Pot-au-Feu (real name Deron) is one of the three main antagonists (with Obadiah Hakeswill and Pierre Ducos) of the novel Sharpe's Enemy and its television adaptation.
He was portrayed by the late Tony Haygarth, who also played Willoughby Parfitt in Sharpe's Justice and voiced Mr. Tweedy in Chicken Run.
Biography[]
Novels[]
Sergeant Deron was a chef in the French army. In 1809, he was serving a meal to Marshal Soult at the same time that Lieutenant Richard Sharpe was guiding the British army across the Duoro river to recapture Oporto.
By 1812, he had deserted and become the leader of an army of deserters from French, British, Spanish and Portuguese armies. He styled himself as "Marshal Pot-au-Feu" and gained the British deserter Obadiah Hakeswill as his deputy. He sent Hakeswill and the other British deserters to capture the city of Adradas, causing tension between the British and the Spanish. They captured Josefina Lacosta, the mistress of Sir Augustus Farthingdale, and three French wives, including Sarah Dubreton, sending ransom notes to both the British and the French.
Major Sharpe and Colonel Dubreton arrived with their sergeants to pay the ransom but Pot-au-Feu made it clear that the money had merely bought the women's virtue, with the screams of the common women being assaulted by his men serving as a reminder of what could happen to them otherwise. The ransom payers departed but Sharpe later returned with a detachment and managed to capture the convent where the hostages were being held. Pot-au-Feu holed up in the town's citadel and, when Farthingdale arrived with a full British force, tricked them into attacking an apparently undefended area which he had mined, blowing up many of the attacking force. Sharpe managed to rally the survivors and a counterattack caused Pot-au-Feu's men to flee.
Pot-au-Feu himself, too fat to successfully run, hid under a tarpaulin in the stables. He was found by Sharpe's men and handed over to the French, who put him to work cooking a meal for the British and French officers.
Television[]
Pot-au-Feu travelled to Adradas with a group of British deserters led by Hakeswill, posing as their prisoner. On arrival, he garroted a man at random and led the deserters in seizing the city. Having already captured Sarah Dubreton, the English wife of a French colonel, he also captured Lady Isabella Farthingdale. He made it clear to Hakeswill that the two women were to be left untouched for ransom, but let him make free with the other women.
When Captain Sharpe arrived to deliver the ransom, Pot-au-Feu and Hakeswill tricked him and Colonel Dubreton into fighting each other until they realised. The two deserters refused to release their hostages, with Hakeswill saying the money had merely ensured they would be safe for now. At Christmas, with Hakeswill again raping any women he could find, Pot-au-Feu dismissed British deserter Kelly's distaste, putting him on guard duty.
The now-Major Sharpe and his men made it into the city with Kelly's help and kept Isabella and Sarah safe before launching an attack the next morning. Pot-au-Feu led a group in trying to flee the city, only to walk straight into the rifles of Captain Frederickson and his relief. Held at swordpoint by Frederickson, Pot-au-Feu quickly surrendered to the British.
Trivia[]
- Pot-au-Feu was the real-life leader of a deserters' enclave but his involvement in Sharpe's Enemy is largely fictional. In reality, the French captured him without any British involvement.
