Foil and sabre, a grammar of fencing in detailed lessons for professor and pupil

346 Pages·1892·41.18 MB·English

by  Lous Rondelle

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT
FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY
HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE
^C^
NotmanPhoto. Go. Boston,Mass.
LOUIS KONDELLE.
FOIL AND SABRE
a ©wmmar
of dfcncins
IN
DETAILED LESSONS FOR PROFESSOR AND PUPIL
BY
LOUIS RONDELLE
MAITRE d'aRMES AT THE BOSTON ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
AND THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY FENCING CLUB
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON
ESTES AND LAURIAT
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 189$,
By Louis Rondelle.
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
A LIFIr-LONG study of the art of fencing, and a passionate
love of its practice ; acareful observance of what seems
to me the unfortunate methods of the self-entitled " Maitres "
and " Professors " who assume to teach the art; a full appre-
ciation of the certain and deep interest so rapidly growing up
in America, together with the sincere wish I have that in my
adopted country this splendid art may reach the same high
—
excellence which it has attained in my native land, have
beguiled me into this effort to transcribe in the English lan-
guage a concise and exhaustive treatise on the science of
fencing as taught in Prance, particularly at the National
Military School of Joinville-le-Pont, whose diploma I have
the satisfaction and honor to hold.
I have attempted in the following pages to show that there
are, in this science, principles far deeper than mechanical
movements, and to give those principles the intelligent ex-
pression to which they are entitled. I would gladly base this,
with other sciences, on the broad ground-work of professional
dignity and capacity.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
vi
Believing as I do that upon each of us there rests a dut}^ to
contribute something to the pleasure or well-being of his fel-
lows, I have in a modest way hoped to popularize a manly
exercise, and to stimulate a higher taste for it among that
large class of Americans wlio delight in intelligent athletics.
I find myself greatly indebted to the Notman Photograjih
Company and their painstaking thoroughness for the com-
plete set of original pliotograpbs from which the plates of
this volume were made.
EDITOR'S PEEFACE.
T GUIS RONDELLB was born at Cr^py-eu-Yalois, France,
—
^ Jan. 31, 1854. He took part in the campaign of 1870-
71 as Zouave, Garibaldian Volunteer, and Franc-Tireur. He
was conscripted, and re-entered the service in 1875 in the
Ninth Regiment of Cliasseurs-a-Cheval ; sent to the Fencing
Academy at Joinville-le-Pont (from which, since 1872, all the
fencing-masters of theFrencharmy mustbe graduated),where
he received his title of Maitre d'Armes (standing number two
in generalcompetition),andwasappointedinstructoroffencing
in the First Regiment of Chasseurs-a-Cheval. Honorably dis-
missed from the service in 1879, he performed the necessary
twenty-eight days of active service as a member of the reserve
in October, 1881, with the Eighth Regiment of Chasseurs-a-
Cheval arrived in New York, December, 1881, and became
;
the instructor of the Knickerbocker Fencing Club, and later
of the Manhattan Athletic Club, where he served until his
appointment as fencing-master of the Boston Athletic Asso-
ciation, in October, 1889.