The story assumes that Wolfe's attack on Quebec failed (as it well might have) but ten captured Scottish troops were used to support an early revolt of the southern English colonies against Britain, with "Bonnie Prince Charlie" invited to become their leader (technically as regent for his father) and Madame de Pompadour (more improbably) as his consort. The introduction sketches another hundred years of the Kingdom of Virginia (which apparently began well but came to a disastrous end in 1868) ( )