With Wellington retreating to Lisbon, Portugal, in the face of Napoleon's approaching army, a handful of British soldiers is cut off from escape when a bridge is blown up too soon, leaving the tiny band with no means of crossing the river. Ensign Keith Graham, too young and inexperienced to lead, finds himself in command, however, after a French marksman kills his captain.

R.F. Delderfield's Too Few for Drums, a novel set during the peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic wars, tells of Graham's march to safety from behind enemy lines. And don't worry, that's not a spoiler -- the author informs readers on page 29 that Graham will make it home alive.

Graham forgot many of the experiences that came his way during the next thirty days, but he never forgot the four hours' march that followed the squad's ascent of the cliff face above the river.

So much for suspense, I guess. At least readers are left to wonder how many of Graham's men will survive. He starts the march with eight soldiers, including a young drummer boy, and adds a camp follower along the way. Not everyone gets through intact.

It's a paint-by-numbers band of brothers -- you've got the tough-as-nails sergeant, the savvy woodsman, the big and dumb but loyal galoot, the shifty thief, and so on. And as they face each challenge along the way, you can always assume exactly one of them will fall.

Perhaps the biggest character flaw in the book is the woman, Gwyneth, who just laid to rest her third "husband" among the troops and latches onto Graham while looking for her next one. At 24, Gwyneth is too smart, too accomplished, too wise and too unflappable; she, it seems, should probably take Wellington's place at the head of the army, because with her in charge, Napoleon wouldn't stand a chance of winning. She has, apparently, absorbed everything there is to know about army and navy tactics, and her ability to analyze a situation is unparalleled. She's also beautiful, of course, and her seductive charms are sufficient to bolster Graham's nerve whenever he falters.

And yet, Delderfield for some reason doesn't like to use her name; in dialogue and narrative alike, she's referred to as "the woman," even though the other characters have all known her identity since her introduction.

Although the characters are somewhat cliched and the plot is at times predictable, I enjoyed the story. Delderfield obviously knows his history and places Graham and his fellow survivors in a series of tough situations that keep the journey suspenseful.