The next day the family were once more alone, and the young people were obliged to find out games which did not require such a considerable number of players. Blindman’s Buff was the first that was chosen by this joyous little group. Adriana, as the youngest, had her eyes bound, and ran after her companions. Madame D’Hernilly took upon herself to call out, in order to warn the one who was blinded, when she approached too near a tree, or any other object that might endanger her safety. Adriana ran about during some time without catching any body; at last Ernestina suffered herself to be caught, out of compassion no doubt, and she pursued her young friends in her turn. This play lasted the greatest part of the day, but a storm coming on towards evening forced them to seek a shelter, and they retired to the drawing-room. As they complained of being obliged to leave off their game, Adela advised them to continue it in the hall, which was very spacious.
Madame D’Hernilly disapproved of this proposal, because she thought the game would endanger the furniture; but being always desirous to contribute to the amusement of the children, she told them that they might play at Blindman’s Buff sitting. This game is not attended with any risk to the furniture, and may be played without inconvenience even in a small room; it is besides more amusing perhaps than the other, particularly if it is played by candle-light.
The young people applauded Madame D’Hernilly’s idea; but they agreed at the same time that they would not begin to play till after dinner. They had scarcely dined when visitors arrived, whose company was almost as tiresome to the mistress of the house, as to the children. Our young readers will easily conceive with what impatience the latter waited for the moment when the departure of the guests, would leave them at liberty to begin their sport. At last it arrived, the visitors retired, and our gay young troop immediately formed themselves into a circle in the middle of the saloon. As Ernestina was to be blinded, they covered her eyes with a muslin handkerchief; every one then changed their place, and she was conducted into the middle of the group, and had the liberty of seating herself upon the knee of whatever person she pleased; but she was obliged, without putting her hands upon the person whom she touched, to guess who it was.
As the young folks were all differently dressed, the touch of their clothes would furnish an easy means of discovering them, but they did every thing in their power to prevent the one who was blinded from profiting by this circumstance: Adriana, who had a plain cambric muslin gown on, drew upon her knees the skirt of her next neighbour’s Merino pelisse. Ernestina deceived by the touch, exclaimed that it was Madame D’Hernilly or Adela; they called out, triumphantly, “Wrong! wrong!” and poor Ernestina had to begin her round again.
This game amused them during the whole evening, and they liked it so much, that in some days afterwards they began to play at it again, with as much eagerness as the first time; but they varied the manner of playing at it, and by so doing, heightened the amusement it afforded them. This new method, which we must call playing blindman’s buff in shadow, was as follows:—
One of the young ladies stood facing the wall, and she was enjoined not to look behind her: an Austral lamp was placed upon a table at the bottom of the saloon, and there was no other light in the room. All the party then passed between the lamp and the person who stood with her face to the wall, so that their shadows fell upon the wall; the lady who stood with her face to it, was obliged to guess as each shadow passed whose it was.
Madame D’Hernilly’s daughters, and their young companions, exerted all their ingenuity to disguise their figures, that they might avoid being caught. At first they passed pretty quickly in succession, because they were not yet well acquainted with the game; but at the fifth or sixth game, when Madame D’Hernilly occupied the post facing the wall, they made use of all the little artifices they could think of to lead her into error. Ernestina, Adela, and Adriana, vied with each other in endeavours to disguise their shadows most effectually. Their postures were so whimsical, that Madame D’Hernilly could not succeed in discovering any one.
To increase the difficulties, they resolved to put a cheat upon her, and slily brought a young servant girl to take a part in the game without her knowledge. This girl presented herself at first with a gardener’s hat on; and presently afterwards, she put on the pouch and belt of the game-keeper, and clapped a villager’s cap upon her head. After that she crawled along upon her hands and feet with a postilion’s jack-boot upon her arms. Madame D’Hernilly was obliged to say that she “threw her tongue to the dogs.” This phrase is used to signify that you give up; and uncouth as it sounds in our language, Madame de Sevigné has condescended to employ it in one of her most sprightly letters[3].
