16 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 3

We cannot help calling attention to a war photograph published

this week, for, by a lucky accident, the camera has given us a picture of a charge in which " the cavalry spirit " is epitomized in line and tone. Coming straight out of the picture are a line of helmeted French troopers, brandishing their lances in the air in a way that would have delighted Leonardo or Velazquez. The energy and the animation of the scene remind one of Mountstuart Elphinstone's description of a charge of Indian cavalry. He himself had seen and admired the magnificence of the Mahratta onset, had witnessed " the thunder of the ground, the flashing of their arms, the brandish- ing of their spears, the agitation of their banners rushing through the wind."