When apples cannot be got, you may use potatoes or thin-skinned turnips for this and the preceding feat.
When performing these feats, take great care that no one is within reach of your sword, and see that everything is properly placed and steady before delivering your stroke.
Do not chop or hack, but make the cuts with neatness and freedom. Avoid all parade, and always remember to grasp your sword so that the middle knuckles are in a line with the edge of the sword. This rule is imperative.
RULES OF
DUELLING WITH SABRES.
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE
RULES OF DUELLING WITH SABRES,
TRANSLATED FROM “ESSAI SUR LE DUEL,”
BY THE
COMTE DE CHATEAUVILLARD.
CHAPTER VII.
Duel with Sabres.
1st.—Each combatant must have two seconds for this sort of duel, and one of the two must have a sabre. They must, if possible, get sabres with curved blades for the two antagonists, as being less fatal.
2nd.—When arrived on the ground there must be no discussion between the two combatants, their seconds being their plenipotentiaries.
3rd.—The seconds having agreed upon the choice of the ground the most proper for the combat—level and equal for the two opponents—must mark the two places, the distance being calculated as if the two opponents were both on the longe and the points of the two sabres one foot apart.
4th.—The seconds, after having tossed for the places, take their principals to the place given to each by chance.