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PROLOGUE

GRAND ST BERNARD PASS, PENNINE ALPS MAY 1800

Agust of hipped snow around the legs of the horse known as Styrie and he snorted nervously, sidestepping on the trail before the rider clicked his tongue a few ti him Napoleon Bonaparte, Ereatcoat and squinted his eyes against the sleet To the east he could just ed sixteen-thousand-foot outline of Mont Blanc

He leaned forward in his saddle and stroked Styrie’s neck “You’ve seen worse, old friend”

An Arabian Napoleon had captured during his Egyptian Can two years earlier, Styrie was a superb warhorse, but the cold and snow disagreed with his disposition Born and bred in the desert, Styrie was accusto peppered by sand, not ice

Napoleon turned and signaled to his valet, Constant, who stood ten feet behind, holding a string oftrail, were the forty thousand soldiers of Napoleon’s Reserve Ar with their horses, mules, and caissons

Constant untied the lead mule and hurried forward Napoleon handed over Styr

ie’s reins, then diss in the knee-deep snow

“Let’s give hi hiain”

“I’ll see to it, General” At home, Napoleon preferred the title of First Consul; while on caful of air, settled his blue bicorne ranite spires towering above them

“Lovely day, isn’t it, Constant?”

“If you say so, General,” the valet grumbled

Napoleon smiled to himself Constant, who’d been with his he allowed a sht, Constant was an old h his bones

Napoleon Bonaparte was ofneck and broad shoulders His aquiline nose sat above a firray that see around him, human and otherwise

“Any word from Laurent?” he asked Constant

“No, General”

Général de Division, or Major-General, Arnaud Laurent, one of Napoleon’s most trusted commanders and closest friends, had the day before led a squad of soldiers deeper into the pass on a scouting mission However unlikely they were to encounter an eneo learned to prepare for the ireat men had been toppled by the h, their worst enemies were the weather and terrain

At eight thousand feet, the Grand St Bernard Pass had for centuries been a crossroads for travelers Straddling the borders of Swit zerland, Italy, and France, the pass’s home, the Pennine Alps, had seen its share of armies: the Gauls in 390 BC, on their way to tra in 217 BC; Charle from his coronation in Rome as the first Holy Roman Emperor

Laudable coht to hi of France, had in 753 crossed the Pennines on his way to meet Pope Stephen II