The seventh novel in the acclaimed and bestselling Matthew Hervey series finds Hervey alone and a prisoner in the fortress of Badajos on the Spanish border.
While Hervey - taken captive in the final pages of The Sabre's Edge - plans his escape from the Spanish, his memories turn to 1812 when, as a young cornet, he was part of Wellington's victorious army as it pushed its way north through Spain towards the Pyrenees. But first the British had to storm the fortress where he is imprisoned now: Badajos - a fortress of huge strategic importance - where French resistance was at its most fierce...

Matthew Hervey is on the look out for a new posting. He soon finds one in the Cape Colony, where there is need of a man to re-organise the local forces, and in particular to form a new company of horse. Accompanied by a mixed-race captain from the disbanded Royal African Corps, Hervey heads out into the great South African plains.

With the last shots of the Battle of Waterloo still resounding in Europe, the adventures of Matthew Hervey, newly appointed aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, continue when he is sent on a secret mission to war-torn India.

Captain Hervey has returned from India to an England in turmoil. The clamour for parliamentary and economic reform is bringing the country close to revolution. In the 6th Light Dragoons there is a new commanding officer - wealthy, vain, arrogant and cruel.

1824. The Sixth Light Dragoons are still stationed in India, and the talk in the officers' mess is of war. The Burmese are increasingly encroaching on Company land and skirmishes are becoming common on India's borders. Meanwhile across the country in Bhurtpore the succession to the Raj has been usurped.

1826: Napoleon Bonaparte is dead and there is peace in Europe. However, in Portugal there is the scent of civil war in the air. Newly returned from India, Matthew Hervey joins a party of officers sent to lend support to the Portuguese regent. His place is secured with the help of Lady Katherine Greville.

From the English Civil War to today's War on Terror: in this sweeping account of nearly 500 years of military history, former soldier Allan Mallinson looks at how the Army's dramatic past has made it one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today.

It is the year 1827 & Captain Peto has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert, the only three-decker line-of-battle ship in His Majesty's Fleet. He is the proud master of a wooden fortress whose formidable firepower is the equal & more of Bonaparte's grand battery at Waterloo. But his journey to the Aegean will not be all smooth sailing.

Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons is urgently summoned to the Cape Colony when he learns that the Zulu warrior King Shaka is about to wage war. Soon Hervey, his old friend Eyre Somervile and their escort of dragoons and mounted rifles are riding north.

The year is 1829 and Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey has been promised command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. Before he can take up his post, however, there is a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army, an undertaking at the personal request of the commander-in-chief which Hervey feels obliged to fulfil.