d to defend their brigades in the open
field from the onslaught of the cavalry, yet they themselves do no one
any injury, and he who throws himself upon their long spears deserves
what he gets. In short, I have during my life seen many sharp
encounters, but seldom found that a pikeman ever caused the death of
any one." Nevertheless the pikemen kept their ground till towards the
end of the seventeenth century. The musketeers who were, however, the
great mass of the infantry, were rendered more agile by Gustavus
Adolphus; he discarded from the Swedish army the musket rests,
lightened their weapons and the calibre of the balls, of which there
were thirteen to the pound, and introduced instead of the rattling
bandoliers, paper cartridges and pockets; but the musketeers, without
bayonets, slow in firing, unaccustomed to fight in close ranks, were
little fitted to decide an engagement.

The influence of the cavalry on the other hand increased. At the
beginning of the war there were two contending principles concerning
them, the method and arming of old knightly traditions were mixed up
with the Landsknechte characteristics, many of whom were also horsemen.
The heavy cavalry were still considered an aristocratic corps, the
nobleman still placed himself with his charger, his knightly armour,
his old knightly lance, and his troop of vassals, for whom he drew pay,
under the standard of the cavalry regiments. But the war made an end
gradually of this remnant of old customs. It was still, however, an
object of ambition to join the army as a soldier of fortune, either
with an esquire or alone, and whoever estimated himself highly or had
made much booty, thronged to the cavalry standard. In the German army
there were four kinds of regular cavalry, the Lancers, in full armour
even to the knightly spurs, without shield, with the knightly lance or
the spear of the Landsknechte, a sword, and two holster pistols; the
Cuirassiers, with similar armour, pistols and sword; the Arquebussiers,
called later Carbineers, half armed, with morion, and pistol proof back
and breast pieces, with two pistols and an arquebuss on a small
bandolier; finally the Dragoons, mounted pikemen, or musketeers, who
fought either on foot or on horseback. Besides these there were
irregular cavalry Croats, Stradiots, and Hussars, who almost a century
before, in 1546, had made a great sensation in Germany when Duke
Maurice of Saxony borrowed them from King Ferdinand of