"Do you follow the distinction? A time thrust is taken on the final
movement of an attack, when you think you know exactly what is coming,
and can judge with certainty in what line the point will be delivered.
Very well, then parry instead of timing; for if you are wrong--and who
is not sometimes?--you can at any rate have recourse to another parry.
Whereas the time thrust, when misjudged, results in a mutual hit, and
for one that is good tender how much base metal you will put into
circulation. The stop thrust, which is taken, as I have said, on the
opponent's advance, is less dangerous. Therefore never attack a man,
who straightens his arm on every occasion, without making sure of his
blade, and you need have no fear of the result.
"It is quite true that the practice of straightening the arm is much
more prevalent than it used to be; simply because this style of play,
which is of great antiquity, had gone out of fashion, and given place
to another method, which in its turn was overdone,--the method of
feints and flourishes.
"So too, the trick of reversing the lunge by throwing back the left
foot and dropping the body, to allow the attack to pass over your
head, is not an invention of the 'Romantic' school, as it has been
ridiculously christened. It is an old trick, a ruse of great antiquity,
which may or at all events ought to be found in Homer. Still, unless
your opponent drives you to it by wild and frantic rushes, it is a
stroke to be used sparingly, and with the object of letting him know
that you are ready to receive him. By this means you will stop him from
rushing at you on every possible occasion. I like to see a stop thrust
correctly taken, always provided that I do not see others in the course
of the same assault taken incorrectly,--for then it is obvious that the
correct thrust was a simple fluke.