Part 3

In order due, the king, the queen, The knights and other ranks are seen: A picture true of martial strife, Such as appears in human life. The contest of the mind succeeds, The stratagems, the daring deeds: Queens yield them to the subtle foe, And even monarchs are laid low. The battle’s lost, the battle’s won; The contest o’er, the game is done.

Kings, queens, knights, pawns, whate’er their name, } Whate’er is their dignity or fame, } Are hustled in the bag from whence they came. }

When Madame D’Hernilly had read the verses, they renewed their conversation about the game of _onchets_. “The grand question,” cried Madame D’Hernilly, “is whether these little ivory fish, or these figures of kings, queens, knaves, and horses, should be called onchets, honchets, or jonchets; those who make very laborious researches after the most trifling things, assure us, that we should say _honchets_, because the word may be used to signify little men. I am of the opinion of those who call them _jonchets_, which is derived from the game being originally played with straws, instead of these little sticks of ivory and gold. After all, my children, there is no need to trouble ourselves respecting the name of the game, the only essential thing about the amusement is that it should divert you.”

This game is most amusing when played by two persons only, although it is possible for three or four to join in it. They draw lots to decide who shall begin; the player who gains the chance, holds in his fingers one of these little hooks, the other takes the bundle of fish and figures which he strews over the table; the first then seizes with his hook upon as many of them as he can catch, but it requires a great deal of address to do this according to the rules of the game; for if the pieces in contact with the one which you covet happen to move in the slightest degree, you are obliged to resign your turn to your adversary, and this continues on both sides till all the pieces are taken.

The young people easily comprehended the instructions of Madame D’Hernilly, and soon became proficients in the game; they reckoned the king for fifty, the queen forty, the knave thirty, the horse twenty, and each plain fish for ten. The player who contrives to get together the greatest number of points, wins the game.

In every time, at ev’ry age, By grave and gay, by fool and sage, Or more or less, we’re sure to see The love of dear variety. The _Cup-and-Ball_ thrown to and fro The pious game of _Domino_[2] Amuse by turns, with various games Of other shapes and other names, While, without meaning any evil, Some may prefer to play the _Devil_.

[2] This game was invented by a monk to amuse the monastic orders, who are forbidden to play at cards.

HIDE-AND-SEEK.

It is still a question among the players of this game in France, whether one should say hide, hide, Mitoubat, or hide, hide, Nicholas? The frolicksome group whose plays we are describing, did not care a jot which was most proper; in fact, they seldom gave themselves the trouble to reason either upon the names or the choice of their diversions. They were induced to engage in this, from a circumstance which we are about to mention. The amusements which were practised at the castle of D’Hernilly, were very much talked of in the neighbourhood, and the fame of their sports drew a number of youthful visitors to the family. We have before observed, that young ladies alone were admitted; among those who presented themselves were several new-married ladies, who did not blush to join again in the innocent diversions of their childhood. The young ladies and their visitors passed a whole day in juvenile sports, without feeling a moment’s uneasiness, except when the hour came which by summoning them to partake of a repast, interrupted their games.

There are several ways of playing at Hide-and-Seek: sometimes one of the children went and hid herself in a dark corner, as far as she could from the others, but always within a certain distance; the others then ran about in every direction within this space to find her, and the one who succeeded in doing so, concealed herself in her turn in the best hiding-place she could find. The ladies’-maids, and some of the other female domestics, exerted their skill to aid those who wished to hide, in discovering the most secret corners; but care was always taken to avoid all dangerous places, as, for example, steep stairs, from whence they might have been precipitated at the moment when they were on the point of being seized.

Another way of playing at hide-and-seek, is to form a circle, and to set a person to seek through it for a particular object, which each of the others contrives to conceal from her view; a pocket-handkerchief, a snuff-box, or, in short, any toy or trinket, will serve for this purpose. Formerly they used to make use of a slipper, but always upon the express condition, that it should be very clean: this is, however, a shabby sort of expedient, and ought to be proscribed in good company: when it is adopted the game is called _Hunt-the-Slipper_.

Our readers will readily conceive, that the Misses D’Hernilly and their companions, did not condescend to hunt the slipper: but when they were tired of hide-and-seek in the way we have described, they seated themselves in a semi-circle upon the grass, in a very picturesque part of the garden, where flowers, of the most varied and beautiful hues, at once delighted the eyes, and gave a delicious fragrance to the air.

Mademoiselle Valeria, one of the new comers, voluntarily offered to play the dull part of the seeker. A young lady went round the circle holding up the drapery of her shawl, in order that Mademoiselle Valeria, who held her hand before her eyes, promising at the same time not to cheat, might not see to whom she gave the handkerchief.

