takes six, and asks for another deal. I, having a little of everything,
refuse. I had the ace of clubs (fancy my bad luck!) the ace, king,
knave, ten and eight of hearts, and as I wanted to make the point, threw
away king and queen of diamonds, ten and queen of spades. I had five
hearts in hand, and took up the queen, which just made me a high
sequence of five. But my gentleman, to my extreme surprise, lays down on
the table a sequence of six low diamonds, together with the ace. I had
thrown away king and queen of the same colour. But as he wanted a
piquet, I got the better of my fear, and was confident at least of
making two tricks. Besides the seven diamonds he had four spades, and
playing the smallest of them, put me in the predicament of not knowing
which of my two aces to keep. I threw away, rightly as I thought, the
ace of hearts; but he had discarded four clubs, and I found myself made
_Capot_ by a six of hearts, unable, from sheer vexation, to say a
single word.

[Footnote: In the seventeenth century, piquet was not played with
thirty-two, but with thirty-six, cards; the sixes, which are now thrown
away, remained then in the pack. Every player received twelve cards, and
twelve remained on the table. He who had to play first could throw away
seven or eight cards, the dealer four or five, and both might take fresh
ones from those that were on the table. A trick counted only when taken
with one of the court-cards, or a ten.

Saint-Bouvain, after having taken up his cards, had in hand six small
diamonds with the ace, which counted 7, a sequence of six diamonds from
the six to the knave counted 16, thus together 23, before he began to
play. With his seven diamonds he made seven tricks, but only counted 3,
for those made by the ace, knave, and ten; this gave him 26. Besides his
seven diamonds he had four spades, most likely the ace, king, knave, and