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.
[Illustration: Girls playing hide-and-seek]
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.
[Illustration: Girls playing seated blind man's buff]