Those who have never felt the sensation of a really good horse bounding and stretching away under them, and the consequent elation, the wonder as to “what could stop us?” cannot grasp what a cavalry soldier’s feelings are in the “Charge.” Following the centuries which saw the final success of the ordered phalanx of Rome, time after time the more savage races of horsemen--Attila with his Hunnish squadrons or Abdur-Rahman with Moslem hordes--drive all before them, anticipating the flight of peace-loving, easy-going farmers and traders, living on the country and carrying off what pleases them. Then held sway The good old rule ... the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can. Ages roll by, the picture changes. The days of Norman chivalry animate and fire the imagination. The hunter warriors, knights, and squires lead their troops in battle array, throwing them into the combat at the decisive moment. Broken bones incurred whilst unhorsing a friend, or a shrewd spear-thrust when cleaving to the chine a foe, in single combat, were adventures by no means to be declined or avoided. Chivalry or enthusiastic religious zeal qualify the rougher side of their devotion to arms and horsemanship. In all ages the horse-lovers, the best-mounted nations, have carried all before them. _Ceteris paribus_ this is true to-day. Then came the days of “villainous saltpetre,” and many began to doubt and to number the days of cavalry; and always after a time there rises the cavalry leader who, emerging from the dangers of a youth spent in war and sport, sees that pace, weight, _moral_, and the “àpropos” make up for all the odds, if only leaders, men, and horses are trained, and their weight and pace rightly applied. Next in order come Gustavus Adolphus; Cromwell, our great cavalry leader, and his Ironsides riding knee to knee, and rallying immediately after the shock; Frederick the Great, and his captains, Ziethen and Seydlitz, and their ordered application of masses of cavalry. Then grand old Blücher,[1] and his antagonists of the Napoleonic era, Murat, Lasalle, Curély. Certain fixed principles keep cropping up which appear to have guided these heroes in their movements and dispositions. They are:-- A. Cohesion in the ranks, or knee-to-knee riding. B. The moral effect of advancing horsemen. C. The flank march. D. The “àpropos” charge ridden well home. E. Surprise. F. The immediate rally. G. The necessity of a reserve. H. Training of the individual man and horse. I. Care of the horse’s condition. The more we are able to read and learn of their views of training, leading, and applying the shock of cavalry, the more we see how little which is new can be written on the subject.