“In [1814], Lieutenant Frederick Young, … [led 2000 irregulars against 200] Gurkhas in the hills. Their first showing, when not yet drawn together by any marked esprit de corps, was a poor one. The Gurkhas attacked on sight, whereupon the irregulars incontinently fled, leaving the chagrined Young with a handful of officers where he stood. The amused Gurkhas surrounded Young and asked why he had not fled with his men; to which he replied that he had not come so far in order to run away. The Gurkhas were delighted. ‘We could serve under men like you,’ they told him. … On his release Young recruited 3,000 Gurkhas … later to become the Sirmoor Rifles, the 2nd Gurkhas Rifles.”

David Bolt (1967) Gurkhas. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.