was invented by the Spaniards, and called by them El Hombre, or THE
MAN, El Hombre being he (or she) who undertakes the game against the
other players.

There were variations in the way of playing, and there were
sometimes four or even five players; but usually there were three
players, as described by Pope in the third canto of The Rape of the
Lock, where Belinda played as Ombre against the Baron and another,
and the course of the game is faithfully described. It is the
purpose of this note to enable any reader of The Rape of the Lock to
learn the game of Ombre, play it, and be able to follow Pope's
description of a game.

The game of Ombre is played with a pack of cards from which the
eights, nines, and tens of each of the four suits have been thrown
out. The Ombre pack consists, therefore, of forty cards.

The values of cards when they are not trumps are not arranged in the
same order for each colour.

For the two black suits, Spades and Clubs, the values, from highest
to lowest, follow the natural order--King, Queen, Knave, seven, six,
five, four, three, two. But the two black aces always rank as
trumps, and are not reckoned as parts of the black suit. The Ace of
Spades is named Spadille, the Ace of Clubs is Basto.

For the two red suits, Hearts and Diamonds, only the King, Queen,
and Knave keep their values in natural order; the other cards have