embrasure

Chess, by and large, is a war game played by nonmartial people who would have trouble identifying the business end of an M16 or explaining the difference between an embrasure and a sally port.

They can also see gun embrasures in the basement, swords from medieval wars and a passageway, now closed off, that was used as an escape route.

Outside the house came the sound of a pistol-shot; the glass of the window was shattered with a bullet, which, ricochetting from the top of the embrasure, struck the far wall of the room.

Robin’s bedchamber was off the main hall or living room of the house, in an embrasure of the thick wall.

It was a worthy song, and it could stir the embrasures and battlements of a strong man’s soul.