His duty. As officially defined: to seek out threats to the Pax Terrestria, and to neutralize them -- or, failing that, to call in His Majesty's military forces, who will end them in a more drastic and final way. As defined by Dominic Flandry: to stick his finger in the dike of civilization, to hold off for his lifetime the inevitiable coming of the barbarians and the Long Night.

To this end he battles gloriously, murders remorselessly, betrays outrageously. His justification? "Supple young women clad in sunlight, blooded horses stamping on the plains of Ilion, smoke curling fragrant about coffee and cognac on Terra" -- in a phrase, all the joys and pleasures that, taken together, comprise human civilization.

Contains three Flandry tales:

• The Game of Glory
• A Message in Secret
• A Plague of Masters