Frederick the Great

      “Who was Frederick the Great?”
      “A German king, John. Bit of a tick, I believe; used scent and played the flute.”



Flashman and the Angel of the Lord, p.15, Harper Collins, 1995.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, flute.

Perform the honours

“You know this man as Jassa,” says he to me. “Well, let me perform the honours by presenting Dr Josiah Harlan of Philadelphia, former packet-rat, imposter, coiner, spy, traitor, revolutionary, and expert in every rascality he can think of — and can’t he think, just? No common blackguard, mind you — Prince of Ghor once, weren’t you, Josiah, and unfrocked governor of Gujerat, to say nothing of being a pretender (it’s the truth Flashman) to the throne of Afghanistan, no less! You know what they call this beauty up in the high hills? The Man Who Would Be King!”


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.108, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, king.

Heel Fido!

Mark you, I’d no time to waste marveling over the fatuousness of this kind of mismanagement; it was nothing new in our army, anyway, and still isn’t, from what I can see. Ask any commander to choose between toiling over the ammunition returns for a division fighting for its life, and taking the King’s dog for a walk, and he’ll be out there in a trice, bawling ‘Heel Fido!’

Flashman at the Charge, p.29, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,army, commander.

Strange and manifold

It was at one of these matches that I first saw Shah Sujah, the king, who had come down as the guest of McNaghton. He was a portly, brown-bearded man who stood gravely contemplating the game, and when McNaghton asked him how he liked it, said:

'Strange and manifold are the ways of God.'

Flashman, p.88, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Shah Sujah,God,cricket.