What is a stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice. Every little fetch of wit and criticism. South called?

fetch — A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice. Every little fetch of wit and criticism. South. (Webster's 1913.)