One of James Wolfe's fellow commanders, perhaps irked by his aggressive manner, complained to King George II that the man was quite mad. "Mad, is he?" the monarch retorted. "Then I wish he'd bite some of my other generals!"

[Wolfe died on September 13, 1759, while leading the historic attack on Quebec City which led to its capture from the French. On the 12th, Wolfe, sitting in the twilight in a rowboat on the St. Lawrence River, recited Gray's "Elegy" and declared that he would rather have written that poem than beat the French come the dawn. The poem's best-known line? "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."]