First into the breach

      “Frogs just a damned nuisance, of course — no proprer provision, an’ thre days late,” says he with satisfaction. “How the blazes Bonaparte ever got ’em on parade beats me. We should go without ’em.”       Everyone says that about the French, and it’s gospel true — until it’s Rosalie’s breakfast time*, and then Froggy’ll be first into the breach ahead of us, just out of spite.


*Time for action. Rosalie was the long French sword-bayonet.


Flashman and the Dragon, p.160, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, French.