[93] Sindia, Holkar, Bhonslay, are family appellations, but they serve to identify three of the chief Mahratta states better than the individual names of the successive rulers. [94] It is said that Wellesley had no information that the Kaitna was fordable there, but that he inferred it from the fact of there being another village opposite Assye, and no sort of bridge. [95] The parallel is singularly exact between the conduct of the three great Mahratta princes in 1803-4 and that of Austria, Russia and Prussia in 1805-6. The two former made war on Napoleon, trying in vain to induce Prussia to join them: after they had been decisively defeated at Austerlitz, Prussia alone attacked the conqueror, with the natural result of being still worse beaten at Jena. [96] This method of attack in oblique order, or in échelon, is by some writers treated as a great discovery, attributed to Frederick the Great of Prussia. He certainly won by these tactics his most conspicuous victory, Rossbach: but the method itself is in the nature of things, as soon as generals begin to use their brains; it is but one way of bringing superior force to bear on a vital point. [97] There is a story that Major George Lawrence, then a prisoner, communicated to his brother, and so to the commander-in-chief, the surprise which the Sikh officers had expressed to him at the small use made of the English artillery in previous battles. This may be true, but there is no need to suppose that this influenced the battle of Gujerat: any officer of ordinary judgment would have done at all times what Gough did only in his last battle. INDEX Abbeville, ford of Somme at, 60 _Acies_, order of battle, 30 — why necessarily a line, 175 — mediæval use of word, 30 Afghan war, its cause, 305 — failure of, 306 Agincourt, battle of, 5, 87 _sqq._ _Agmen_, order of march, 30, 175 Albuera, battle of, 211 Aliwal, battle of, 310 Alma, battle of, 272 Almanza, battle of, 169 Almaraz, bridge on Tagus, 223 Almeida, fortress on Portuguese frontier, 206, 216 — taken by Massena, 207 — re-taken by Wellington, 211 America, rivalry of England and France in, 179, 183 — War of Independence, 194 Angus, E. of, before Flodden, 120 Arapiles hills at Salamanca, 224 Archers, Norman, at Hastings, 25 — at Falkirk, 44 — at Bannockburn, 48, 49 — formation of, for defence, 62 — at Crecy, 63 — at Poitiers, 76, 77 — at Agincourt, 90 — at Verneuil, 93 — at Towton, 108 — at Flodden, 126 (_See also_ Long-bow.) Arcot, Clive's defence of, 295 Argaum, battle of, 303 Armagnac faction in France, 81, 92 Armies, standing, begin at end of Middle Ages, 129 — — none in England in Civil War, 129 — — feeling against, in England, 151 — — become necessary, 152 _Arrivall of King Edward_, 113