Strange sleight of hand

...Russia got Bessarabia, wherever that may be; the Turks remained a power in the Balkans, more or less, and by some strange sleight of hand we managed to collar Cyprus (no fool, D'Israeli, for all he dressed like a Pearly King).

Flashman and the Tiger, p.43, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Cyprus.

That double line of yokels and town scruff

It was the infantry I wanted to see, though, for (and I’m a horse-soldier as says it) I know what matters. When the guns haven’t come up, and you cavalry’s checked by close country or tutti-putti*, and you’re waiting in the hot, dusky hush for the faint rumble of impi or harka** over the skyline and know they’re twenty to your one, well, that’s when you realize that it all hangs on that double line of yokels and town scruff with their fifty rounds a man and an Enfield bayonet. Kitchener himself may have placed ’em just so, with D’Israeli’s sanction, The Times blessing, and the Queen waving ’em good-bye — but now it’s their grip on the stock and their eye at the backsight, and if they break, you’re done.

Flashman and the Dragon, pp.44-45, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.

*Roughly 'little cherubs'. A few thoughts occur as to what Flashman could mean, but if any reader has a reference to explain this more clearly, I would be grateful.

**Presumably, Flashman is referring to the Māori haka.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, infantry.

Evenly spread bigotry

…he had in tow the cocky little sheeny D’Israeli, whom I never could stomach. He was pathetic really, trying to behave like the Young Idea when he was well into greasy middle age, with his lovelock and fancy vest, like a Punjabi whoremaster….if I’d been able to read the future I might have toadied him a good deal more, I dare say.

Flash For Freedom!, pp.24-25, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.