on,
they will find railways, defiles, river-crossings already defended by
infantry or popular levies. If they come upon an insurgent population
they will find great difficulties both in reconnaissance and
subsistence.

At every step they advance, the numbers of the opponent will be
constantly increasing, while their own strength diminishes. The
defiles will be occupied between their several columns, and they must
guard themselves in every direction. Their trains and baggage get into
confusion, and supply becomes all the more difficult the more rapidly
they advance, because the waggons cannot keep up with their movement,
and there is no time for requisitioning. Field batteries and lines of
infantry occupy the more important positions, the enemy's Cavalry
appears on the flanks, and man and horse break down at length under
the severity of the strain. Retreat becomes inevitable, and if they
ever get back at all, they can only reach their own Army after heavy
losses and with broken force. The damage which they can do to the
enemy remains small in proportion to his total power, even though it
is locally not inconsiderable. At the best one may hope to destroy
some railway not too far from the frontier, interrupt some telegraph
lines of communication, and disperse or capture some ammunition
depots, magazines, or snap up some convoys of reserve men and horses.
But the enemy has already taken these possibilities into account; they
will soon be overcome, and his arrangements in general will be hardly
disturbed.

If, on the other hand, the Cavalry is accompanied by infantry, it will
be even more hampered in its movements than by its own trains, and
will soon have to decide whether it should make its movements
dependent on those of its escort, thereby renouncing all hopes of
further results, or whether it should abandon the infantry to its
fate. Certain defiles in the vicinity of the frontier, which the
combined forces were able in advancing to occupy, the infantry may
well succeed in keeping open; but if it attempts to follow the tracks
of its own Cavalry, there can be no doubt it would be exposed to
inevitable destruction.

This applies equally to the cyclist--at least, as far as the machine
has as yet been developed; for though one cannot deny the great
advantage which its mobility under certain circumstances offers, yet
it remains too dependent on roads and weather to insure that freedom
and certainty of movement which in s