THE FOURTH EVENING.
I
IT was easy to see from the first aspect of the smoking-room that it was again to be a soiree, when pipes would predominate. The first half hour was passed, naturally enough, in talking over the events of the day. What added animation to the dialogue was the fact that one elderly gentle- man, a visitor from town, evidently considered himself half shot in consequence of a country friend having fired across him. When giving my reasons for not joining in the English battue, I forgot to mention the chance of losing an eye or the use of an ear. So, before the days of the iron horse in India, a friend accounted to me for his longevity by the fact that he had never been exposed to railway travel. His idea suggested the man who refused to take such hot and rebellious liquors in his blood as tea and coffee, but never refused whisky, toddy, or ioed punch.
II
Invited to "address the assembly," I lit my weed and spoke
as follows:
We will continue, O Signori, the mode of instruction whose
first page only is known to you that is, to most of you. I
enter, it will be observed, into the minutest details, without
which, in fact, you might as well consult a treatise.
My pupil I regret that the Reverend Mr O'Callaghan is
not here already knows the different positions of the body, and has practically learned to appreciate the results to which their use leads.
During the very next seance I would put a foil in, his hand
always supposing that his intelligence equalled that of the
average Church militant and teach him the thrusts and the
simple parries. Every day's work would be divided into three
sections, each of eight to ten and even fifteen minutes, and later
on I should even allow the patient to sit down before this term
has elapsed. In the fencing schools you see men who think they
are " blown " after a third of the time. The best fencers
always save themselves during the assault before they become
thoroughly tired, and the play becomes wild; the re,pose of the
guard, properly understood, gives great relief, and allows much
longer continuance of exertion.
" Would you give your half hour at once, or separate it by
long intervals? " asked Shughtie. "I'm certain that the latter
The Fourth Evening. 55
is the best plan when learning the elements of a language a
pure work of memory. A man who labours two or three
successive hours at his vocabulary is to me like a school lad of
eight, who studies throughout a third of the day."
Your rule is good for languages, and you have founded it
upon the best of reasons; but swordsmanship has little to work
the memory. My practice is never to let the pupil go on
fencing when I see that he is fatigued. But I also never let
him sit down till he requires rest. The thrusts and simple
parries are, I venture to remind you,
Straight thrusts,
Disengagements and cuts over (counts) in tierce and in carte,
Parries in tierce and in carte,
Circles and demicircles.
The passes develop the regularity of bodily action, the parries
give force and suppleness to the wrist. You must be careful, however, not to depend only upon the wrist; in the circles especially there should always be a slight rotatory motion of the elbow. In fact, you should feel that you have an elbow. A man in perfect health never feels that he has anything; we recognise our limbs only when there is something unsound about them.