nd inevitably tend to open outwards, so as at least to meet
their enemy on an equal frontage. Hence every cavalry commander tries
to strike at the flank of his enemy, and the latter manoeuvres to meet
him, and if both have equal mobility, local collision must ensue on an
equal and parallel front. Therefore both strive to put every available
man and horse in their first line, and if men and horses were
invulnerable such a line would sweep over the ground like a scythe and
nothing could withstand it. Since, however, bullets kill at a distance,
and inequalities and unforeseen difficulties of the ground may throw
hundreds of horses and riders, a working compromise has to be found to
meet eventualities, and, other things being equal, victory inclines to
the leader who best measures the risks and uncertainties of his
undertaking, and keeps in hand a sufficient reserve to meet all chances.

Thus there has arisen a saying, which is sometimes regarded as
axiomatic, that in cavalry encounters the last closed reserve always
wins. The truth is really that he who has best judged the situation and
the men on both sides finds himself in possession of the last reserve at
the critical moment. The next point is, how to ensure the presence of
this reserve, and what is the critical moment. The battle-field is the
critical moment in each phase of every campaign--not the mere chance
locality on which a combat takes place, but the decisive arena on which
the strategic consequences of all pre-existing conditions of national
cohesion, national organization and of civilization are focussed. It is
indeed the judgment-seat of nature, on which the right of the race to
survive in the struggle for existence is weighed and measured in the
most impartial scales.

Before, however, the final decision of the battle-field can be attained,
a whole series of subordinate decisions have to be fought out, success
in each of which conditions the result of the next series of encounters.
Every commanding officer of cavalry thus finds himself successively
called on to win a victory locally at any cost, and the question of
economy of force does not concern him at all. Hence the same fundamental
rules apply to all cavalry combats, of whatever magnitude, and condition
the whole of cavalry tactics. Broadly speaking, if two cavalries of
approximately equal mobility manoeuvre against each other in open
country, neither side can afford the loss of time that dismounting to