In 1808, a British army arrived in Spain, intent on defeating the occupying French forces. Yet they were defeated and pursued by the French.
The French were led by General Colbert, a remarkably young and good-looking man. Seeing the officer, conspicuously mounted on a white horse, charging at the head of his men, an Irish rifleman named Tom Plunket suddenly ran forward, lay down, took careful aim, and fired. Colbert fell backwards off his horse, dead. Plunket ran back to his company to the cheers of his comrades.
Plunket fought at Waterloo, but was afterwards dismissed from the army as a drunken incorrigible. With his wife, he tramped for many years through Britain. One day, he suddenly fell on to his face, and was picked up dead.
一八零八年，一支英軍抵達西班牙，要擊退佔領該國的法軍，卻遭法軍打敗，並窮追不捨。
率領法軍的，是年輕英俊的科爾貝將軍。他騎着白馬，走在士卒之前，十分顯眼。愛爾蘭裔來福槍手湯姆．普倫基特遠遠望見，突然走上前，伏地瞄準，一槍打去。科爾貝往後便倒，摔下馬來，一命嗚呼。普倫基在同袍歡呼聲中，跑回所屬步兵連。
滑鐵盧之役，普倫基特也有參戰。但他後來遭軍隊開除，原因是酗酒惡習不改。他和妻子一起，在英國四處流浪多年，有一天，突然仆倒，扶起時，已經返魂乏術。