In April of 1798, Napoleon appoints Lieutenant Charles MacDonald, a nineteen-year-old graduate geographical engineer, to be the pathfinder for his personal Brigade of Guides during the invasion of Egypt. Charles was born in Virginia during the American Revolution and was educated in France, a graduate of LEcole Polytechnique and a postgraduate of LEcole des Ponts.

But agents of the British Secret Service who are trying to undermine the invasion of Egypt interfere in Charless journey on a number of occasions by attempting to rob the mail coaches he is accompanying.

In...