Stanchest

The knight needed no second command: he ordered a band of his stanchest followers to horse—men who had fought by his side in Flanders, and there learnt more reverence for Sir Captain than Sir Priest.

When the mainland of China fell, one of America's stanchest personal allies was driven, with what forces he had left, across the Formosa Straits to that island which is now the remaining remnant of Free China.