papers appertaining to this battalion
- [snaps cane]
- Major Richard Sharpe: Go through this place. Every scrap of paper, every notebook, everything.
- Major General Ross: Not being a little hard on Girdwood, are you?
- Major Richard Sharpe: At Foulness, sir, Colonel Girdwood gave orders that deserters were to be shot out of hand. I saw one killed. He hunted men through the marshland like they were rats. He wants to see a battle? He'll see a battle!
- Courtier: Uniform fits like a bowl of wax, but those boots won't do.
- Major Richard Sharpe: They did very well for a Colonel in Napoleon's Imperial Guard I had to kill before he'd give them to me!
- Marriott: They treat us like animals! We're not animals, we're men!
- Major Richard Sharpe: We're not. We're soldiers now.
- Major Richard Sharpe: Do you have such a thing as an officer of the day?
- Capt. Carline: Of course!
- Major Richard Sharpe: Who is it?
- Capt. Carline: Actually, me!
- Major Richard Sharpe: Actually, you?
- Capt. Carline: Yes! Captain Carline! And you are?
- Major Richard Sharpe: I am Major Richard Sharpe.
- [Carline is surprised]
- Major Richard Sharpe: South Essex. You've heard of me.
- Capt. Carline: Uh...yes. You..you took the French Eagle at Talavera, sir.
- Major Richard Sharpe: But you haven't heard of a guard detail?
- Capt. Carline: Sir?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Why wasn't there a guard on the gates?
- Capt. Carline: Um...I don't know, sir.
- Capt. Carline: You don't know? You're officer of the day! No guard mounted! What are you doing when you're not playing blind man's buff, dancing pomps?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Still alive, Ted Carew?
- Sgt. Ted Carew: Permission to speak, still journeying, sir. You'll be kind to remember I was with you at Tallyvera. Where I left me leg and drew up a lackery one!
- Sgt. Lynch: [sees the fat sergeant running after his men] They too fast for ya?
- Sgt. Horatio Havercamp: Piss thy britches!
- Sgt. Major Patrick Harper: [In full uniform, Harper is get revenge on Sgt Lynch] God Save Ireland! Say it Lynch. Go... SAY IT!
- Harper: [after Sharpe has faked their deaths] So, er, what do we do with ourselves now that we're no more?
- Lady Anne Camoynes: The only part of me he's ever kissed was my hand, and for that I was grateful to be wearing gloves.
- Major General Ross: Horse Guards first. Let them know you're there!
- Major Richard Sharpe: Oh, they'll know, sir!
- Prince Regent: They're *mine*! - What regiment is that?
- Lord Fenner: [grudgingly] South Essex...
- Prince Regent: Of course! I thought I recognized them! Well, they're *mine* now, aren't they?
- Sgt. Major Patrick Harper: [after Sharpe has given orders to pass word that they are both 'dead'] So what do we do with ourselves now that we are no more?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Rise again, Patrick, and find that 2nd Battalion!
- Sgt. Major Patrick Harper: How do we do that?
- Major Richard Sharpe: We're gonna join the army!
- Major Richard Sharpe: [teaching survival in the army to a new recruit] Keep your gub shut. Never look an officer, sergeant, or corporal in the eye. Say nothing but 'Yes, sir', 'No, sir'. Keep very clean. And you'll live!
- Major Richard Sharpe: [pointing to the geese] Get me some, Philip. As many as we need.
- Capt. Carline: What for, sir?
- Major Richard Sharpe: To eat, Mr. Carline! *Save* the feathers.
- [Holds up 3 white feathers]
- Major Richard Sharpe: 'A featherbed for the Prince of Wales!' It's his badge, is it not?
- Prince Regent: How'd you do?
- Major Richard Sharpe: [nervous] Eh?... Your Majesty...
- Prince Regent: What d'you say? What d'you say? Did you say 'eh'?
- [turns to entourage]
- Prince Regent: He said 'eh'!
- [he and entourage laugh]
- Prince Regent: What are you doing in rifle green if you're South Essex? Ain't they red?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Y-yes sir, your majesty sir...
- Prince Regent: [beckons Sharpe forward] Come up, come up.
- [Sharpe approaches]
- Prince Regent: Now look Sharpe!
- [he laughs]
- Prince Regent: May I call you Dick?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Uh... honoured sir.
- Prince Regent: Call me... well call me your royal Highness, but damn me the honour is entirely mine, Dick!
- Lord Fenner: I find myself in your debt, so to speak.
- Lady Anne Camoynes: Major Sharpe seems very determined.
- Lord Fenner: How did he perform? Was he... churlish? Ardent? Hasty? Bruising? Grateful?
- Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson: Did you think you could hide from me?
- Jane Gibbons: I'm sorry...
- Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson: Sorry that you ran away or sorry that I found you?
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: Morning Smith.
- Capt. Smith: Sir.
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: Sgt. Havercamp came in this morning. What did he bring?
- Capt. Smith: Twenty-four men, sir.
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: Any Irish fest their ranks?
- Capt. Smith: One, sir.
- Lt. Colonel Girdwood: Lynch. Set Sgt. Lynch to squad them!
- Major General Ross: Bloody day, Sharpe, bloody day.
- [hands him a flask]
- Major General Ross: How many have you lost?
- Major Richard Sharpe: [over the cannon fire] Thirty today sir.
- Major General Ross: And how many have you got left?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Hundred and twenty can still do duty. Eighty six still in strength. But maimed or sick, though, they'll be made to go to hospitals.
- Major General Ross: You're expecting replacements of course?
- Major Richard Sharpe: Yes sir.
- Major General Ross: From the Second Battalion, Chelmsford?
- [Hands Sharpe a letter]
- Major General Ross: Lord Fenner, Secretary of State at War, works for the Secretary of State of War, doesn't know what a war is, of course. Politicians, Sharpe, they're not fit to lick your jakes out!
- Major Richard Sharpe: [looks at the letter] What am I supposed to see, sir?
- Major General Ross: Down at the bottom, some mention of the South Essex.
- Major Richard Sharpe: [reads] Second Battalion now a Holding Battalion.
- Major General Ross: Few boys perhaps. Good man waiting on replacement if you're lucky.
- Major Richard Sharpe: [reads further] No draft available.
- [Looks up]
- Major Richard Sharpe: But there were eight recruiting parties last I heard!
- Major General Ross: It can't be black and white, Fenner's said you've got no replacements, so there you are.
- Lord Fenner: [about Sharpe] Simmerson calls him a bastard son of a peasant whore. Does he intrigue you, Anne?
- Maggie Joyce: [staring at Sharpe's diamonds] You're a lucky one! And to think when I first saw you I didn't know whether to drown you or eat you, you were that skinny!