Things, of course, did not always work as smoothly as in-
tended; the enemy flung their cavalry against that of the
French, and a more or less unsatisfactory cavalry duel
ensued. When this was the case, the following infantry
were not always equal to their task, but if they failed, there
was left in his hand his final reserve — the Guard; and the
strength of these lay almost entirely in their extraordinary
capacity for enduring heavy loss. It was indeed fortunate
for Prussia that she had still some men left her who retained
their heads in the midst of the general confusion of ideas,
and had insisted on the necessity of maintaining the high-
est possible standard of discipline. Without this back-
bone, the skirmishing hordes would have been totally in-
capable of opposing the French when handled by Napoleon
in person.
It will be seen, therefore, that the tactics of the two

opposing forces had changed about. At the outset the
— 4



42 Cavalry vs. Infantky.
