For practice, the point is blunted to resemble the flat head of a nail, and is made still more incapable of penetration by winding around it a small ball of waxed thread, such as cobblers use. This is called the “button.” In competitions various forms of “boutons marqueurs,” all of which are unsatisfactory, are occasionally used. The “pointe d’arrêt,” like a small tin-tack placed head downwards on the flattened point of the épée, and fastened on by means of the waxed thread, is, on the contrary, most useful, by fixing in the clothes, to show where and when a good hit has been made. The point need only protrude about 116th of an inch from the button. There are several kinds of pointes d’arrêt. The best is called, after its inventor, the “Léon Sazie,” and has three blunt points of hardened steel each slightly excentric. The single point is sometimes prevented by the thickness of the button from scoring a good hit.
A mask of wire netting is used to protect the face, and a stout glove on the sword hand. It is necessary to wear strong clothes and to pad the jacket and trousers at the most exposed parts, in case the blade should break unnoticed. A vulnerable spot, which ought to be specially padded, is just under the sword-arm.
Bibliography.—Among the older works on the history and practice of the small-sword, or épée, are the following:—The Scots Fencing-Master, or Compleat Small-swordsman, by W. H. Gent (Sir William Hope, afterwards baronet) (Edinburgh, 1687), and several other works by the same author, of later date, for which see Schools and Masters of Fence, by Egerton Castle; Nouveau traité de la perfection sur le fait des armes, by P. G. F. Girard (Paris, 1736); L’École des armes, by M. Angelo (London, 1763); L’Art des armes, by M. Danet (2 vols., Paris, 1766–1767); Nouveau traité de l’art des armes, by Nicolas Demeuse (Liège, 1778).
More modern are: Traité de l’art des armes, by la Böessière, Jr. (Paris, 1818); Les Armes et le duel, by A. Grisier (2nd ed., Paris, 1847); Les Secrets de l’épée, by the baron de Bazancourt (Paris, 1862); Schools and Masters of Fence, by Egerton Castle (London, 1885); Le Jeu de l’épée, by J. Jacob and Émil André (Paris, 1887); L’Escrime pratique au XIX e siècle, by Ambroise Baudry (Paris); L’Escrime a l’épée, by A. Spinnewyn and Paul Manonry (Paris, 1898); The Sword and the Centuries, by Captain Hutton (London,1901); “The Revival of the Small-sword,” by C. Newton-Robinson, in the Nineteenth Century and After (London, January 1905); Nouveau Traité de l’épée, by Dr Edom, privately published (Paris, 1908); and, most important of all, Méthode d’escrime à l’épée, by J. Joseph-Renaud, privately published (Paris, 1909). (C. E. N. R.)
EPERJES, a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Sáros,
190 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 13,098. It is
situated on the left bank of the river Tarcza, an affluent of the
Theiss, and has been almost completely rebuilt since a great fire
in 1887. Eperjes is one of the oldest towns of Hungary, and is
still partly surrounded by its old walls. It is the seat of a Greek-Catholic
bishop, and possesses a beautiful cathedral built in the
18th century in late Gothic style. It possesses manufactures of
cloth, table-linen and earthenware, and has an active trade in
wine, linen, cattle and grain. About 2 m. to the south is Sóvár
with important salt-works.
In the same county, 28 m. by rail N. of Eperjes, is situated the old town of Bártfa (pop. 6098), which possesses a Gothic church from the 14th century, and an interesting town-hall, dating from the 15th century, and containing very valuable archives. In its neighbourhood, surrounded by pine forests, are the baths of Bártfa, with twelve mineral springs—iodate, ferruginous and alkaline—used for bathing and drinking.
About 6 m. N.W. of Eperjes is situated the village of Vörösvágás, which contains the only opal mine in Europe. The opal was mined here 800 years ago, and the largest piece hitherto found, weighing 2940 carats and estimated to have a value of £175,000, is preserved in the Court Museum at Vienna.
