CHAP. IX.] USE OF FIREARMS BY CAVALRY. 



239 



busiers being employed by Pescara as skirmishers, to 

 open a heavy fire against the French gendarmerie, 

 heavy losses were inflicted on the horsemen who could 

 neither attack these musketeers, nor defend themselves 

 from their fire. The French king ordered his men to 

 open out, to lessen by that means the deadly effect of the 

 bullets, but it was all in vain, for then the infantry 

 penetrated their ranks, and killed great numbers of 

 them.^ 



The king, after performing prodigies of valour, was 

 taken prisoner, with many of his generals and officers. 

 No victory could have been more decisive than that won 

 by the imperialists, and it was supposed to have been 

 secured by the fact of the infantry and cavalry being 

 mixed together. As a matter of course that idea soon 

 became general, so that for a time the practice of inter- 

 mingling the services was adopted in most armies. 



We constantly read in the accounts of battles after 

 this time, "nstances of the use of firearms among the 

 cavalry, and of the placing of bodies of infantry arque- 

 busiers in the intervals between the squadrons of 

 horsemen. 



At Dreux in 1562 we find squadrons of gendarmes and 

 light cavalry placed in the intervals of the battalions of 

 infantry.^ At the battle of St. Denis in 1.567, the Pro- 

 testant arquebusiers withheld their fire until the cavalry 

 had come within fifty paces, when they poured in a 

 I'^.adly voUey with great effect.^ This plan adopted by 

 Coligny worked so well, that it enabled him to secure 

 the retreat of his army. 



The battle of Moncontour (1569) is important as show- 

 ing the method of warfare at that period. At this time 

 the German and Swiss infantry used the pikes only. 

 The French infantry were principally armed with the 

 arquebus, although some carried halberds and a few had 

 pikes. 



The French cavalry relied mainly on their lances, 

 while the German Reitres depended on 'Jieir pistols, and 



' Liskenne, iv. 353. ^ Duparcq, GueiTes de Religion, G9. 



=* Ibid. 70. 



il 







