Amazon.com description: Product Description: Since earning his sergeant’s stripes at the bloody siege of Seringapatam, young Richard Sharpe has led a peaceful existence. But the easy life meets a brutal end when he is the sole survivor of a murderous attack by a cold-blooded English officer who has defected to join the mercenary forces of the Mahratta confederation in India. Sharpe vows to avenge his dead comrades, even if he must pursue the turncoat to the ends of the continent. It is a quest that takes him deep into enemy territory, where the accepted rules of engagement have been discarded and where ever-shifting loyalties create an environment of dangerous uncertainty. The paths of treachery lead Sharpe’s company to join the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, to take on the Mahratta horde. Sharpe must survive the carnage and live to tell the tale of what will be remembered as one of the greatest battles of its century.