quotes_manwas.htm

…”What does the sentry say?” said the colonel.
“Sez ‘e speaks English, sir,” said the corporal.
“So you brought him into the mess instead of handing him over to the sergeant! If he spoke all the Tongues of the Pentecost you’ve no business-“
Again the bundle groaned and muttered. Little Mildred had risen from his place to inspect. He jumped back as though he had been shot…

This is from “The Man who Was” in Life’s Handicap.

A tortured wreck of a man, dressed in rags, has been found outside the barracks of the White Hussars. He turns out to be a one-time Hussar officer, who had been captured thirty years before, during the Crimean War, and imprisoned for insulting a Russian colonel. Now he had escaped, and found his way back to the regiment that had been his home.