The Emperor Napoleon fondly said of Etienne Gerard "that if he has the thickest head he has also the stoutest heart in my army." This description accurately captures the self-described hero of eighteen gem-like short stories produced by Arthur Conan Doyle. Brigadier Gerard, a bombastic, heroic gascon hussar, doer of many improbable deeds, was an unimaginative man of small intellect, but brave and resourceful in a crisis. The shadow of Sherlock Holmes has for too long deprived the Gerard tales of their rightful place among the finest short historical fiction of their time.