CHAP. IV.] 



FEUDAL CAVALRY. 



135 



kause 



, for 



and 



in 



bther 



Be in 



The cavalry were usually drawn up on the right and 

 left of the infantry, the best troops being placed on the 

 outside flanks. They were trained not to follow too 

 impetuously the enemy's horse if they succeeded in 

 putting them to flight, but to keep well in hand, for fear 

 of falling into an ambush, or of becoming separated 

 from their own infantry. They never dismounted to 

 fight on foot, except in cases of great emergency. The 

 ordinary disposition for battle was in two lines and a 

 reserve. In case of a repulse the first line fell back 

 upon the second. They trusted very much to the bow, 

 and it was felt to be a public misfortune that archery 

 was fnlling into desuetude.^ The Emperor Leon advises 

 and commands the military youth of his empire to 

 practise the exercise of the bow assiduously, and to con- 

 tinue doing so until reaching the age of forty years. 



Such was the state of the cavalry service in these 

 nations when first the Hungarians or Turks (as they 

 were called by the Greek historians) began to loom up 

 in the east, and to threaten with conquest and destruction 

 the people of Germany and Western Europe. Their 

 military force, to which we have already referred, was 

 very numerous, and was divided with their allies into 

 seven equal corps or divisions, each of which consisted of 

 about 39,000 warriors. Seven hereditary chiefs, or 

 voiSvodes, commanded these bodies, and formed a council 

 ovei which a supreme ruler was elected to command.^ 



They marched accompanied by women and children, 

 and by immense numbers of cattle and sheep, which fed 

 upon the plains over which they wandered. This made 

 it necessary for their light cavalry to occupy the country, 

 and to patrol to a very great distance from the main 

 body. This moving population had gradually swept 

 through Scythia, until they had approached the limits of 

 the Byzantine and Frankish Empires, and had invaded 

 the latter in Bavaria, where in the battle of Augsburg 

 the Parthian tactics of the Turkish cavalry, in attacking 

 and retreating, confused and bewildered the Christians, 



» Gibbon, v. 68. 



2 Ibid. 412. 



