ere obliged to give way. The French
cavalry followed on their retreat, when, perhaps, the severest
hand-to-hand cavalry fighting took place within the memory of man. The
Duke of Wellington was perfectly furious that this arm had been engaged
without his orders, and lost not a moment in sending them to the rear,
where they remained during the rest of the day. This disaster gave the
French cavalry an opportunity of annoying and insulting us, and
compelled the artillerymen to seek shelter in our squares; and if the
French had been provided with tackle, or harness of any description,
our guns would have been taken. It is, therefore, not to be wondered
at that the Duke should have expressed himself in no measured terms
about the cavalry movements referred to. I recollect that, when his
grace was in our square, our soldiers were so mortified at seeing the
French deliberately walking their horses between our regiment and those
regiments to our right and left, that they shouted, "Where are our
cavalry? why don't they come and pitch into those French fellows?"

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S OPINION OF THE FRENCH CAVALRY

A day or two after our arrival in Paris from Waterloo, Colonel Felton
Hervey having entered the dining-room with the despatches which had
come from London, the Duke asked, "What news have you, Hervey?" upon
which, Colonel Felton Hervey answered, "I observe by the Gazette that
the Prince Regent has made himself Captain-General of the Life Guards
and Blues, for their brilliant conduct at Waterloo."

"Ah!" replied the Duke, "his Royal Highness is our Sovereign, and can
do what he pleases; but this I will say, the cavalry of other European
armies have won victories for their generals, but mine have invariably
got me into scrapes. It is true that they have always fought gallantly
and bravely, and have generally got themselves out of their
difficulties by sheer pluck."

The justice of this observation has since been confirmed by the charge
at Balaklava, where our cavalry undauntedly rushed into the face of
death under the command of that intrepid officer Lord Cardigan.

MARSHAL EXCELMANN'S OPINION OF THE BRITISH CAVALRY

Experience has taught me that there is nothing more valuable than the
opinions of intelligent foreigners on the military and naval
excellences, and the failures, of our united service. Marshal
Excelmann's opinion about the British cavalry struck me as remarkably
instructive: