Colonel Philippe Leroux is the main antagonist of the Sharpe novel Sharpe's Sword and its television adaptation.
He was portrayed by Patrick Fierry.
Biography[]
Novel[]
Colonel Leroux was a French officer answerable to Napoleon himself, sent to Spain to break the British spy network. His elaborate and distinctive torture techniques had marked him out as a target for the British in turn. Leroux captured the British exploring officer Captain Lord Jack Spears, had him sign parole papers for blackmail purposes and then turned him loose, paying him for a list of Spanish who were paid informers of the British. He killed many of them in turn, including torturing and killing a priest who gave him the identity of the spymaster codenamed El Mirador.
Leroux found himself trapped by British cavalry so killed his escort, Captain Paul Delmas, in order to use his uniform as a disguise. He was captured by Captain Richard Sharpe and gave his parole. Ensign McDonald was sent to escort him back to headquarters as a prisoner but Leroux killed McDonald and then Sharpe's commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Windham: Since he was under parole, the killings were regarded as murder. Despite the efforts of Sharpe and his company, Leroux fled into one of the French-held forts at Salamanca.
Leroux kept in contact with both Spears and his own sister Helene, aka La Marquesa de Casares el Grande y Melida Sabada, who had married a Spanish nobleman. When the forts surrendered to the British, Leroux posed as a wounded man by covering himself with the intestines of a dead soldier and was taken to the hospital. Sharpe and Harper realised the truth and followed him. Leroux killed the hospital sentry, pushed Harper down a flight of stairs and fought with Sharpe, breaking his sword and shooting him in the stomach, before taking refuge in the city.
When the French attempt to recapture the city failed, Leroux told Spears to bring him El Mirador, in reality an Irish priest named Father Curtis. Spears instead gave him the list of Curtis' contacts, with which Leroux fled back to the retreating French army. Sharpe followed along with his friend Captain Lossow of the King's German Legion cavalry. At Garcia Hernandez, the British cavalry successfully broke a French square and Sharpe confronted Leroux. Leroux tried to surrender but, aware of his treacherous nature, Sharpe forced him to fight and killed him.
Television[]
Colonel Leroux had been tasked with locating the British spymaster El Mirador, to which end he captured a priest who he knew was El Mirador's confessor, torturing and killing him and the two nuns with him. In the aftermath, however, he was cornered by Major Richard Sharpe and his men. Leroux killed his captain and switched coats with him. His parole was accepted by Sharpe's commanding officer Colonel Berkeley but Sharpe, who had been warned to look out for Leroux, was suspicious of him and tried to have the parole revoked. Leroux managed to convince Berkeley that he was a simple soldier who couldn't afford a uniform that fitted, with the aid of Jack Spears, who he had once captured and tortured, amputating his arm, until he signed papers giving Leroux a hold over him.
When they came within sight of the French-held fort Villafranca, Leroux fled for the fortress, killing McDonald when he tried to stop him. He made plans to kill Father Curtis but learned of a British attack on the fortress from Sir Henry Simmerson, who wanted to maintain good trade with the French. Leroux was able to ambush the attackers, fighting Sharpe and breaking his sword but also suffering a wound to the leg which stopped him going after Curtis.
Sharpe later led a second attack on the fort and this one succeeded, with the garrison surrendering. However, Sharpe refused to accept Leroux's surrender, instead challenging him to a duel and promising he could go free if he won. Leroux accepted, in the process demonstrating that he understood English after all, but Sharpe proved the better swordsman and killed Leroux.
