A threat which the Tower almost echoes by
shouting,

Well, you may complain
To the mighty Duke Bourbon.

The Captain and the Colonel then prostrate
themselves on their knees before the Duke,
and the following dialogue ensues:—

Cap. and Col. Oh, my Duke, oh, my Prince,
We have brought a sad complaint.

Duke. Colonel, pray—Captain, pray—
What the mischief do ye want?

Cap. and Col. Will you please a soldier grant
Just to knock the castle down.

Duke. Yes, a soldier I will grant,
Just to knock the castle down.

The Captain and the Colonel, with the
addition of a single guardsman, return to the
Tower. The same process of summoning and
defying takes place, and the officers go back
to the Duke, repeating their demands for
assistance, until all the guards are one by
one granted by the august potentate. The
Duke's son is then sent to make the
attempt, the verses being slightly modified
to suit the altered circumstances; and when
this noble youth has failed like the rest,
the Duke is requested to head the attack in
person.

Cap. and Col. Will your Highness come yourself,
Just to knock the castle down.

Duke. Willingly I'll go myself,
And I'll knock the castle down.

The attack now begins in good earnest,
the invading party doing all they can to separate
the hands of the Tower. Promotion from
the ranks is the system in this game, as
well as in the real French army; and the
soldier who succeeds in breaking the tower
is proclaimed Duke in place of his less
efficient leader; so that if the great Bourbon
would keep his place, he must show his
qualification for it by superior strength or
dexterity.

If this strange little game looks like an
episode from some chivalric romance, very in-
artificially dramatized, another game, called
La Marguerite, in which a lady in a castle is
the principal personage, smacks still more of
the days of Amadis and of Palmerin. The
young lady who represents the fair
Marguerite kneels down in the midst of several
others. These young ladies, raising her frock
over her head, thus form the castle in which
she resides. To this castle another child,
representing the gallant cavalier, advances,
singing:

Oh, where is Marguerite?
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
Oh, where is Marguerite?
Here comes the cavalier.

The group replies:

She's in her castle strong,
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
She's in her castle strong,
Thou gallant cavalier.

Cav. But can she not be seen?
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
But can she not be seen,
By me, the cavalier?

Group. The walls are far too high,
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
The walls are far too high,
Thou gallant cavalier.

Then the cavalier removes one of the
surrounding young ladies, who, as the following
dialogue informs us, is considered a stone of
the edifice:

Group. One stone is not enough,
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
One stone is not enough,
Thou gallant cavalier.

Cav. Then I will pull down two,
Oh gay, oh gay, oh gay—
Then I will pull down two,
Yes, I the cavalier.

And he does pull down two, and three, and
four, varying his verse on each occasion, until
at last ouly one stone is left, and she (the
stone) holds the gown tight over the head of
Marguerite, who now somewhat resembles
a pudding in a bag.

Accurate symbol of life! As the ladies
diminish the poetry of the game diminishes
also. The cavalier no longer singing, but,
speaking in vulgar prose, asks the remaining
stone:—

"What have you got there?" and receives
the unromantic answer:

"A bundle of linen for the laundry."

"Then," says the cavalier, " I'll fetch my
little knife and cut it."

The girl now lets go the frock, and
Marguerite, being thus discovered, instantly
takes flight, pursued by the rest of the party.

There is a meagre prose in the lame and
impotent conclusion of this game; which,
coming as it does after so stately a beginning,
almost inspires a feeling of melancholy. It
is like the chirp of a young poetical soul
immured amidst the routine of a counting-house.

The following game, which goes  by the
name of Promenons-nons dans les bois (let us
take a walk in the wood), has, if we
mistake not, some kindred sport in England.
One young lady of the party is the wolf,
another is the deer, while all the rest constitute
the deer's tail by a continuous
holding of frocks. The wolf is concealed at
first, and the deer, with her tail as chorus,
saunters merrily about singing