“It is chivalry that has no equal in the world; without seeing it with your own eyes, its vigor and splendor is impossible to imagine.”

– Cosimo Brunetti, 1676

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Hussar half-armour from the mid-17th century, National Museum in Kraków

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“We saw it…. the hussars let loose their horses.  God, what power! They ran through the smoke and the sound was like that of a thousand blacksmiths beating with a thousand hammers…. They crash into the Swedish cavalry, overwhelming them! They crash into the second regiment. Overwhelmed! Resistance collapses, dissolves, they move forward as easily as if they were parading on a grand boulevard. They sliced without effort through the whole army.”

– from The Deluge, by Henryk Sienkiewicz