While Hervey - taken captive in the final pages of The Sabre's Edge - plans his escape from the Spanish, his memories turn to 1812, when as a young cornet he was part of Wellington's victorious army as it pushed its way north through Spain towards the Pyrenees. But first, the British had to storm the fortress where he is imprisoned now: Badajos - a fortress of huge strategic importance - where French resistance was at its most fierce and most bloody...