“ Juan Fernandez islands. Cochrane drew on the cigar and watched its smoke drift out the window. The islands are three hundred fifty miles off the coast, in the middle of nothing! They’re where Robinson… Bernard Cornwell
“ It was then I first saw Ubba fight and marveled at him, for he was a bringer of death, a grim warrior, sword lover. He did not fight in a shield wall, but ran into his enemies, shield slamming one way… Bernard Cornwell
“ It might have been a moment or an hour. To this day I do not know. I listen to my poets sing of age-old fights and I think no, it was not like that, and certainly that fight aboard Haesten's ship was… Bernard Cornwell
“ Instead he was summoning his last tension, like a bowman drawing the cord of a hunting bow an extra inch to give the arrow deadly force, then Steapa howled like an animal and charged. Weland charged t… Bernard Cornwell
“ Idle men make mischief, especially idle men supplied with ale, whores, and weapons. Bernard Cornwell
“ I was screaming and hitting at him, but he thought it all so very funny, and he draped me belly down on the saddle in front of him and then he spurred into the chaos to continue the killing.And that w… Bernard Cornwell
“ I was Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg, in my war-glory. The arm rings of fallen enemies glinted on my forearms, my shield was newly painted with the snarling wolf’s head of my house, while another wolf, th… Bernard Cornwell
“ I want to believe him, my lady! Leofstan said earnestly. I want to believe that this is a miracle to accompany my enthronement! That on Easter day we will have the joy of bringing a pagan horde into t… Bernard Cornwell
“ I want it to be the poet's Camelot: green grass and high towers and ladies in gowns and warriors strewing their paths with flowers. I want minstrels and laughter! Wasn't it ever like that?A little, I… Bernard Cornwell
“ I swear to be your man, I said, looking into his pale eyes, until your family is safe.He hesitated. I had given him the oath, but I had qualified it.I had let him know that I would not remain his man… Bernard Cornwell
“ I recalled that a man named Judas had betrayed the nailed god. That never made any sense to me. The god had to be nailed to a cross if he was to become their savior, and then the Christians blame the… Bernard Cornwell
“ I learned that the joy and the fear are the exact same things, the one merely transformed into the other by action, Bernard Cornwell
“ I had broken three Saxon shield-walls and buried Hywelbane to her hilt in my country’s enemies before I had been elected to Mithras’s service, but all Lancelot had ever done was boast and posture. Bernard Cornwell
“ I don’t fight old men, he said. That was strange. No one had ever called me old before. I remember laughing, but there was shock behind my laughter. Weeks before, talking with Æthelflaed, I had mocked… Bernard Cornwell
“ I am no Christian. These days it does no good to confess that, for the bishops and abbots have too much influence and it is easier to pretend to a faith than to fight angry ideas. I was raised a Chris… Bernard Cornwell
“ I am never certain that deserters are to be trusted, Gudin said mildly. He was accompanied by a burly French sergeant who kept giving the tigers nervous glances. If a man can betray one flag, Gudin ob… Bernard Cornwell
“ He’s discovered the value, I said, of murderous bastards like me, so perhaps he’ll learn to distrust the advice of sniveling bastards like you who told him the Danes could be defeated by prayer. Bernard Cornwell
“ He was watching my eyes. A man who uses a sword with lethal skill always matches his opponent's eyes. Bernard Cornwell
“ He had pretended to be full of remorse, and shouted that remorse to the sky, No more tits, God! No more tits! Keep me from tits! and I remembered how Alfred had turned away in frustrated disgust. Exan… Bernard Cornwell
“ He doesn’t want to face Englishmen,’ the Lord of Douglas said, and he knew he was right. Ever since the Scottish knights Bernard Cornwell
