Picket

Picauert or, Piquer, in fortification, a painted staff shod with iron; used. in marking out the angles and principal parts of a fortification, when the engineer is tracing out a plan upon'the ground. There are also larger pickets, or painted stakes, which are driven into the earth to hold together fascines or faygots, in any work cast up in haste. Pickets are likewise the stakes driven into the ground near the tents of the horsemen in a camp, to tie their horses to; and before the tents of the foot, where they rest their musquets or picks about them ina ring. The same name is also given to the stakes with notches towards the top, to which are fastened the cordages of tents: thus to plant the picket is to encamp. When a horseman has committed any considerable offence, he is sometimes sentenced to stand upon the picket, which is to have one hand and the opposite foot tied together, and being drawn up from the ground by the other hand, he is obliged to stand with one foot on the point of a picket or stake, so that he can neither stand nor hang without great pain, nor ease himself by changing feet. Py py