On His Majesty's Service

The year is 1829 and Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey has been promised command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. Before he can take up his post, however, there is a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army, an undertaking at the personal request of the commander-in-chief which Hervey feels obliged to fulfil. Soon Hervey, his friend Edward Fairbrother and his faithful groom, Private Johnson, are sailing north to St Petersburg, and from there on to the Eastern Balkans which are seething with unrest as Russian faces Turk. Hervey imagines he is to spend six months as an impartial spectator in the campaign, but soon the circumstances - and his own nature - propel him into a more active role. In the climactic Battle of Kulewtscha, in which more troops were engaged than in any battle in Europe since Waterloo, Hervey and Fairbrother find themselves in the teeth of the action. For Hervey in particular the stakes have never been higher or more personal