With his face to the foe

"As a foreign Prince, however, and a Bonaparte, there was never any hope that he might serve in the British army, but when the Anglo-Zulu War broke out in 1879 he was allowed to go to Africa as an observer, attached to General Lord Chelmsford's staff. The war seemed to offer him the perfect chance for military experience without European political repercussions, and with a minimum of danger. This was not to be."--BOOK JACKET.