 Along the way they encounter the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte and the Scottish former Royal Navy officer Lord Cochrane.Doña Louisa Vivar, whom Sharpe befriended in "Sharpe's Rifles", visits the Sharpe farm and asks the former rifleman to sail to Chile in search of her husband, Don Blas Vivar, who has disappeared while serving as Captain-General of the rebellious colony and may have fallen victim to his political rival and successor, Miguel Bautista.Sharpe and Harper are travelling to Chile with Spanish Colonel Ruiz and his regimental officers aboard the frigate "Espiritu Santo" commanded by Captain Ardiles.