It was on this account that Frederick directed his cavalry officers, under the severest penalties, never to receive a charge, but always to meet the attacking force half way.

This is the only mode of preventing defeat.
A good infantry can always sustain itself against the charges of cavalry.

At the battle of Auerstedt, in 1806, Davoust ordered the divisions of Gudin to form squares to resist the Prussian cavalry, which, by means of a fog, had gained a most advantageous position.
Bluecher led his cavalry in repeated and impetuous charges, but all was in vain; the French infantry presented a front of iron.

At the combat of Krasnoi, in 1812, the cavalry of Grouchy, Nansonty, and Bordesoult, attacked and overthrew the dragoons of Clarkof, but the Russian infantry under Neveroffskoi sustained itself against the repeated charges of vastly superior numbers of these French horse.

At the battle of Molwitz, the grenadiers sustained the charges of the enemy's cavalry, although the cavalry of the great Frederick had already been completely overthrown.
But when the infantry is engaged with the infantry of the enemy, the charges of cavalry are generally successful, and sometimes decide the fate of the battle, as was the case at Rosbach, Zornsdorf, Wurtsburg, Marengo, Eylau, Borodino, &c.
Cavalry may also be very efficacious against infantry in wet weather, when the rain or snow renders it impossible for the foot soldiers to use their fire-arms to advantage, as was the case with the corps of Augereau, at Eylau, and with the Austrian left, at the battle of Dresden.