(irAi'. j;ix.] MAR8HAL SAXE ON CAVALRY. 



309 



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or to become scattered.' This force, like the heavy 

 artillery, was to Ije kept with the maiu army, never to be; 

 used for escorts, for detachments, or reconnaissances, but 

 only for the charge in regular engagements. 



The heavy horsemen he armed with cuirasses and 

 helmets, — the front ranks with lances. He siipiDlied 

 them also with a good sword, four feet in length, a car- 

 bine, but no pistols.^ The me^i. were to be carefully chosen, 

 five feet six or seven inches in height, and not corpulent. 



The dragoons, according to the Marshal, were to be 

 twice as numerous as the heavy cavalry, and mounted on 

 small active horses. Their manoeuvres were to be effec- 

 ted with celerity, and they were required to understand 

 the evolutions of the infantry service, as well as those of 

 the cavalry. He armed them with the musket, sword, 

 and lance ; the latter weapon to serve them as pikes, 

 when fighting on foot. The men, he says, were to be 

 small, about five feet or five feet and an inch high. The 

 cavalry and dragoons he ranged both alike in three ranks. 



When the dragoons dismounted they formed with 

 their ranks open, so that they could wheel to the right by 

 half-quarters, or one-eighth of the front of each rank, by 



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which the squadron would be formed in eight ranks 

 facing the right. They then dismounted, fastened their 

 horses together, and formed up where the squadron had 

 formerlv fronted, the right-hand man of these rows and 

 the left remained mounted and took charge of the horses.* 

 To the dragoons he committed all the minor services of the 

 army, the escorts and reconnoitring and outpost duties. 



The Marshal does not explain clearly how his dragoons 

 were to use the musket, lance, and sword on foot ; he 

 certainly could not have meant that they were all to 



' Saxe's Reveries, i. 133. - Ibid. i. 134. » Ibid. i. 136, 137. 



