Around 200 years ago in Lahore, deserters across Europe intermingled with sophisticated ex-Napoleonic officers for the chance to fight for Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who sought to create Asia's most powerful army in anticipation of a clash with the British Empire.
Conspicuous among them were a Scots-American soldier-of-fortune who single-handedly defended Lahore by blowing up 300 furious fanatics, a Neapolitan general whose blood-lust for extreme forms of punitive justice inspired fear in Sikhs and Afghans alike, and the son of an Irish sailor who had ruled a small Indian principality as the Raja of Tipperary.