Recalled to Paris for thr first time in four years to buttress their commander's political ambitions, Alain Lausard and his heroic cavalry look on as Bonaparte stages the coup d'etat that dissolves the existing regime. With the Corsican under pressure to make peace with the enemies of France, Lausard's dragoon are reduced to flushing out conspirators from the Paris gutters.

But Bonaparte heeds to no man and assembles his massive field army in the first spring of the new century, ready to reclaim the territory lost in Italy. 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...