As soon as she had given it, she cried aloud, “It is done;” at this cry, Mademoiselle Valeria began the round; the pocket-handkerchief which she pursued with ardour, circulated rapidly from hand to hand, and was concealed by the players in the folds of their dress. It is necessary for the seeker to guess exactly who the person is who holds it, and to seize her in the act. Poor Valeria found it very difficult to do this, for at the moment that she thought herself sure of finding the handkerchief, the one who held it slily slipped it to another, and it arrived in the twinkling of an eye, at the very extremity of the circle.

After a long and vain search, Valeria succeeded at last in seizing the handkerchief in the hand of Adela, who being now obliged to become a seeker in her turn, retired to a fountain, and turning her back to her companions, waited till it was time to begin the search. She did not wait long, the signal was speedily given, and, more lucky than Valeria, she was only a few minutes before she succeeded in discovering and seizing the handkerchief. A third and a fourth speedily took her place in turn. At last, Ernestina suffered the handkerchief to be found in her possession. This was a real triumph to all the rest, because Ernestina was supposed to understand the game better than any of them, and she was, besides, very active, so that it was extremely difficult to catch her; in fact, she would have escaped then, if a mischievous neighbour had not purposely been too long in receiving the handkerchief which she passed to her.

They cried bravo on all sides, and mischievously determining to tease Ernestina, they formed a little plot against her, while she was standing on one side, waiting for the game to begin. The hour approached for leaving off play, and they quickly agreed to finish with a little cheating trick. The pocket-handkerchief for which Ernestina was to seek, was placed at a great distance under a tuft of flowers, and they made believe to pass it from hand to hand. Ernestina was completely duped by this stratagem; her young friends’ hands moved with so much rapidity that she never perceived they passed nothing; for, to render the illusion more complete, they every now and then shewed her the corner of a gown, the end of a shawl, or sometimes another handkerchief. Ernestina eagerly caught hold of what she saw; but she was soon made sensible of her error, by long and loud bursts of laughter. However, she took these disappointments very gaily, and passed rapidly on, first to the right, and then to the left, till she became fatigued and out of breath. The mirth of her young friends grew more noisy; their suppressed laughter and whisperings, and perhaps also some inadvertence on the part of the youngest players, warned her at last, that they were making game of her. “I am certain,” cried she, “that the handkerchief is at a distance from this spot, and that you only make believe to pass it, and that is not the game.” They were obliged then to confess the trick they had played her. Ernestina was half inclined to be angry; but she had been often told that ill-humour alters the prettiest features; and perhaps this idea had some share in making her quickly get the better of hers; for she immediately resumed her gaiety, and returned to the castle, saying that she should one day take her revenge. Her comrades defied her to realize her threats; when she promised them that they would be caught sooner than they expected. Perhaps, after all, she was herself the first who was caught; for at her age we are easily deceived, because the credulity, natural to youth, lays us open to imposition.

Madame D’Hernilly, to whom Ernestina related her adventure, laughed very heartily at it, and said it was not the first time people sought to discover mysteries, where there were none. She gave, as an example of this, the following singular anecdote of the celebrated Catherine II., Empress of Russia. This sovereign was one day surrounded by some of the gravest of her courtiers, and becoming tired of their pedantic dissertations, she said, “Permit me, gentlemen, to interrupt for a moment the important discussion in which you are engaged, in order to consult you about a charade which I have read in the last _Mercure de France_, and which I cannot solve. It is this; ‘my first is a cavity, my second is a cavity, my whole is a cavity.’”

Our statesmen, with all the suppleness of true courtiers, turned their conversation immediately from politics to the charade. Nothing could be more easy than to find hollow objects, which might be supposed to form one of its three parts; but they tried in vain to discover any term which could be applied to the whole. The Empress made a pretence to slip out of the room, leaving her counsellors profoundly occupied with their endeavours to solve the charade, which they were heartily vexed at being unable to do at last. The next day, however, they discovered that the Empress had merely been amusing herself at their expense, for they found that there was no such charade in the latest _Mercure de France_, which had arrived at St. Petersburgh.

This was not the only time that Catherine sought, by jokes of this kind, to divert the ennui attendant upon a throne; and to lighten the painful yoke of _etiquette_. We might relate more than one trick of this sort which she has played, not merely upon different persons, but very often upon the inhabitants of a whole city. On more than one occasion, the people of the capital have tormented themselves during whole days to discover the solutions of problems and enigmas, which in reality had no meaning.

BLINDMAN’S BUFF, AND HOT-COCKLES.

