Altdorf: A novel of The Forest Knights

William Tell did not exist...but the men and women who inspired the legend did.

End of the 13th century: Five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.

Thomas Schwyzer, released from his vows, returns to the land of his birth a stranger. Once a leader of men, and captain of...