This novel is the second of the Sainte Hermine Trilogy, also known as the Napoleon Romances. The action is set in the 1800s, and deals with the royalist and republican factions in France during Napoleon's rise to power. Although chronologically is the first, it works better as a prequel. Full of history, you will understand France, the French and their wars, explained in the way only Dumas can do, and has done in masterpieces as The Musketeers or the Count of Monte-Cristo...