The author of this little book about a decisive episode in the Battle of Waterloo told me that it was a kind of European version of Zulu – the film starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. During the battle, the unremarkable farmhouse of La Haye Sainte, fortuitously placed in a strategically critical position, was defended against Napoleon’s forces by the 400-odd riflemen of the Second Light Battalion King’s German Legion. Had the French gained the La Haye Sainte – defended at times by no more than a few dozen men – the Battle of Waterloo might have had quite a different outcome. The riflemen held up a critical part of Napoleon’s forces for long enough to enable Blücher to send his Prussian forces to Wellington’s aid. If the story has a mili