The next day the family were once more alone, and the young people were obliged to find out games which did not require such a considerable number of players. Blindman’s Buff was the first that was chosen by this joyous little group. Adriana, as the youngest, had her eyes bound, and ran after her companions. Madame D’Hernilly took upon herself to call out, in order to warn the one who was blinded, when she approached too near a tree, or any other object that might endanger her safety. Adriana ran about during some time without catching any body; at last Ernestina suffered herself to be caught, out of compassion no doubt, and she pursued her young friends in her turn. This play lasted the greatest part of the day, but a storm coming on towards evening forced them to seek a shelter, and they retired to the drawing-room. As they complained of being obliged to leave off their game, Adela advised them to continue it in the hall, which was very spacious.

Madame D’Hernilly disapproved of this proposal, because she thought the game would endanger the furniture; but being always desirous to contribute to the amusement of the children, she told them that they might play at _Blindman’s Buff sitting_. This game is not attended with any risk to the furniture, and may be played without inconvenience even in a small room; it is besides more amusing perhaps than the other, particularly if it is played by candle-light.

The young people applauded Madame D’Hernilly’s idea; but they agreed at the same time that they would not begin to play till after dinner. They had scarcely dined when visitors arrived, whose company was almost as tiresome to the mistress of the house, as to the children. Our young readers will easily conceive with what impatience the latter waited for the moment when the departure of the guests, would leave them at liberty to begin their sport. At last it arrived, the visitors retired, and our gay young troop immediately formed themselves into a circle in the middle of the saloon. As Ernestina was to be blinded, they covered her eyes with a muslin handkerchief; every one then changed their place, and she was conducted into the middle of the group, and had the liberty of seating herself upon the knee of whatever person she pleased; but she was obliged, without putting her hands upon the person whom she touched, to guess who it was.

As the young folks were all differently dressed, the touch of their clothes would furnish an easy means of discovering them, but they did every thing in their power to prevent the one who was blinded from profiting by this circumstance: Adriana, who had a plain cambric muslin gown on, drew upon her knees the skirt of her next neighbour’s Merino pelisse. Ernestina deceived by the touch, exclaimed that it was Madame D’Hernilly or Adela; they called out, triumphantly, “Wrong! wrong!” and poor Ernestina had to begin her round again.

This game amused them during the whole evening, and they liked it so much, that in some days afterwards they began to play at it again, with as much eagerness as the first time; but they varied the manner of playing at it, and by so doing, heightened the amusement it afforded them. This new method, which we must call playing blindman’s buff in shadow, was as follows:――

One of the young ladies stood facing the wall, and she was enjoined not to look behind her: an Austral lamp was placed upon a table at the bottom of the saloon, and there was no other light in the room. All the party then passed between the lamp and the person who stood with her face to the wall, so that their shadows fell upon the wall; the lady who stood with her face to it, was obliged to guess as each shadow passed whose it was.

Madame D’Hernilly’s daughters, and their young companions, exerted all their ingenuity to disguise their figures, that they might avoid being caught. At first they passed pretty quickly in succession, because they were not yet well acquainted with the game; but at the fifth or sixth game, when Madame D’Hernilly occupied the post facing the wall, they made use of all the little artifices they could think of to lead her into error. Ernestina, Adela, and Adriana, vied with each other in endeavours to disguise their shadows most effectually. Their postures were so whimsical, that Madame D’Hernilly could not succeed in discovering any one.

To increase the difficulties, they resolved to put a cheat upon her, and slily brought a young servant girl to take a part in the game without her knowledge. This girl presented herself at first with a gardener’s hat on; and presently afterwards, she put on the pouch and belt of the game-keeper, and clapped a villager’s cap upon her head. After that she crawled along upon her hands and feet with a postilion’s jack-boot upon her arms. Madame D’Hernilly was obliged to say that she “_threw her tongue to the dogs_.” This phrase is used to signify that you give up; and uncouth as it sounds in our language, Madame de Sevigné has condescended to employ it in one of her most sprightly letters[3].

They deliberated upon the penance which they should inflict upon Madame D’Hernilly; and they agreed that she should be obliged to embrace those of the company whom she loved best, and that she must do it without making the others jealous. She tenderly embraced her daughters and their young friends; and though her preference for her daughters was too natural to be doubted, they did not perceive that there was any difference in her manner of caressing them, and their companions. She therefore fulfilled the express condition of the penance, which was in fact a pleasure, rather than a penance to her.

They then played one more game; Ernestina soon found herself in the same situation as Madame D’Hernilly, and she was consequently obliged to submit to a penance. They gave her a fable to read, of which the following lines form the concluding moral:

Sometimes smooth and sometimes rough, Is the game of Blindman’s Buff. Between the blind and those who see, It oft produces treachery. ’Twere better then, amid the strife That mingles in the scenes of life, As the best guard ’gainst those who flout you, To keep an open eye, and look about you.

