picquet

picquet: i. e. a guard posted in front of the enemy: stătio, ōnis, f. (strictly, the post or station; by meton. the troops occupying it): to post p.s at short intervals, crebras s. disponere, Caes. B. C. 1, 73: to avoid the (enemy's) posts and p.s, custodias s.que vitare, ib. 59: our p.s were driven in, *stationes nostrae loco dejectae sunt.