Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe is a man with a reputation. Born in the gutter, raised a foundling, he joined the army twenty-one years ago, and it's been his home ever since. He's a loose cannon, but his unconventional methods make him a valuable weapon. So when, the dust still settling after the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington needs a favour, he turns to Sharpe. For Wellington knows that the end of one war is only the beginning of another....

"If any man can do the impossible it's Richard Sharpe... And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Major Sharpe is asked to do when he's dispatched on an undercover mission deep in the Spanish countryside. For a remote village is about to become the center of a battle for the future of Europe. Sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, it is the last link between two French armies, one in the north, the other to the south; if they meet, the British...