Sergeant Richard Sharpe, the only survivor after a bloody attack at the hands of a mercenary army in the Mahratta Confederation, vows to avenge the deaths of his friends.

From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, the twelth installment in the world-renowned Sharpe series, chronicling the rise of Richard Sharpe, a Private in His Majesty's Army at the siege of Seringapatam. Quartered in a crumbling Portuguese fort, Richard Sharpe and his men are attacked by an elite French unit, led by an old enemy of Sharpe's, and suffer heavy losses. The army's high command blame Sharpe for the disaster and his military...

Richard Sharpe, fresh from his heroic adventures in India, faces a new enemy when the ship carrying him home is attacked by a fearsome French warship. With the help of a captain in the Royal Navy, Sharpe learns the French ship carries a treaty that could ignite renewed hostilities against the British in India. Now a fateful rendezvous is waiting in the waters off Cadiz.