Half the art

      If half the art of survival is running, the other half is keeping a straight face. I can’t count the number of times my fate has depended on my response to some unexpected and abominable proposal—like the night Yakub Beg suggested I join a suicidal attempt to scupper some Russian ammunition ships, or Sapten’s jolly notion about swimming naked into a Gothic castle full of Bismark’s thugs, or Brooke’s command to me to lead a charge against a headhunter’s stockade. Jesu, the times we have seen.

Flashman and the Redskins, p.43, 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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All men fear

It is no sin to be fearful, any more than it is a sin to be one-legged or red-haired. All men fear – even Yakub and Kutebar and all of them. To conquer fear, some need love, and some hate, and some greed, and some even – hasheesh.

Flashman at the Charge, pp.283-4, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Demon kings and fools

I suppose he was a bit of a demon king, with his forked beard and skull-lock, and that rare thing in Central Asia, which they say is a legacy of Alexander’s Greek mercenaries – the bright blue eyes of the European. And he had the happiest smile, I think, that ever I saw on a human face. You only had to see it to understand why the Syr Daria tribes carried on their hopeless struggle against the Russians; fools will always follow the Yakub Begs of this world.

Flashman at the Charge, p.242, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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As the wild sheep defecate

‘You see?’ says Yakub Beg, craning his neck and trying to grin. ‘A dotard, flown with dreams. A badawai zhazh-kayan* who talks as the wild sheep defecate, at random, everywhere. When you and I go hither , Flashman bahadur, we shall leave him, and even the Ruskis will take pity on such a dried-up husk, and employ him to clean their privies –those of the common soldiers, you understand, not the officers.’

*A wild babbler

Flashman at the Charge, pp.220-21, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Yakub Beg.