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Hi Mr. Cornwell.

One principle that I have learned from you is that in swordsmanship, “the point beats the edge.”  That would seem to mean that a man with a small sword would routinely defeat an opponent with a heavy cavalry sword.  And yet Sharpe has repeatedly handily beaten opponents armed with a narrow thrusting sword, often beating it out of their hands with his butcher’s blade.  What gives?  Is he just facing a bunch of substandard opponents who don’t know how to deflect blow from a heavy blade?

Alan Kempner