Dear Mr Cornwell I very much enjoy reading your Sharpe novels as I find them “rollicking good yarns”. Perhaps you could answer two technical quetions for me please. Firstly, concerning the French cavalry. What was the role and armaments of the various lancers, hussars, dragoons and cuirassiers in their cavalry arm? Secondly, how was the shell fuse lit when the French were firing shells from howitzers; by hand before ramming them into the barrel or by some mechical process during the loading process? Regards Eric Stanley