o stop a
low cut of this kind.

In cut 4 (Fig. 31), cut at your adversary's right ribs, and keep your
knuckles up, and when he attacks you on this line, stop him with the
hanging guard held low on your right side, or with the upright guard,
with arm, wrist, and knuckles turned outwards.

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Cut 4 and guard.]

Cuts 5 and 6 are made like cuts 3 and 4 respectively, and must be met in
all cases by a low hanging guard. It is well to practise these low
hanging guards continually, as a man's legs are perhaps the most exposed
part of his body.

The point when used is given by a simple straightening of the arm on the
lunge, the knuckles being kept upwards, and, in ordinary play, the grip
on the stick loosened, in order that it may run freely through the hilt,
and thus save your opponent from an ugly bruise, a torn jacket, or
possibly a broken rib. When the knuckles are kept up in giving point,
the sword hand should be opposite the right shoulder. But the point may
also be delivered with the knuckles down, in which case the hand should
be opposite to the left shoulder.

[Illustration: Fig. 32.--The point.]

The point may be parried with any of the guards previously described.

It is well to remember that one of the most effective returns which can
be made from any guard is a point, and that a point can be made
certainly from every hanging guard by merely straightening the arm from
the guard, lunging, and coming in under your opponent's weapon. But
perhaps this is a thing to be learnt rather from practical play than
from a book.

Now, it is obvious that if any of the foregoing guards are as good as
they have been described, it is necessary to induce your adversary to
abandon them if you are ever to score a point.

This may be done in a variety of ways, when you have assured yourself
that he is invulnerable to a direct attack, not to be flurried by a
fierce onslaught, or slow enough to let you score a "remise"--that is, a
second hit--the first having been parried, but not returned.

The first ruse to adopt, of course, is the feint--a feint being a false
attack, or rather a move as if to attack in a line which you threaten,
but in which you do not intend to attack. All feints should be _strongly
pronounced_ or clearly shown. A half-hearted feint is worse than
useless; it is dangerous. If you have a foeman worthy of your steel
facing you, he will detect the fraud at once, and use the time was