 Wellesley has no money to pay his men's wages; however, he has arranged for a loan from the Rothschild family.James Rothschild has set out from Vienna with a badly needed bank draft, but has gone missing in the Spanish mountains.A company of the 95th under Major Dunnett (Julian Fellowes) is being sent to search for him, and Sharpe's first assignment is to command the Chosen Men, a handful of sharpshooters attached to the company.