A Brevet for the Guillotine

Glittering braid and bayonets; thundering cannon. Musket lines shrouded in smoke; the thundering hooves of a cavalry charge. The hissing slash and the ringing parry of sabers. This is the Napoleonic Wars, seen through the eyes of a French soldier. Unjustly blamed for a fiasco, Victor faces the guillotine if he cannot clear his name. From battlefields to the polite society of Milan; from the duelling ground to a bloody fortress assault, Victor pursues the rival who betrayed him. His greatest danger comes not from saber or grapeshot, but from those who have reason to fear an honest man.