“Now, if I make a movement, straighten your arm boldly, and step back.
“Very well done.
“And yet you tell me you have never touched a sword, or even a foil in a fencing-room. Then all I can say is that I could not have chosen a better subject for my demonstration.
“We will now put the swords back in their place, and return to our discussion. Perhaps I may have occasion to trouble you again by and by.”
“I am entirely at your disposal, Professor,” replied my obliging pupil.
V.
“The rest of the lesson may be summed up in a convenient formula. For so far as I know, there is only one really useful tip that a professor can give to the uninstructed novice who says:—‘This afternoon or to-morrow morning I have to go out.’
“The professor will make a great mistake if he attempts to teach him some fancy stroke, for he will only disturb the natural working of his instinct, without controlling it. He must remember that the excitement of fighting does not leave much room for thought, and he must accordingly take care to limit his instruction to the simplest and clearest ideas, easy to understand and easy to put into practice, such as arise naturally out of the instinctive sense of self-preservation.
“These remarks of course do not apply to those dull and inert creatures, cursed with a temperament so heavy, and so sluggish, that they do not know what it is to move briskly and can never rise to the occasion. You can put nothing into such as these and can get nothing out of them.
“When swords are crossed, the thing to do is simply what our friend here did just now:—Retire. I say ‘retire’ in order to avoid saying ‘run away.’ Retire always, retire incessantly, but retire little by little, so as not to consume once and for all the entire hinterland; retire in short, not like a man in a panic, but like one who is watching his opportunity.