have returned to that country before 1864, and we know (from Flashman on the March) that he was in Mexico in 1867. Characters Fictional characters Harry Paget Flashman - The hero or anti-hero Reverend Josiah Carpenter Mrs Phoebe Carpenter Historical characters James Hope Grant - British general and commander of the British forces during the Second Opium War. Flashman says, "He wasn't much of a general; it was notorious he'd never read a line outside the Bible; he was so inarticulate he could barely utter any order but 'Charge!'; his notions of discipline were to flog anything that moved...But none of this mattered in the least because, you see, Hope Grant was the best fighting man in the world." Frederick Townsend Ward - American soldier of fortune and initial commander of the Ever Victorious Army. Flashman tries to shoot him at one point, but later says, "while Gordon finished the Taiping business, it was young happy-go-lucky Fred who broke the ground for him." Hong Xiuquan - Founder and leader of the Taiping Rebellion, referred to as Hung Hsiu-chuan. Flashman meets him at a time when his mind has deteriorated from excess debauchery, and refers to him as a "raving, dangerous, dreadful madman, and one of the most diabolical powers ever loosed on a suffering world." Harry Smith Parkes - British diplomat John Arbuthnot Fisher - Midshipman when Flashman meets him on the Pearl River, but later Admiral of the Fleet. Garnet Joseph Wolseley - British army officer on Hope Grant's staff in China. Charles Montauban - Commander of the French forces during the Second Opium War. Lord Elgin - High Commissioner to China and the ambassador whose job it was to go to Peking and see that the Treaty of Tientsin was honoured. He was also responsible for the destruction of the Summer Palace, which was vilified by many as an uncivilised act of vandalism. Flashman, however, liked him and called him, "the shrewdest diplomatic of his day, hard as a hammer and subtle as a Spaniard." Flashman sees the destruction of the Summer Palace as a way of punishing the cruel and decadent court rather than the populace. John Moyse - the "Private of the Buffs" who refuses to kow-tow to a local mandarin. Flashman has no such scruples. Dighton Probyn - British cavalry officer, decorated with Victoria Cross. Li Xiucheng - Military commander of the Taiping Rebellion, referred