A New System of Sword Exercise for Infantry

by Sir Richard Francis Burton

(Weight all thrown back.)

Both ‘Sword Exercises’ carefully avoid naming “Tierce” and “Carte;” preferring “right” and “left” (of the Sword) or “outside” and “inside,” as if such mysteries were too high or too deep for our national intelligence. I would again quote a few lines from my ‘System of Bayonet Exercise’ (Introductory Remarks, pp. 8, 9):—

“But why, it may be asked, should the English soldier be deterred by difficulties which every French voltigeur can master? We admire the intelligence of our neighbours in military matters: we remark that they are born soldiers, and that their men learn as much in four months as ours do in six. Is not this, however, partly our own fault? In my humble opinion we mistake the cause of their quickness, attributing to nature the effect of art. When our system of drill is thoroughly efficient; when the Manual and Platoon is much simplified, when a salle d’armes is established in every corps, and when the bayonet exercise becomes a recognized branch of instruction; then, I believe, we shall find our soldiers equal in intelligence to any others.” These words were written in 1853; in 1875 I add, “When we enlist the right kind of recruit either by improving his condition and his prospects, not his pay, or better, far better, by securing a superior man through the conscription of modern Europe.” We Britons are no longer physically divided from the total orb; nor can we afford to remain morally insulated and isolated. The logical effect of union with the outer world will be to make us do as the world does, and all our exceptional institutions, such as the system of volunteer recruiting, must sooner or later go by the board.

Outside Guard—(Tierce).

(A Parry not a Guard.)

Nor is the most modern French Treatise (pp. 229–256, Manuel de Gymnastique et d’Escrime, officially published by the Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies; Paris, Dumaine, 1875) “Escrime au Sabre” much superior to our home growth. The position of the left hand (pp. 232, 233) is bad throughout: it must slip during the Lunge and make the play loose. The retreat of the left leg (Fig. 5, p. 235) is carried to an extreme of caution. The body is always perpendicular in the Lunge, whereas the same volume shows (Fig. 16, p. 20) the trunk naturally inclining forwards. The Cuts are not double nor continuous, as they should be. The “Hanging Guards” (pp. 240, 244, 245) are deplorable. On the other hand, the Manuel (p. 231) places the thumb along, not around, the handle; the moulinets, the enlevés, and the brisés (presently to be explained) are good stuff, and, moreover, they are applied to the Cuts (p. 239). Finally, nothing can be better than the advice (p. 249), “Après avoir touché, retirer vivement le sabre en arrière en lui imprimant une direction oblique dans le sens du tranchant, de manière à scier.”

Of the points or thrusts with broadsword nothing will here be said: they belong to another order of things, and they should be studied in the fencing school.[4] But the soldier must be taught that if his adversary attempt a thrust, the broadsword is easily disarmed. When the opponent comes to the position of pointing, that is, extends his blade, a sharp glissade along its length will make the grip fly out of his grasp. Another way of embarrassing the attack is to cut right and left at the hand, the wrist, or the fore-arm, when the adversary begins to present point.

General Lamoricière was a firm believer, as we all are, in the thrust, and the French Sword Exercise for Cavalry (p. 178 Règlement Provisoire sur les Exercises de la Cavalerie, officially published at the Ministère de la Guerre; Paris, Dumaine, 1873) justly remarks: “Les coups de pointe doivent toujours être employés de préférence, comme exigeant moins de force et ayant un résultat plus prompt, plus certain et plus décisif.” The reason of its confessed superiority to the Cut is as old as the axiom, “a straight line is the shortest way between two points.” The Thrust describes a diameter, the Cut, a segment, of a circle and, with equal velocity, the Cut will traverse a distance occupying some two-thirds more of time than the Thrust. The French tactician therefore proposed to abolish the use of the edge for cavalry, thus traversing the instinct of the man-at-arms who, especially on horseback, loves to slash at his enemy, and who runs far less risk of entangling his blade. But he of course advocated a straight and tapering sword with no edge to speak of; indeed the cuirassier’s latte is still a kind of rapier, but it is rendered useless by prodigious length and by the weight of the handle. The modern Italian School of Sabre uses, especially in single combat, all the dégagements of the salle d’armes: this is thoroughly illogical; the weapon is chosen because it is supposed to be less fatal than foil or rapier, and yet it is so used as to become even more deadly. I need hardly say that the weight and shape of the broadsword, together with the positions of guard, render pointing with it awkward in the extreme.[5]