That gnarled old man

. . . at that moment an audible snore erupted from the General’s corner of the cab. He was leaning back, his great head sunk forward on his chest, his hat tilted over his eyes, breathing stertorously; one great mottled hand lay palm down on the seat beside him; Mr Franklin could see the shiny white streak of a wound running from wrist to little finger, and there was a star-shaped scar of what might have been an old bullet-hole in the loose flesh between thumb and forefinger. He shivered; he had looked Sir Harry up in Who’s Who and read incredulously through the succinct list of campaigns and decorations — that gnarled old man sleeping there had seen Custer ride into the broken bluffs above Little Big Horn, and fought hand-to-hand with Afghan tribesman more than seventy years ago; he had ridden into the guns at Balaclava and seen the ranks form for Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg; he had known Wellington and Lincoln — and now he was snoring gently in the corner of a motor car in the busy heart of modern London, and all the glory and horror and fear and bloodshed were small, dimly-remembered things of no account, and when he woke his one concern would not be the fate of nations or armies or his own life in the hazard, but the welfare of one wilful young woman who he was trying to save from her own folly in his strange, unscrupulous way.


Mr American, pp.431-2, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, unscrupulous.

Entitled to bore

     ‘Well, for heaven’s sake don’t wake him,’ said his majesty. ‘The longer he sleeps the better I’ll like it.’
     Fisher smiled. ‘He’s a bit of a penance, but . . . well, when you’ve charged with the Light Brigade I suppose you’re entitled to bore a bit.’ To Mr Franklin he went on: ‘He was an aide to your President Grant, you know, in the Civil War; fought the Indians too, with that chap Custer. And served in the Indian Mutiny, Crimea, Zulu War, China, practically everywhere . . .’



Mr American, pp.189-90, Pan Books, paperback edition 1982.



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He will surely do

      They were the kind of words you’d expect to hear from a Brooke or a Custer, spoken with a heroic flourish and a fist on a table. Napier said them with all the fervour of a man reading a railway time-table . . . but I thought, farewell and adieu, Brother Theodore, your goose is cooked; this quiet old buffer with the dreary whiskers may not shout the odds, but what he says he will surely do.


Flashman on the March, pp.53-4, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, words.

Bellowing his grievance

Had I ever, I wondered, encountered such an immortally conceited ass with a truer touch for self-destruction? George Custer came to mind. Aye put him and Gordon-Cumming on the edge of a precipice and I’d not care to bet which would tumble first into the void, bellowing his grievance.

Flashman and the Tiger, p.240, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, conceited.

Just five words

. . . I begged leave to withdraw and loafed off, leaving the three wise men to blink at each other and resume their chorus of “What is to be done?” — five words which are as sound a motto for disaster as I know. I've heard ’em at Kabul before the Retreat, at Cawnpore, on the heights above the North Valley at Balaclava, and I won't swear someone wasn't croaking them as we laboured up the Greasy Grass slope behind G.A. Custer, God rest his fat-headed soul. No one ever knows the answer, you see, so everyone looks blank until the man in command (in this case Good Prince Edward) makes up his mind in panic, and invariably does the wrong thing.


Flashman and the Tiger, pp.221-2, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.

 
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Bright-eyed excitement

“Sign of nerves, Starnberg. You just want wish it was over and done with.”
      It didn't deflate him a bit. “Nerves yourself!” scoffs he. “If you mean I'm lookin' forward to it, you're right.” I believed him for I'd seen the same bright-eyed excitement at the prospect of slaughter in idiots like Brooke and Custer, and it's the last thing you need when your own fears are gullet-high.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.122, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, fear.

Little Bighorn

           I’ll say two other things. If the 7th had had decent carbines, thay might have sickened the Sioux and been able to hole up on the hill, as Reno did. And that was Custer’s fault, too. He should have tested those pieces before he went near the Powder Country—tested ’em until they were red-hot, and he’d have seen them jam. T’other thing—Reno deserved the clean bill he got from the court-martial. I didn’t know him, much, but Napoleon himself couldn’t have done any better. If Custer had done half as well, there’d be a few old troopers still telling stretchers about how they survived the struggle up Greasy Grass hill.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.332, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Riding to the rescue

…the last man you want riding to the rescue is G.A.C., for there’ll be blood on the carpet for certain…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.303, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Brave in buckskin

I raised an eyebrow myself when the boy general arrived a few days later, all brave in fringed buckskin and red scarf over his uniform, but with a face like a two-day corpse.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.288, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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A lucky song

…Custer himself led them off in his cracked baritone until the rafters rang and feet stamped and the glasses swung in rhythm as they roared out in chorus:

              We’ll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
              We’ll make the mayor and sheriffs run,
              We are the boys no man dare dun,
              If he regards a whole skin!
              In place of spa we’ll drink down ale,
              And pay no reckoning on the nail,
              No man for debt shall go to jail,
              While he can Garryowen hail!

They didn’t notice I wasn’t singing; I was remembering the remnants of the Light Brigade in that grisly hospital shed by Yatla, croaking out those self-same words in pathetic pride at having done what no horse-soldiers had ever done before. I thought of the pale fierce faces and the horrid wounds, and the unspeakable hell we’d come through, and the ghastly cost—and I wondered if it was a lucky song to sing, that’s all.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.278, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Waiting at Fort Lincoln

“Well,” says he, “if you should change your mind, just remember, there’s always a good horse, a good gun—aye, and a good friend—waiting for you at Fort Lincoln.” He shook my hand.
      “George,” says I earnestly, “I shan’t forget that.” I don’t forget holes in the road or places I owe money, either.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.258, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Ill-suited to peacetime

I reflected, watching him that night, how the best soldiers in war are so often ill-suited to peacetime service…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.255, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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More horse soldiering than most

He knew he was a good soldier—and he was you know, when he was in his right mind. I’ve seen more horse soldiering than most, and if my life depended on how a mounted brigade was handled, I’d as soon see George Custer in command as anyone I know. His critics, who never saw him at Gettysburg and Yellow Tavern, base their case on one piece of arrant folly and bad luck, when he let his ambition get the better of him.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.255, Pan Books edition, 1983.

Tags:Flashman, Flashman quotes, George Custer.

Beastly, stupid and helpless

I know the heathen, and their oppressors, pretty well, you see, and the folly of sitting smug in judgement years after, stuffed with piety and ignorance and book-learned bias. Humanity is beastly and stupid, aye, and helpless, and there’s an end to it. and that’s as true for Crazy Horse as it was for Custer…

Flashman and the Redskins, p.21, Pan Books edition, 1983.

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Club members

      I’d never seen this before, although I’ve seen it more times than I care to count since – one man, mad as a hatter and drunk with pride, sweeping sane heads away against their better judgement. Chinese Gordon could do it, and Yakub Beg the Kirghiz; so could J.E.B. Stuart, and that almighty maniac George Custer. They and Brooke could have formed a club.

Flashman's Lady, p.139, Pan edition, 1979.

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Garryowen

…the man with the patched eye began to sing, and they all took it up, and as I drove off with Lanskey I heard the words of the Light Brigade canter fading behind me:

             In the place of water we’ll drink ale,
             An’ pay no reck’ning on the nail,
             No man for debt shall go to jail,
             While he can Garryowen hail.

    I’ve heard it from Afghanistan to Whithall, from the African veldt to drunken hunting parties in Rutland; heard it sounded on penny whistles by children and roared out in full-throated chorus by Custer’s 7th on the day of Greasy Grass…

Flashman at the Charge, p.122, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Light Brigade, Garryowen.