These childish amusements were interrupted for some time by the arrival of a new present from Victor, the kind brother of the Misses D’Hernilly: it consisted of some new music. Their father had added several instructive books to Victor’s gift; and the young ladies were delighted with both. Their occupations now became as serious as possible; they were engaged the whole day at the harp, the piano, and the _Solfeggio_; they hardly allowed themselves even a short interval to walk in the garden, gather flowers, or admire the beauty of the fruits which were approaching to maturity.

If by chance bad weather obliged the company to confine themselves to the drawing-room, the young people read extracts from voyages and travels, written in such a manner as to suit their capacity, divested of those scientific details which are uninteresting to people of the world, and cleared at the same time from all that could be detrimental to the youthful and delicate mind. These extracts united all that is most pleasing in history and romance, and they were free from the dryness of the one, and from all that is dangerous in the other.

One evening Madame D’Hernilly took her work-basket into the park, where she seated herself at the foot of a majestic oak, surrounded by beautiful plane trees, and began to amuse herself with her work. The young visitors, of whom we have spoken, had left the castle for some days, on account of a slight indisposition of their mamma, but they came to pass this evening with Adela and Ernestina. The young people amused themselves with roving about the park; the evening was delightfully serene, the last rays of the setting sun were gradually disappearing before the brilliant disk of the full moon, which arose at the opposite extremity of the horizon in mild and cloudless majesty. The lovely serenity of the scene invited the young friends to the pursuit of rural pleasures, but the heat of the day was not sufficiently abated, to enable them to run about and give themselves up without restraint to active exercise. Madame D’Hernilly found that it was too dark to pursue her embroidery any longer, when the young people came and grouped themselves about her. Adela proposed to return to the house and practise some music. “We should do much better,” cried Adriana, “to stay here.” “But what should we play at then?” cried one of the others. “Oh,” replied Adriana, “at what you will, no matter, provided it is play.” “Let us dance hands round,” said Ernestina. “No,” said Adela, “it is too hot.” “Well then, let us play at blindman’s buff.” “Oh,” cried Adriana, “we have played at that so much; besides, I am always afraid you will cheat me, you know how you caught me the last time.”

Adriana alluded to a little trick which her companions had put upon her. Three weeks before, they played one day at blindman’s buff upon a very extensive lawn, which was surrounded on all sides by gravel walks, where there was no breakneck place to fear. It was expressly settled that they should not go beyond the lawn, and that whoever passed its limits, should be looked upon as caught, and submit to be blinded accordingly.

It was Adriana who was blinded, and on the faith of their agreement, she went quietly groping about for almost a quarter of an hour; meantime, the other rogues all passed the lawn, and mischievously left her to seek them in vain. When she found out the trick she was almost angry, and even Madame D’Hernilly reproached the others gravely for having broken their express agreement.

Ernestina proposed that they should play at a game, the movements of which do not require much activity; it is blindman’s buff with the wand. “What is that?” cried Valeria. “Oh,” said the frolicksome Ernestina, “I will soon shew you.”

They hastened to gather from the banks of a little rivulet which ran through a garden laid out in the English taste, a pliant branch of a weeping willow; they stripped it of all its leaves, and left it about a foot and a half long. They were proceeding to draw lots to ascertain in the usual way who should be blinded; when Ernestina, who was very good-natured, offered of her own accord to take the disagreeable part of the blind one: the others accordingly put a bandage over her eyes, and made sure that she could not see, when they gave her the wand to hold. Each of the others then took hold by turns of the opposite end of the wand, they put it to their lips and whispered a few words, endeavouring at the same time to disguise their voices. Ernestina who had proposed the game, and who was supposed to be well acquainted with it, became the victim of her good-nature, for she remained a long time unable to guess at any of the whisperers; she was lucky enough, however, to succeed at last, and each of the others were obliged to submit to be blinded in their turn.

Adriana shewed a good deal of cleverness at this game, and managed for a long time to avoid being caught; at last, the one who was blinded contrived by a little sly trick to make her betray herself. She threw her off her guard, and in her surprise, she spoke without disguising her voice; she was consequently immediately recognised, and triumphantly seized. It was Ernestina who played this trick, which Adriana resolved should not pass unrevenged, and accordingly she made use of every effort to catch Ernestina, who being the cleverest of the party contrived for a long time to escape. Adriana might easily have seized upon Adela, or Valeria, but it was Ernestina only that she wished to catch, and at last she succeeded.