_Of Time_.
If we were to follow the exact Term of Time, every Thing that is done in
Fencing might be called so; for you shou'd never thrust but when you
have a favourable Opportunity of hitting, nor parry, but at the Time
that favours you to oppose the Enemy's Sword, not make an Engagement,
nor a Feint, but to take the Time upon the Motion that your Action
occasions in the Adversary.
Time is the Duration of any Motion: It is called Time because it is the
most favourable Opportunity of pushing, the Enemy being unable during
one Action to do a contrary one.
It is divided into several Manners and Terms: The first is called the
Time, the second, taking his Time, the third, Time to Time, the fourth,
the same Time, and the fifth, false Time.
1. Taking the Time, is making your Thrust by a judicious Discernment on
the Motion of the Enemy, taking him by a contrary one: You are to know
that every Motion, of whatever Part it be, is called Time; for which
Reason, I shall say nothing of Feints, Engagements, and Disengagements,
upon which it may be taken; and that in three Manners, _viz._ strait,
lowering the Body, or volting it, which you must know how to apply. In a
strait Thrust the Time shou'd be taken by lowering and volting the Body,
because the Thrust coming strait, if you were to push the same Way, you
would, by supporting the Wrist, make a _Contrast_; and by pushing
crooked, you would make a _Coup Fourres_, or an interchanged Thrust; but
if the Thrust be in Two Times, or Motions, you may push on the first; If
it be in three Motions, on the second. As to the volting and lowering
the Body, they may be used on all Motions, provided they be abandoned,
and that the Enemy does not keep back his Body to draw you on.
2. Taking his Time, is the most subtle Thing in Fencing, depending
principally on the Mind: The Manner of taking it proceeds from your
Place or Situation, which gives you an opportunity of knowing the fort
and the feeble of the enemy, so that feeling his blade with your's, you
may by a judicious custom, push at a proper instant, according as you
find the weakness of his sword; and though it may seem that the enemy,
in the same guard, and at the same distance, can as easily parry; that
does not happen because of his different design to push, disengage, or
make a feint, by reason of the several operations of the mind which
follow the will.
3. The Time to Time, or the Counter to Time, is by several people,
called Counter-time: this cannot in effect alter this necessary part of
the art; it being but an impropriety in terms; when they say that making
a motion to bring the Enemy on, and when he is going to make a Thrust,
the making a Counter; this is by consequence a Counter Time, like a
Counter-disengagement, without observing that a Counter-time is nothing
but an ill timed Motion, which should upon all occasions be avoided: and
if that argument were to take place, it might be said that there is no
such thing in fencing as taking the Time, because it is to be done only
by taking a Time contrary to that which is intended to be taken of you,
which according to their Argument would be a Counter-time; whereas the
Term Time to Time, or counter to Time, sufficiently shews, that it
requires three Motions; since the taking the Time requires two, and the
taking it at the Time that he takes it, must require a third. Of these
three Motions you are to make two: The first, in order to get one from
the Enemy, that you may have an Advantage by your second, which is the
third Time; so that when he thinks to take the Time upon you, you take
it upon him, which, far from being a Counter-time, is a Time to his, or
Counter to his Time.
4. The same Time, depends on three Things: First, that both having a
Design to push, you both push by chance at once, without expecting it
from each other: Secondly: That full of the Design to take the Time, and
not knowing it, you push upon the Enemy's Thrust, without foreseeing how
to avoid it; and thirdly, when an Inferior or desperate Man, unable to
defend himself, had rather run on your Thrust in endeavouring to hit
you, than strive in vain to avoid it. These are not only the Occasions
of the same Time, but also of the _Coups Fourres_.
It is to be observed, that Time, and the same Time, differ only in
their Figure, and not in their Occasion, as Monsieur _De la Touche_
says, for to take the Time upon a Thrust, you must go off upon the
Lunge, as if it were on the same Time, except that the Figure of the
Body shuns the Thrust, which in that of the same Time it does not do.
5. False Time, is a Motion made by the Enemy to draw you on, in order to
take a Time upon your's; therefore he that would take the Time, shou'd
distinguish whether the Motion made, is to disorder him, and take the
Advantage of his Parade, or to make him thrust, and take the Advantage
of his Lunge; In Case of the first, it would be a Fault not to push; and
in Case of the other, it would be amiss to push. Some Masters call the
false Time, Half Time, which is wrong, every Motion being a Time, and as
it is impossible to make a Half Motion, so 'tis impossible to make a
Half Time.
The Difference of Time between the dexterous and awkard is, that the
dexterous present and take the Time, and the others, give and lose it.