Part 163

FOURAGER, Fr. To forage, or look about for provender and provisions.

FOURAGER likewise means among the French to ravage, desolate, pillage, and waste a country for the purpose of throwing the inhabitants into disorder. The word is derived from foras agere, or to seek for forage in the fields.

FOURAGEUR, Fr. foragers, or men employed to procure forage, &c. for an army. They are generally escorted. Hence the expression: so many men have been ordered to escort the foragers. The body of foragers has been charged by the enemy’s cavalry.

FOURBISSEURS, Fr. a sword cutler. The French familiarly say of two persons who are extremely intimate, Ces gens sont tête-a-tête comme des fourbisseurs, meaning, that, like sword cutlers, (who when they work sit closely opposite to each other) they are putting their heads together.

Se battre a l’épée qui est chez le fourbisseur, to fight with a sword which is still in the cutler’s hands; signifying figuratively to dispute about any thing that does not concern either party.

FOURGON, Fr. a sort of waggon. It likewise signifies a poker.

FOURNEAU, Fr. furnace, also the chamber of a mine.

FOURIER, Fr. A quarter master belonging to a cavalry or infantry regiment. In France there were fouriers-majors of cavalry who composed a part of the cavalry staff. Serjeant fourier, and corporal fourier, answer to our quarter master serjeant.

FOURNIMENT, Fr. A horn which holds about one pound of gun-powder to prime cannon. It is likewise used by cavalry and infantry soldiers, who hang it across their shoulder. The artillerists keep it in a belt.

FOURCHETTES à mousquet, Fr. Rests for a musquet. They are sometimes used to relieve men who do duty on the rampart of a town.

Chemin FOURCHU, a cross way.

Paix FOURREE, Fr. a peace suddenly patched up.

Pays FOURRE, Fr. a country thick set with hedges, &c. properly called a close country.

FOURREAU de pistolet, a holster.

Faux FOURREAU de pistolet, pistol bag.

FOURREAU d’epée the scabbard of a sword.

FOURMILLER, Fr. to swarm with. La France fourmille en braves soldats--France swarms with brave soldiers; L’Angleterre fourmille en braves marins--England swarms with brave seamen.

FOUR de campagne. A field oven.

FOUR, a place of confinement in Paris to which vagabonds and persons who could not give any satisfactory account of themselves were committed; and when once shut up had their names enregistered, and were enlisted for the service of the old French government. A four in this acceptation of the term means a room arched over without having the least aperture to receive day light. There were several such places of confinement in Paris. They owed their invention to a Monsieur D’Argenson, and were supposed to add annually two thousand men at least to the king’s regular army; by which means the capital was relieved from a multitude of thieves, pick-pockets, &c.

FOURNITURES des vivres, Fr. See STORES, &c.

FOYER, Fr. Focus, or centre of the chamber. See MINE.

FRAISE, in fortification, a kind of stakes or palisades placed horizontally on the outward slope of a rampart made of earth, to prevent the work being taken by surprise. They are generally 7 or 8 feet long, and about 5 inches thick. When an army intrenches itself, the parapets of the retrenchments are often fraised in the parts exposed to an attack.

To FRAISE a battalion, is to line, or cover it every way with pikes, that it may withstand the shock of a body of horse.

FRAISER, Fr. To plait, knead or drill....In a military sense to fraise or fence; as fraiser un battalion, is to fraise or fence all the musquetry-men belonging to a battalion with pikes, to oppose the irruption of cavalry should it charge them in a plain. At present it means to secure a battalion by opposing bayonets obliquely forward, or cross-ways in such a manner as to render it impossible for a horseman to act against it.

FRAISES, Fr. See FRAISE an adopted English term.

FRANCHES, Fr....Les compagnies franches, free companies, were bodies of men detached and separated from the rest of the army, having each a chief, or commandant. They consisted chiefly of dragoons, hussars, &c. and their peculiar duty was to make irruptions into an enemy’s country; and may not improperly be called land pirates, as their chief occupation was to harrass and plunder the enemy and his adherents, in whatever manner they could, without paying any regard to military forms. The persons who composed these corps were termed partisans. They always accompanied the main army in time of war, and were distributed among the different garrison towns in France during peace. They were common to every power in Europe; the Pandours and Hulans were of this description. They were the worst afflictions of war; and generally as fatal to their friends as their enemies.

FRAY, a battle, combat, or duel.

FRICTION, in mechanics, the rubbing of the parts of engines and machines against each other, by which a considerable part of their effect is destroyed.