The Target directs the recruit how to make the Cuts and to form the Guards, but not exactly where; this must depend upon how the opponent acts during the attack and the defence. Cuts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 (odd numbers) are all from Carte, which the ‘Infantry Sword Exercise’ calls Inside. The corresponding even numbers (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12) are from Tierce, or Outside. The same nomenclature applies to the Guards or parries.
When the recruit thoroughly understands the use of the Target he need no longer be practised in front of it; but the instructor (sword in hand) should consider it a sure guide and reference for correctly forming the Guards and for giving a suitable direction to the edge when making the Cuts.
§ 2. The Moulinet.[9]
This rotation movement should be learnt before the recruit proceeds to the Cut.
There is nothing better for “breaking,” as the French say, the recruit’s wrist than this sweep of the sword; and the style of a swordsman may always be known by his Moulinet. We will divide it into three kinds, viz. (1) horizontal, (2) diagonal, and (3) vertical; the latter again may be either (a) ascending or (b) descending; but as the second (diagonal) is a mere modification of the first and the third, it will be sufficient to notice only two; these are:—
1st. The horizontal movement, or Moulinet proper, circling the sword round the head. The grip is held as lightly as possible, chiefly with the thumb and the first finger, resting the pommel upon the palm, and carrying the nails upwards. The blade should be moved as horizontally as it can be, with the back just clearing the swordsman’s crown: it should describe, not a true circle, but an oval with a long diameter in the directing line to the centre of the Target through the heels or ankles of the recruit. Finally, the point should be lanced or thrown out, as it were, towards the opponent’s face. Evidently it may be done in two ways, first, from right to left, which I will call the “Tierce Moulinet” (Moulinet à gauche); this is by far the easiest and the more habitual, corresponding with Tierce “Counter,” opposition, or describing with the blade a circle round the adversary’s blade, in the fencing school. The reverse movement (“Carte Moulinet,” Moulinet à droite), from left to right, requires, like the Counter of Carte, much more practice.
In these directions “right and left” apply to the right and left of the swordsman’s wrist.
2nd. In France the term “Moulinet” is mostly applied to these two rotations of the sword round the head, but we will extend it to all circlings of the point. The vertical form is also made from the hand in Tierce (Outside Guard), the blade is brought sharply round with the back towards the breast and left shoulder, and returns to its original position; we will call this the “Inside Moulinet,” having reference to the performer, not the adversary. The “Outside Moulinet” is when from “Tierce or Outside Guard” the blade passes along the right shoulder, it is simply the former done in the outer line.
Horizontal Moulinet.