Highlander's pace

. . . we travelled at the Highlander’s pace, a mile at the trot and a mile at the stride followed by a moment's rest standing, and then away again.


Flashman on the March, p.121, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


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A ragged fence of bayonets

…and the muskets of the infantry squares came to the present in a ragged fence of bayonets that must be ridden under as that magnificent sea of men and horses engulfed us. I never saw the like in my life, I who watched the great charge against Campbell’s Highlanders at Balaclava — but those were just Russians, while these were the fathers of the Guides and Probyn’s and the Bengal Lancers, and the only thing to stop them at full tilt was a horse soldier as good as themselves.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.260, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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Red tartan

He was a real Pathan mercenary, with iron moustaches and a nose like a hatchet — but he was dressed from top to toe, puggaree,* robe and pyjamas, in the red tartan of the 79th Highlanders!


*Turban.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, pp.63-4, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


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Home-grown savages in tow

…I took a chapatti and a handful of chilis, gave the time of day to a naik with the Sobraon medal, and passed on, drawn by the distant pig-squeal of pipes that always makes my dear wife burst into tears—ah, we’ve our own home-grown savages in tow, have we, thinks I. But they weren’t Highlanders, just the Royals. Flashman and the Dragon, p.45, Fontana Paperback edition, 1986.

Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, Highlnders.