Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW first printing: "Supposing yours was an advanced Utopian race on a planet that had eliminated war so long ago that nobody knew how to conduct an adequate defense. And suppose that your solar system were then invaded by a fleet of alien militarists? This is what happened to a certain planet in the Constellation Eridanus - and what its leaders did was to seek a primitive race that still engaged in warfare. So they kidnapped a band of experienced soldiers - Napoleonic veterans fleeing Moscow through the snows of that terrible winter of 1812. Captain Bernard of the Imperial Dragoons took on the task. But being a loyal Bonapartist campaigner, he had ambitions that Utopian aliens could not suspect"