| |
| Lucille Castineau | |
| Medium: | Television, Book, TV |
| Also known as: | Lucille Lassan |
| Nationality: | French |
| Rank: | Vicountess |
| Appearances: | Sharpe's Revenge |
| Actor: | Cecile Paoli |
Lucille Lassan, Vicomtesse de Seleglise, was the youngest child of the comte and comtessa Lassan. She and her eldest brother, Henri, were the only surviving children of seven born at Chateau Lassan in Normandy, a large and pleasant moated farmhouse built around 1016.
Her father, though well liked locally, had been serving his king in Paris and, as an aristocrat, was killed during the Terror; their titles were abolished. She was only seven at the time.
In 1812, she married Xavier Castineau, a general's son. Two months later, her husband died during Napoleon's Russian campaign and she returned to the Chateau Lassan and with her mother maintained the orchards, the house, and the fields, judiciously selling off the family silver, and the occasional plot of land for upkeep.
After the peace of 1814, her brother returned home, but was shortly thereafter murdered along with their mother, by men wearing green coats. She was convinced the killers were the British Greenjackets her brother had fought during his time in the Army, led by a man called Sharpe.
When Sharpe and Frederickson came to the Chateau some time later, looking for her brother to ask his assistance, she summarily shot at them, severely wounding Sharpe. Once matters were explained, she tried to make amends, nursing the rifleman, and developing a friendship with Frederickson. When William asked her to marry him, she gently rejected him. He left Sharpe in her care and went to Paris.
"You are my life."
Alone with Lucille, Sharpe was forced to put aside his bitterness about being shot, and deal with her. Eventually, they too, develop a friendship, that then went further. When Sharpe left Normandy, she was pregnant with his child. (Sharpe's Revenge).
With the return of Napoleon, out of loyalty, she accompanies Sharpe to Brussels. There she attends a ball where she sees Jane Gibbons Sharpe, and thinks her beautiful. Sharpe assures her that she is not, that Jane has no beauty within her. Lucille awaits Sharpe's return with their son.
In Sharpe's Devil, when Louisa Vivar asks Sharpe to travel to Chile to find out what happened to her husband, Lucille had assessed the countess' worth and consents. When Sharpe tries to say he didn't need money, she calmly contradicted him, and arranged for repairs to the farm with Louisa as part of his fee. Their farm's future is further assured when Sharpe returns with a sea chest full of plunder taken in Chile.
Children[]
Patrick Henri was born in 1815. He accompanies his parents to Brussels during the Waterloo Campaign. In Sharpe's Christmas, Lucille determines that her son's surname should be Lassan, since Sharpe did not mind and she wants the ancient family name to continue. He appears as a minor character in other Bernard Cornwell novels such as Copperhead where he is shown serving as lieutenant colonel in the French Cavalry and liaison to the Union Army during the American Civil War. He speaks affectionately of a French mother and and English father, a former British Rifleman whose best friend he was named for, though never names them. He claims the title Vicomte de Seleglise.
Dominique was born about 1818. She eventually marries the English earl of Benfleet and moves to his seat in England. She has five children.
- "Sharpe...returned to France, and Harper to Ireland, where, so far as I know, they lived happily ever after."
- — Author's note: Sharpe's Devil
Trivia[]
In the television movie Sharpe's Revenge, she gave her name as Madame Dubert and that her husband was killed at Talvera.