THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 133 



amongst this people a larger and more formidable 

 force of cavalry than the whole of united Europe 

 could bring together ; and in all the regular cavalry 

 of the Russian line, there never was a horseman, 

 however laboriously drilled, whom the untutored 

 Cossack would not charge, wheel round, and over- 

 come, though armed cap-a-pie ', with his mere nagaica, 

 or whip. The Cossacks are invaluable as light 

 cavalry ; they are the most daring and intelligent 

 foragers in the world, who take care of themselves 

 by instinct, and without taxing the foresight or the 

 ingenuity of the general. Spreading on every side, 

 they strike terror into the neighbourhood, and ren- 

 der it almost impossible to surprise a Russian force. 

 Brought up amongst turbulent tribes, the vigilant 

 Cossack never exposes himself to be taken unawares, 

 as all other light troops do, when scattered abroad ; and 

 thus he can act even in the midst of a guerilla pea- 

 santry. 



France still remembers with shuddering rage the 

 two irruptions of those terrible barbarians upon her 

 soil. The fearful image of another Cossack invasion 

 has been embodied by Beranger, the greatest poet of 

 France, in his " Chant du Cosaque," thus vigorously 

 translated by " Father Prout :" 



L 



