Robert Louis Stevenson

“ The priest and the commandant assured me of their sympathy with all I said, and made a heavy sighing over the bitterness of contemporary feeling.
‘Why, you cannot say anything to a man with which he does not absolutely agree,’ said I, ‘but he flies up at you in a temper.’
They both declared that such a state of things was antichristian.
While we were thus agreeing, what should my tongue stumble upon but a word in praise of Gambetta’s moderation. The old soldier’s countenance was instantly suffused with blood; with the palms of his hands he beat the table like a naughty child. ”

“ Out of the noise of cannon and trumpets, he was in the act of passing into this still country bordering on the grave, where men sleep nightly in their grave-clothes, and, like phantoms, communicate by signs. ”

“ Gaetulia is the former Roman region of modern Algiers.↑ translation .. "This is my advice as an old soldier", observed the Commandant; "and this gentleman's as a priest."↑ translation .. "Yes," added the parish priest, nodding; "as an old soldier and as a priest."↑ as lively as a grig .. a saying supposed by some to be a corruption of "As merry as a Greek; " by others, to be an allusion to the cricket (grig) .↑ a faddling hedonist .. "a trifling hedonist", someone who seeks pleasure as the main aim in life. ”