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