Run through!

      What is it like to be run through? I'll tell you. For an instant, nothing. Then hideous, tearing agony for another instant — and then nothing again as you see the blade withdrawn and the blood welling on your shirt, for the pain is lost in shock and disbelief as your eyes meet your assailant's. It's a long moment, that, in which you realise you ain't dead, and that he's about to launch another thrust to finish you — and it's remarkable how swiftly you can move then, with a hole clean through you from front to back, about midway between your navel and your hip, and sprouting gore like a pump.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.153, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


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Slicing at my neck

      God, he was quick! One whip of his hand and his blade was slicing at my neck, and if I hadn't practised my favourite retire, which is to fall backwards, howling, my head would have been on the carpet.


Flashman and the Tiger, p.149, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2000.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, fencing.

Ply the Maltese Cross

There were four new swords against us, and as the Mongol reeled I could only ply the Maltese Cross for my very life (that’s the Afghan’s last resort, an up-down-across pattern that no opponent can get by until you fall down exhausted, which happens after about ten seconds, in my condition).

Flashman and the Dragon, p.256, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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I ain’t Guillaume Danet

…Sang came after me, frothing like a pi-dog. On clear floor I fell on guard, parrying two cuts to take his measure, and my heart leaped as I realized I’d been right in one vital hope — he couldn’t use a sabre to save himself. He was a blind, furious lasher, so I exposed my flank, took a cut on the forte, waited for his lurching recovery, and ran him through the left arm. (I ain’t Guillaume Danet, you understand, but Sang’s swordplay would have broken the troop-sergeant’s heart.)


Flashman and the Dragon, p.255, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.



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The old Flashman triple pass

…as he cut at me and missed he staggered, and in desperation I tried the old Flashman triple pass – a sudden thrust at the face, a tremendous kick at his essentials, and a full-blooded downward cut. But where I had been to school, Rudi had graduated with honours; he side-stepped the thrust and kick, and if I hadn’t postponed my intended cut in favour of an original parry – a blind sideways sweep accompanied by a squeal of alarm – he would have had me.

Royal Flash, p.229-30, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1978.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes.