la Garde, i.e. royale, see p

1. 8. mèche. Mèche properly means a wick or string of tow used to keep a light in, in English slowmatch or linstock. Friction matches, which are the only things we associate with the word matches, were not in general use in 1830, so that gunners had then to use slowmatches. Both the English and the French words come from a Greek word meaning the nozzle of a lamp.