flight, or keep them at a greater Distance.
If the French Troops have always been victorious, Sword in Hand, a Part
of the Glory is owing to the Skill of several Officers; and I'll venture
to say, that if they had all been as expert as they should have been,
you might see, as well on Foot as on Horseback, in Battle as on a
Breach, Actions that would be not only uncommon but prodigious. It may
perhaps be said, that our Enemies have some expert Officers among them;
besides, that their Number is commonly less than in _France_, there is
as great a Difference between their Dexterity and that of the _French_,
as between their Masters and our's, from whom very few would have
learned if the War had no suspended our Academies.[5]

I think it proper to finish this Chapter by confuting an Error as
common, and more ridiculous, than the others; which is, of an infallible
Thrust, which a great many People think that Masters reserve for
dangerous Occasions, or to sell it at a dear Rate. This wonderful Thing,
is called the secret Thrust. I don't know whether this Error proceeded
from those who have not learned, or from the Chimera of some
self-conceited Masters, who have sold to ignorant Scholars, some Thrusts
as infallible, of their own Contrivance, as ridiculous and dangerous as
the Simplicity of the Scholar and the Knavery of the Master are great.

To discover the Error of this Opinion you must observe two Things:
First, that in Fencing there are no more than five Thrusts or Places,
which I have described in Page 27, shewing the Parade of each of them;
and secondly, that there is no Motion without it's Opposite; so that as
you cannot push without a Motion, there is no Thrust without it's
Counter, and even several; for besides the different Positions of the
Body, there is not only the Time to take, but also several Parades to
favour the Risposts, which plainly shews, that doing one of these Things
properly, this imaginary infallible Thrust, far from succeeding will
expose him that would make it.

All the Secrets in the Thrusts that are given by an able Man, far from
being an Effect of the Thrust, is only an Effect of the Occasion, and
the Swiftness; or rather of the judgment and Practice: By Means of these
Qualities all Thrusts are secret ones, or they wou'd be worth nothing.

All the Thrusts in Fencing are equally good, when they are made
according to Rule, with Swiftness, and on the Occasions proper to them;
wherefore they ought