3. As to a cavalry attack _in front_: If the infantry stand firm, the
chances are against its success. If the infantry cannot be attacked in
flank, the cavalry should therefore wait till it has been shattered by
artillery, or has become exhausted, or demoralized, or till it begins to
manoeuvre.
4. If the infantry be _in line_, or _in column_, cavalry should attack
it in flank; if _in square_, at one of its angles; if _in several
squares_, at one of its flank ones, so as to avoid a cross-fire from the
other squares. If a flank square be broken, the next one to it, being no
longer protected by the fire of any other square, may be attacked with
the same prospect of success; and so on successively.
5. But if the hostile infantry have _supporting cavalry_, we must not
charge in such a manner as to enable it to take us in flank.
6. To _test the infantry_ about to be attacked, cavalry may pass a few
hundred paces in its front, to threaten it, sending forward a few
horsemen to fire, gallop forward, and raise a dust. If the infantry,
instead of disregarding these movements, begin to fire, it will probably
be broken, on the cavalry's charging it at once and vigorously, whether
in column or in line. But otherwise, if the infantry reserve its fire,
and only sends out a few sharpshooters.
7. _Ascending slopes_, if not too steep, are not unfavorable to attacks
on infantry; for their shots, as experience shows, will then mostly fly
too high.
8. On a _descending slope_, cavalry charges down on infantry with
terrible effect; as it then arrives with an impetus which nothing can
stop.
At Waterloo, a column of French infantry was ascending a steep slope.
Suddenly the Scotch Greys cavalry regiment dashed down upon it from
above, rode over, and destroyed it.