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
QUARTE.
It is thus formed. On the approach of the point of an adversary's blade (and how these approaches are made I will presently explain), the right hand is moved a few inches—three or four will be enough—across the body on the inside, the hand being neither depressed nor raised, and the foil being kept on the same slope as in the Guard. This guards the body on the inside above the hand, but (and here comes an important law in fencing) the very movement which has guarded the body on one side has exposed it on the other; this is the case with all the simple parades.
