Recalled to Paris for the first time in four years, Alain Lausard and his heroic cavalry unit look on as Bonaparte stages the coup d'etat that dissolves the existing regime. When the Corsican is appointed First Consul of the Republic, and his unit's stay in barracks becomes more prolonged, Lausard senses change in the air. With Bonaparte under pressure to make peace with the enemies of France, Lausard's dragoons are reduced to flushing out conspirators from the Paris gutters. Bonaparte, however, heeds no man and assembles his massive field army in the first spring of the new century, and prepares to reclaim the territory lost in Italy. But as the French cavalry infantry and artillery emerge through the treacherous St. Bernard Pass across the Alps to meet the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo, Lausard's men face their most daunting challenge yet...
