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A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period IV. 



days, during which time he had kept up the pursuit 

 ineossantly, marching about tliirty mih's a day. In 

 addition to the prisoners he had also captured 120 pieces 

 of cannon, 500 waggons, 11 flags, 200 officers, and 17 

 generals. In fact the cavalry had performed a glorious 

 part in the campaign, and their vigorous use in the 

 pursuit was equal to anything of the kind that had 

 happened since Charles XII. rode his cavalry after the 

 flying Saxons for nine days without unsaddling. 



This was the first instance of the kind in Napoleon's 

 wars, but we find many examples of the use of the same 

 system in his subsequent history. In the advance, 

 which at once took place upon Vienna, the cavalry 

 under Murat performed most valuable services, pressing 

 the retreating foe with vigorous pertinacity at every 

 step. 



In the next great action, that of Austerlitz, we see 

 Napoleon placing his cavalry in that portion of the plain 

 in which they could best operate, and where the nature of 

 the ground was most favourable to their use. There 

 were a succession of charges of cavalry in this battle, 

 the success swaying from side to side as fresh reserves 

 w^ere poured in. In one of these charges Kellerman's 

 cavalry were attacked by the Austrian cuirassiers 

 under Prince Lichtenstein and instantly broken. The 

 Austrians following up the success broke through the 

 first French line, and swept through the intervals of the 

 second line, when they were charged in turn by Murat 

 with the cavalry of the reserve, and driven back through 

 a terrible fire which opened upon them from the flanks 

 of the squares and columns of the French infantry, and 

 stretched half their number upon the plain.* 



As an armistice was concluded shortly after this battle 

 the cavalry did not have occasion to perform any special 

 service in the pursuit. The following campaign, that of 

 Jena, however, shows a still further development of the 

 use of cavalry both in action and in following up a 

 success. 



Napoleon, with his usual wonderful strategical ability, 



^ Alison, ii. 370. 



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