This intense yet panoramic novel is based on an actual episode during the battle of Wagram, in Austria, as it appears in the diary of one of Napoleons generals: two cavalry regiments that did their best to annihilate each other before the gates of Vienna in 1809 belonged to the Prince of SaxeTeschen, and on his orders fought on opposing sides. Re-baptized SaxeSalza in the novel, the Prince, on the eve of the battle, transfers his wife's young lover...