[citation needed] Napoleon having escaped from Elba, Richard Sharpe leaves his farm in Normandy to rejoin the British Army, accompanied by his lover Lucille.

Although the French are checked as evening falls, Sharpe knows they will launch a much stronger attack in the morning, and rides to Brussels to warn Wellington.

The Prince of Orange twice attempts to lead a charge of his Dutch-Belgian cavalry against an opposing force of French lancers, but his men refuse to follow him.

Sharpe and Harper rush to the side of their old regiment, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, and save some of them by urging them to flee to the safety of a forest.

Although more reinforcements arrive in time to check the French advance, Sharpe rages at the needless loss of life caused by the Prince.

During the confusion of the retreat from Quatre Bras, Lord John Rossendale becomes separated from the Earl of Uxbridge's staff, and is cornered alone in the woods by Sharpe.

Wellington deploys his forces on the ridge south of Waterloo, trusting Prussian commander Field Marshal Blücher's assurance he will march to his aid if he makes a stand.

Unknown to him, General Gneisenau, Blücher's chief of staff, does not trust Wellington and secretly mismanages the Prussians' march to slow it down as much as possible.

Believing that the farm of La Haye Sainte is about to fall to the enemy, the Prince quickly orders a Hanoverian regiment to advance in line, again ignoring one of his officers' warning that he spotted some French cavalry nearby.

Rossendale, desperate to regain his honor in battle after being humiliated by Sharpe, joins the charge of the British heavy cavalry in sweeping D'Erlon's infantry from the ridge.

Lieutenant Doggett calls the Prince "a silk stocking full of shit," (quoting Harper) and rides off to find Sharpe.

As La Haye Sainte falls and with the French skirmishers and cannon slowly grinding down the British, Colonel Ford, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers inexperienced commander, is frightened, confused and indecisive when Napoleon, mistakenly believing the British are wavering, sends forward four massive columns of his best, most renowned troops, the Imperial Guard, to strike the decisive blow.

The novel was adapted as the fifth-season finale (and last regular episode) of the Sharpe television series, guest starring Paul Bettany as the Prince of Orange, Neil Dickson as Uxbridge, Oliver Tobias as Rebecque and Chloe Newsome as Paulette, with the latter having her nationality changed to English.