PARADES.
Each opening has its own parade or defense, and each parade will guard its own opening, and, strictly speaking, no other. The opening inside above the hand is defended by two parades.
As its name imports, the first and most natural parade is that of Prime. The action of drawing the sword from its sheath is almost exactly the movement made use of in the parade of Prime.
In this parade the hand is raised as high as the forehead, so that the fencer can see his opponent's face under his wrist. The blade of the foil is almost horizontal, but the point is rather lowered towards the ground. As this parade will throw the right side of the body open to the adversary's sword, it is good play to disengage from left to right, and deliver a rapid thrust at the adversary, in order to anticipate him before he can bring his own sword round for another thrust. His point will be thrown far out of line, so that he is behind-hand in point of time.
This is a very useful parade for fencers of short stature, as they can sometimes get in their blade under their adversary's arm, after they have parried his thrust.
The other parade is that of