M.du Marnet held them back, and made a sign that he wanted to answer Fougas alone.
"And why, then, if you please, would you set the cavalry aside ?" "Because the dragoon is an incomplete soldier." "Incomplete ?" "Yes, sir; and the proof is, that the Government has to buy four or five hundred francs' worth of horse in order to complete him.

And when the horse receives a ball or a bayonet thrust, the dragoon is no longer good for anything.

Have you ever seen a cavalryman on foot?
It would be a pretty sight!" "I see myself on foot every day, and I don't see anything particularly ridiculous about it." "I'm too polite to contradict you." "And for me, sir, I am too just to combat one paradox with another.

What would you think of my logic, if I were to say to you (the idea is not mine--I found it in a book), if I were to say to you, 'I entertain a high regard for infantry, but, after all, the foot soldier is an incomplete soldier, deprived of his birthright, an inefficient body deprived of that natural complement of the soldier, called a horse! I admire his courage, I perceive that he makes himself useful in battle; but, after all, the poor devil has only two feet at his command, while we have four!' You see fit to consider a dragoon on foot ridiculous; but does the foot-soldier always make a very brilliant appearance when one sticks a horse between his legs?
I have seen excellent infantry captains cruelly embarrassed when the minister of war made them majors.

They said, scratching their heads, 'It's not over when we've mounted a grade; we've got to mount a horse in the bargain!'" This crude pleasantry amused the audience for a moment.