"Waiting for him in Edinburgh they wondered briefly, without concern, how he proposed to penetrate a walled city to reach them." page 11

"Europe, poised delicately over a brand-new board, waited for the opening gambit." page 31

"She shut the door, smiling, and left him to think it over." page 66

"He had a new ambition: in this penumbral region to cast a shadow bigger, grander and more devastating than Lymond's." page 96

"But nobody heeded him, for just then the leading wain rolled in bovine panic off the road and sank two wheels up to the axle in mud." page 105

"Violence in nature is one thing, " said Christian, "but among civilized mankind, what excuse is there?" page 156

"The proposition was ludicrous: at any other time he would have dealt with it promptly and sharply." page 219

"You are the only person with a shaky interest in ethics and the emotional stability of...