GUARD, in fencing, is a posture proper to defend the body from an enemy's sword.
There are four general guards of the sword; to form a perfect idea of which, we must suppose a cirtle drawn on a wall, and divided into four cardinal points, viz. top and bottom, right and left. When the point of the sword is directed to the bottom of the circle, with the hilt oppo site to its top, the body inclining very for ward, this is called the prime or first guard. The second guard, by many im properly called the tierce, is when the point is directed to the right or second point of the same circle, with the hilt of the sword turned to the left, and the bo dy proportionably raised. The tierce, or third guard, is when the point of the sword is raised to the uppermost part of the same circle ; in which case the body, the arm, and the sword, are in their na tural position, and in the mean of the ex tremes of their motion. The quart, or fourth guard, is when the point of the sword is directed to the fourth point of the circle, descending to the right as far as one-fourth of the tierce, with the out ward part of the arm and the flat of the sword turned towards the ground, and the body out of the line to the right, and the hilt of the sword towards the line to the left. There is also a quint, or fifth guard,
which is only the return of the point of the sword to the right, after traversing the circle to the point of the prime from whence it had departed, with a different disposition of the body, arm, and sword. The common centre of all those motions ought to be in the shoulder.
In all these kinds of guards there are, the high-advanced, high-retired, and high-intermediate guard, when disposed before the upper part of the body, either with the arm quite extended, quite with drawn, or in a mean state. The mean advanced guard, or simply mean guard, is when the sword is placed before the mid dle part of the body. The low-advanced, retired, or intermediate guards, are those where the arm and sword are advanced, withdrawn, or between the two extremes, before the lower part of the body.