CHAP. XIII.

_Of_ Feints.


Feints are much used in _Fencing_, whether it be by reason of their
Number, their Ease, or the Success that attends them, gaining more Time
and Light than is to be got in plain Thrusts, there being no Thrust to
be given so well as after a Feint.

The Number of Feints is so great, by reason of the many Guards and
Parades, that I should find it as difficult to describe them, as the
Reader would to comprehend them without Experience; so that I shall
confine myself to those from which the rest derive, which are, strait
Feint, Feint, and double Feint.

By strait feint, is meant a Motion or Feint to Thrust on the Side on
which your Sword is, which is to be done on the Inside, the Wrist in
_Quart_, a little higher than the Point which must be near the
Adversary's Sword, that you may be covered, whilst you endeavour to get
an Opening. This Motion should be attended with a little Beat of the
Right-foot, keeping back the Body. If, at the Time you feint, your
Adversary does not stir, you must push _Quart_: if he parrys with his
Feeble, you must immediately disengage to _Tierce_; and if he parrys
high you must cut in _Quart_ under the Wrist.

The Feint, to which I give no other Name, it being the most used, and to