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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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Yakub Beg, fools.

All for a shilling a day

...but it [Garryowen] always sounds bitter on my ears, because I think of those brave, deluded, pathetic bloody fools in that Russian shed, with their mangled bodies and lost limbs, all for a shilling a day, and a pauper’s grave – and yet they thought Cardigan, who’d of flogged ’em for a rusty spur and would have seen them murdered under the Russian guns because he hadn’t wit and manhood enough to tell Lucan to take his order to hell – they thought he was ‘a good old commander’, and they even cheered me, who’d have turned tail on them at a click of a bolt.

Flashman at the Charge, pp.122-3, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Charge of the Light Brigade, Garryowen.

The scene at Gandamack

There is a painting of the scene at Gandamack, which I saw a few years ago, and it was like enough the real thing as I remember it. No doubt it is very fine and stirs martial thoughts in the glory-blown asses who look at it; my only thought when I saw it was, ‘You poor bloody fools!’ and I said so , to the disgust of other viewers.

Flashman, p.206, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Gandamack.

Farewell Elphy Bey

‘Flashman,’ says he [Elphinstone], gathering his cloak around him and pulling his woollen cap over his head, ‘I am leaving you for only a little time, but in these desperate days it is not wise to count too far ahead. I trust I find you well enough in a day or two, my boy. God bless you.

And god rot you, you old fool, I thought; you won’t find me in a day or two unless you can ride a damned sight faster than I think you can.

Flashman, pp.199 - 200, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,William Elphinstone, Elphy Bey.

Elphy Bey stood alone

Let me say that when I talk of disasters I speak with authority. I have served at Balaclava, Cawnpore, and Little Big Horn. Name the biggest born fools who wore uniform in the nineteenth-century – Cardigan, Sale, Custer, Raglan, Lucan – I knew them all. Think of all the conceivable misfortunes that can arise from combinations of folly, cowardice and sheer bad luck, and I’ll give you chapter and verse. But I still state unhesitatingly that for pure, vacillating stupidity, for superb incompetence to command, for ignarance combined with bad judgement – in short, for the true talent for catastrophe – Elphy Bey stood alone. Others abide our question, but Elphy outshines them all as the greatest military idiot of our own or any other day.

Flashman, pp.106-107, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.

Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes,William Elphinstone, Elphy Bey.