A tale of good and bad luck among high-ranking military men. That’s the fortunate Admiral Nelson and his far less fortunate victim, the Neapolitan Admiral Caracciolo. And Napoleon as a general enjoying the good fortune of being saved by the far less fortunate Desaix.

Plus the difficulties of building the Second Coalition, especially for a British diplomat who had to wade through to icy water to try to put it in place. Only for his bit to fail, followed by the whole thing rapidly beginning to unwind.

Illustration: Death of General Louis Desaix by Jean Baptiste Regnault. This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License