GUA 
considerable body, to give notice of any 
approaching danger. 
When an army is upon the march, the 
grand guards which should mount that day 
serve as an advanced guard to the army : in 
small parties six or eight horse are sufficient, 
and these are not to go above four or live 
hundred yards before the party. 
An advanced guard is also a small body 
of twelve or sixteen horse, under a corpo- 
ral or quarter- master, posted before the 
grand guard of a camp. ' 
Guard, artillery, is a detachment from 
the army, to secure the artillery : their corps 
sie garde is in the front, and their centries 
round the park. This is a forty-eight hours 
guard : and upon a march they go in the 
front and rear of the artillery, and must be 
sure to leave nothing behind. If a gun or 
waggon break down, the captain is to leave 
a part of his guard to assist the gunners and 
matrosses in getting it up again. 
Guard, mat n, that from whence all the 
other guards are detached. 
Those who are to mount the guard meet 
at their respective captain’s quarters, and 
go from thence to the parade ; where, after 
the whole guard is drawn up, the small 
guards are detached for the posts and ma- 
gazines ; and then the subaltern officers 
throw lots for their guards, and are com- 
manded by the captain of the main guard. 
Guard, piquet, a good number of horse 
and foot always in readiness in case of an 
alarm : the horse are all the time saddled, 
and the riders booted. The foot draw up 
at the head of the battalion, at the beating 
of the tattoo ; but afterwards return to their 
tents, where they hold themselves in rea- 
diness to march upon any sudden alarm. 
This guard is to make resistance, in case of 
an attack, till the army can get ready. 
Guard boat, a boat appointed to row 
the rounds among the ships of war in any 
harbour, to observe that their officers keep 
a good look-out, calling to the guard-boat 
as she passes, and not suffering her crew to 
come on board, without having previous- 
ly communicated the watch-word of the 
night. 
Guard irons, are curved bars of iron 
placed over the ornamental figures on a 
ship’s head or quarter, to defend them from 
injury. 
Guard ship, a vessel to superintend the 
marine affairs in a harbour or river, and to 
see that the ships which are not commis- 
sioned have their proper watch duly kept ; 
she is also to receive seamen who are im- 
GUA 
pressed in time of war : she generally has 
an admiral's flag at one of her masts head. 
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 circle 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 bot- 
tom of the circle, with the hilt opposite to 
its top, the body inclining very forward, 
this is called the prime or first guard. The 
second guard, by many improperly called 
the tierce, is when the point is directed to 
the right or second point of the same cir- 
cle, with the hilt of the sword turned to 
the left, and the body proportionabiy 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 
natural position, and in the mean of the 
extremes 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 outward 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 shoul- 
der. 
In all these kinds of guards there are the 
high-advanced, high-retired, and high-inter- 
mediate guard, when disposed before the 
upper par t of the body, either with the 
arm quite extended, quite withdrawn, or 
in a mean state. The mean-advanced guard, 
or simply mean guard, is when the sword is 
placed before the middle 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. 
GUARDIAN, in law. A guardian is 
one appointed to take care of a person and 
his affairs, who by legal imbecility and want 
of understanding is incapable of acting for 
his own interest ; and it seems by our law. 
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