Scotch nemesis

There was one quiet Lancer, though, a black-whiskered Scotch nemesis who said never a word, and played the bull fiddle for his recreation. He caught my eye then, and again fifteen years later when he led the march to Peking, the most terrible killing gentleman you every saw: Hope Grant.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.274, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


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Papist rituals

…the sight I wouldn’t have missed was Hope Grant taking part in Papist rituals, sprinkling holy water at Montauban’s request, and plainly enjoying it as much as John Knox in a music hall.


Flashman and the Dragon, p.281, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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Gen. Sir James Grant explains the disposition of the 1860 Anglo-French expedition to China

     “Shared command. Montauban and I. Day about. Lamentable.” Pause. “Supply difficult. Forage all imported. No horses to be had. Brought our own from India. Not the French. Have to buy ’em. Japanese ponies. Vicious beasts. Die like flies.” Another pause. “French disturb me. No experience. Great campaigns, Peninsula, Crimea. Deplorable. No small wars. Delays. Cross purposes. Better by ourselves. Hope Montauban speaks English.
     That would make one of you, thinks I. Would the Chinese fight, I asked, and a long silence fell.
     “Possibly.” Pause. “Once.”


Flashman and the Dragon, p.47, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.


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A man apart

…in my time Grant was a man apart. He wasn’t much of a general; it was notorious he’d never read a line outside the Bible; he was so inarticulate he could barely utter any order but “Charge!”; his notions of discipline were to flog anything that moved; the only genius he possessed was for his bull fiddle; he could barely read a map, and the only spark of originality he’d ever shown was to get himself six months in close tack for calling his colonel a drunkard. But none of this mattered in the least, because your see, Hope Grant was the best fighting man in the world.

Flashman and the Dragon, p.46, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.

Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, soldier.