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.