PREFACE, 



A SPECIAL history of the cavahy service has never, I 

 believe, been written in any language. This fact 

 attracted the attention of His Imperial Highness the 

 Grand Duke Nicholas, Inspector-General of the Kussian 

 cavalry, and feeling that so important a subject deserved 

 the closest study, he laid the matter before the Emperor 

 of Russia, and in the year 1874, with His Imperial 

 Majesty's sanction, offered three prizes for the three 

 best books on the history of that service. The com- 

 petition was thrown open to the officers of all foreign 

 armies. 



As it has been intimated to me that the commission 

 appointed to deal with the matter have no objection 

 to my doing so, I now publish the English edition of 

 my work without awaiting a decision. 



In the following pages I have recorded all the strik- 

 ing features in the history of the cavalry service from 

 the earliest period to the present time. I have com- 

 menced with the earliest use of the horse in war, and 

 have endeavoured to lay clearly before the reader the 

 various changes that have taken place, and the causes 

 that have led to them, throughout the long period which 



