126 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



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 neighborhood, 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 :" 



Come, arouse thee up, my gallant horse, and bear thy rider on ! 

 The comrade thou, and the friend I trow, of the dweller on the 



Don: 

 Pillage and death have spread their wings; 'tis the hour to hie 



thee forth, 



And with thy hoofs an echo wake to the trumpets of the North. 

 Nor gems, nor gold do men behold upon thy saddle tree ; 

 But earth affords the wealth of lords for thy master and for thee. 

 Then proudly neigh, my charger grey ! Oh ! thy chest is broad and 



ample, 

 And thy hoofs shall prance o'er the fields of France, and the pride 



of her heroes trample. 



