"You may often hear men say:--'I do that in the fencing room, I should
be very sorry to attempt it in a serious fight.'
"Then why attempt it at all? If your judgment tells you that the stroke
is good, it is good for all occasions. If it is bad it cannot be
justified in any case.
"Always bear in mind that you must pay attention to all thrusts which
might prove fatal in a serious encounter, and then if some day you
have the misfortune to find a real sword in your hand, you will have
the satisfaction of knowing that you are fore-armed by habit against
known and familiar dangers. I cannot emphasise this point too strongly.
"In short, the refusal to acknowledge hits however low is a dangerous
and a gratuitous mistake. Why should a thrust aimed in that direction
not be of its kind as brilliant and meritorious as another? Why should
it be boycotted? Is there any reason for this mysterious taboo?"
"The old master who used to teach us fencing at school," remarked my
host, "would fall foul of you with a vengeance, if he heard you talk
like that."
"I do not mean for a moment," I replied, "that I have any preference
for hits in the low line, but rather that I am more afraid of them,
because I have fenced too often with fencers good and bad not to know
how necessary it is to be on one's guard against the dangers of wild
play.
"For instance, those who make a practice of straightening their
arm as they retire nearly always drop their hand, and the point of
their weapon, whether they wish it or no, is necessarily directed
towards the low line. It is equally inevitable that the same part
should be threatened by those who rightly or wrongly reverse the
lunge by throwing the left foot back on your attack, at the same time
stooping forwards, so as to let your point pass over their head; and
ignorant fencers nearly always hit you there, quite innocently and
unintentionally.
"You should therefore guard that part of the body as strictly as you
guard the chest, and, by a parity of reasoning, when you meet an
adversary who neglects to protect the low line annoy him in that region
frequently.