Eperjes was founded about the middle of the 12th century by a German colony, and was elevated to the rank of a royal free town in 1347 by Louis I. (the Great). It was afterwards fortified and received special privileges. The Reformation found many early adherents here, and the town played an important part during the religious wars of the 17th century. It became famous by the so-called “butchery of Eperjes,” a tribunal instituted by the Austrian general Caraffa in 1687, which condemned to death and confiscated the property of a great number of citizens accused of Protestantism. During the 16th and the 17th centuries its German educational establishments enjoyed a wide reputation.
ÉPERNAY, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Marne, 88 m. E.N.E. of Paris
on the main line of the Eastern railway to Châlons-sur-Marne.
Pop. (1906) 20,291. The town is situated on the left bank of the
Marne at the extremity of the pretty valley of the Cubry, by
which it is traversed. In the central and oldest quarter the
streets are narrow and irregular; the surrounding suburbs are
modern and more spacious, and that of La Folie, on the east,
contains many handsome villas belonging to rich wine merchants.
The town has also extended to the right bank of the Marne.
One of its churches preserves a portal and stained-glass windows
of the 16th century, but the other public buildings are modern.
Épernay is best known as the principal entrepôt of the Champagne
wines, which are bottled and kept in extensive vaults in the
chalk rock on which the town is built. The manufacture of
the apparatus and material used in the champagne industry
occupies many hands, and the Eastern Railway Company has
important workshops here. Brewing, and the manufacture of
sugar and of hats and caps, are also carried on. Épernay is the
seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of
commerce, and communal colleges for girls and boys.
Épernay (Sparnacum) belonged to the archbishops of Reims from the 5th to the 10th century, at which period it came into the possession of the counts of Champagne. It suffered severely during the Hundred Years’ War, and was burned by Francis I. in 1544. It resisted Henry of Navarre in 1592, and Marshal Biron fell in the attack which preceded its capture. In 1642 it was, along with Château-Thierry, erected into a duchy and assigned to the duke of Bouillon.
ÉPERNON, a town of northern France in the department of
Eure-et-Loir, at the confluence of the Drouette and the Guesle,
17 m. N.E. of Chartres by rail. Pop. (1906) 2370. It belonged
originally to the counts of Montfort, who, in the 11th century,
built a castle here of which the ruins are still left, and granted
a charter to the town. In the 13th century it became an independent
lordship, which remained attached to the crown of
Navarre till, in the 16th century, it was sold by King Henry
(afterwards King Henry IV. of France) to Jean Louis de Nogaret,
for whom it was raised to the rank of a duchy in 1581. The new
duke of Épernon was one of the favourites of Henry III., who
were called les Mignons; the king showered favours upon him,
giving him the posts of colonel-general in the infantry and of
admiral of France. Under the reign of Henry IV. he made
himself practically independent in his government of Provence.
He was instrumental in giving the regency to Marie de’ Medici in
1610, and as a result exercised a considerable influence upon the
government. During his governorship of Guienne in 1622 he
had some scandalous scenes with the parlement and the archbishop
of Bordeaux. He died in 1642. His eldest son, Henri de
Nogaret de la Valette, duke of Candale, served under Richelieu,
in the armies of Guienne, of Picardy and of Italy. The second
son of Jean Louis de Nogaret, Bernard, who was born in 1592,
and died in 1661, was, like his father, duke of Épernon, colonel-general
in the infantry and governor of Guienne. After his
death, the title of duke of Épernon was borne by the families of
Goth and of Pardaillan.
EPHEBEUM (from Gr. ἔφηβος, a young man), in architecture,
a large hall in the ancient Palaestra furnished with seats
(Vitruvius v. 11), the length of which should be a third larger
than the width. It served for the exercises of youths of from
sixteen to eighteen years of age.
EPHEBI (Gr. ἐπί, and ἥβη, i.e. “those who have reached
puberty”), a name specially given, in Athens and other Greek
towns, to a class of young men from eighteen to twenty years of
age, who formed a sort of college under state control. On the
completion of his seventeenth year the Athenian youth attained
his civil majority, and, provided he belonged to the first three
property classes and passed the scrutiny (δοκιμασία) as to age,
