This measure was warmly opposed by Marshal Montesquieu, and the question was discussed by him and Marshal Vauban with an ability and learning worthy of these great men.

The arguments of Vauban were deemed most conclusive, and his project was adopted by the king.
This question has been agitated by military writers in more recent times, Puysegur advocating the musket, and Folard and Lloyd contending in favor of restoring the pike.

Even in our own service, so late as the war of 1812, a distinguished general of the army strongly urged the use of the pike, and the fifteenth (and perhaps another regiment) was armed and equipped in part as _pikemen_; but experience soon proved the absurdity of the project.
Napoleon calls the infantry the _arm of battles_ and the _sinews of the army_.

But if it be acknowledged, that, next to the talent of the general-in-chief, the infantry is the first instrument of victory, it must also be confessed that it finds a powerful support in the cavalry, artillery, and engineers, and that without these it would often be compromised, and could gain but a half success.
The French infantry is divided into one hundred regiments of three battalions each, a battalion being composed of seven companies.

There are also several other battalions of chasseurs, zuaves, &c., being organized especially for service in Africa, and composed in part of native troops.
In our own army we have eight regiments of infantry, each regiment forming a single battalion of ten companies.