The beauty of worthy things is not in the face but in the backside, endearing more by their departure than their address.
The arrangement, temporary or otherwise, was usually public and acknowledged when at the highest level; only when it was clandestine and conducted to the injury of legitimate relatives did it become u...
Speak for yourself,’ said Danny Hislop. ‘I’m held together by intellectual curiosity. So are we all. We were wonderfully specious at Novgorod—Best will remember—about our reasons for staying in Russia...
So, as Lymond strode out and stopped, rigid and white by the doorpost, Sybilla set eyes on Francis, the son of her heart; and so Francis Crawford, after four years of unharnessed power, came face to f...
Señor, more wine? I am amazed,’ said the captain, ‘that so lovely a lady has not married.’‘But indeed she has married,’ said Lymond. ‘Five times. And not one husband, poor fellow, survived matrimony b...
Philippa thinks of you, as she thinks of me, as a rather run-down institution for indigent imbeciles.
One battle in twelve might be won by a brilliant military stratagem. The rest stood or fell by somebody’s blunders. Only rarely, there came the feel of a great campaign evolved by a stylist: imaginati...
My name is Francis Crawford, and my brother and I studied at St Barbe.’‘I know that,’ said Moses. He took the ring, and stood, the broad grin stamped on his features. ‘It is true what you did to all t...
Man is not intellect only,’ Guthrie said. ‘Not until you reject all the claims of your body. Not until you have stamped out, little by little, all that is left of your soul.
Lymond, left to speak first, said agreeably, Quite so. I, King of Flesh, flourishing in my flowers. Come in. I am sensible, sober, and have no designs on your virtue.
Lymond's behaviour, as always, went to the limits of polite usage and then hurtled off into space.
Lymond said, ‘You were too intent on your own slaughter; too ruthless; too greedy. You have pushed me until I have no alternatives left. You must take the consequences of that.
Kate viewed him suspiciously. I don’t see why I should abandon my entertainment because of your conscience. It isn’t quite conscience so much as horrified admiration, said Lymond.
Kate slid to her knees, pulling the child’s head to her breast, her mouth in its hair. Pippa. Pippa, we’re awful fools. What Father means is that truly nothing we have ever done can harm us, and Mr. C...
It was, perhaps, a mark of Francis Crawford's singular authority that he returned to Compiegne after five days' absence to find his forces well quartered, in good heart and active in harassing the ene...
It was to be expected that when he became in turn a leader of men, Francis should prove hard on others; should observe no laws; should fight, regardless of method, for victory.
It was a French Christmas; a debonair Christmas full of frolic and folly; a spry, Gallic unctuous Christmas. Henry of France, at last roused to boldness and the cunning exercise of spite, had sent a s...
It isn’t that music doesn’t matter: the reverse, as it happens. So my defences against it are very strong. Can you understand that?
It is said,’ said the Aga Morat, ‘that blindness of the eyes is a lighter thing than blindness of the perceptive faculties of the mind. The sun is high: the perception is dazzled. One has made divers...
In order to rule, one must face reality.