with the conviction that he can dash and ride over everything; as if
the art of war were precisely the same as that of fox-hunting. I need
not remind you of the charge of your two heavy brigades at Waterloo:
this charge was utterly useless, and all the world knows they came upon
a masked battery, which obliged a retreat, and entirely disconcerted
Wellington's plans during the rest of the day."

"Permit me," he added, "to point out a gross error as regards the dress
of your cavalry. I have seen prisoners so tightly habited that it was
impossible for them to use their sabres with facility." The French Marshal
concluded by observing - "I should wish nothing better than such material
as your men and horses are made of; since with generals who wield cavalry,
and officers who are thoroughly acquainted with that duty in the field,
I do not hesitate to say I might gain a battle."

Such was the opinion of a man of cool judgment, and one of the most
experienced cavalry officers of the day.



APPEARANCE OF PARIS WHEN THE ALLIES ENTERED


I propose giving my own impression of the aspect of Paris and its vicinity
when our regiment entered that city on the 25th of June, 1815. I recollect
we marched from the plain of St. Denis, my battalion being about five
hundred strong, the survivors of the heroic fight of the 18th of June.
We approached near enough to be within fire of the batteries of Montmartre,
and bivouacked for three weeks in the Bois de Boulogne. That now beautiful
garden was at the period to which I refer a wild pathless wood, swampy,