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S40 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[PEBIOD IV. 



wars and tremendous labours of Napoleon rendered it 

 impossible for him to devote the same close personal 

 attention to his horsemen that Frederick continually 

 bestowed upon his. 



For a time the Prussian army was imitaced by other 

 nations with ridiculous closeness, so much so as to 

 draw upon them severe strictures by military writers. 

 General Lloyd, who served in several of the campaigns 

 against Frederick, writing some years afterwards, 

 comments harshly upon the great attention paid to the 

 numberless and insignificant trifles with which all the 

 armies of Europe at that time abounded. He says their 

 whole science was reduced to adjust a hat or a button. 

 " They attribute," he writes, " the glorious victories of 

 the King of Prussia to these and like puerilities." 

 *' Short clothes, little hats, tight breeches, high-heeled 

 shoes, and an infinite number of useless motions in the 

 exercises and evolutions have been introduced without any 

 other reason than their being Prussian."' This extract 

 will give an idea of the great influence the Prussian 

 military system exercised over the armies of Europe 

 during the latter portion of the eighteenth century. 



^ Lloyd's History, Preface, p. ix. 



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