They deliberated upon the penance which they should inflict upon Madame D’Hernilly; and they agreed that she should be obliged to embrace those of the company whom she loved best, and that she must do it without making the others jealous. She tenderly embraced her daughters and their young friends; and though her preference for her daughters was too natural to be doubted, they did not perceive that there was any difference in her manner of caressing them, and their companions. She therefore fulfilled the express condition of the penance, which was in fact a pleasure, rather than a penance to her.
They then played one more game; Ernestina soon found herself in the same situation as Madame D’Hernilly, and she was consequently obliged to submit to a penance. They gave her a fable to read, of which the following lines form the concluding moral:
These childish amusements were interrupted for some time by the arrival of a new present from Victor, the kind brother of the Misses D’Hernilly: it consisted of some new music. Their father had added several instructive books to Victor’s gift; and the young ladies were delighted with both. Their occupations now became as serious as possible; they were engaged the whole day at the harp, the piano, and the Solfeggio; they hardly allowed themselves even a short interval to walk in the garden, gather flowers, or admire the beauty of the fruits which were approaching to maturity.
If by chance bad weather obliged the company to confine themselves to the drawing-room, the young people read extracts from voyages and travels, written in such a manner as to suit their capacity, divested of those scientific details which are uninteresting to people of the world, and cleared at the same time from all that could be detrimental to the youthful and delicate mind. These extracts united all that is most pleasing in history and romance, and they were free from the dryness of the one, and from all that is dangerous in the other.
One evening Madame D’Hernilly took her work-basket into the park, where she seated herself at the foot of a majestic oak, surrounded by beautiful plane trees, and began to amuse herself with her work. The young visitors, of whom we have spoken, had left the castle for some days, on account of a slight indisposition of their mamma, but they came to pass this evening with Adela and Ernestina. The young people amused themselves with roving about the park; the evening was delightfully serene, the last rays of the setting sun were gradually disappearing before the brilliant disk of the full moon, which arose at the opposite extremity of the horizon in mild and cloudless majesty. The lovely serenity of the scene invited the young friends to the pursuit of rural pleasures, but the heat of the day was not sufficiently abated, to enable them to run about and give themselves up without restraint to active exercise. Madame D’Hernilly found that it was too dark to pursue her embroidery any longer, when the young people came and grouped themselves about her. Adela proposed to return to the house and practise some music. “We should do much better,” cried Adriana, “to stay here.” “But what should we play at then?” cried one of the others. “Oh,” replied Adriana, “at what you will, no matter, provided it is play.” “Let us dance hands round,” said Ernestina. “No,” said Adela, “it is too hot.” “Well then, let us play at blindman’s buff.” “Oh,” cried Adriana, “we have played at that so much; besides, I am always afraid you will cheat me, you know how you caught me the last time.”
Adriana alluded to a little trick which her companions had put upon her. Three weeks before, they played one day at blindman’s buff upon a very extensive lawn, which was surrounded on all sides by gravel walks, where there was no breakneck place to fear. It was expressly settled that they should not go beyond the lawn, and that whoever passed its limits, should be looked upon as caught, and submit to be blinded accordingly.
It was Adriana who was blinded, and on the faith of their agreement, she went quietly groping about for almost a quarter of an hour; meantime, the other rogues all passed the lawn, and mischievously left her to seek them in vain. When she found out the trick she was almost angry, and even Madame D’Hernilly reproached the others gravely for having broken their express agreement.
Ernestina proposed that they should play at a game, the movements of which do not require much activity; it is blindman’s buff with the wand. “What is that?” cried Valeria. “Oh,” said the frolicksome Ernestina, “I will soon shew you.”
They hastened to gather from the banks of a little rivulet which ran through a garden laid out in the English taste, a pliant branch of a weeping willow; they stripped it of all its leaves, and left it about a foot and a half long. They were proceeding to draw lots to ascertain in the usual way who should be blinded; when Ernestina, who was very good-natured, offered of her own accord to take the disagreeable part of the blind one: the others accordingly put a bandage over her eyes, and made sure that she could not see, when they gave her the wand to hold. Each of the others then took hold by turns of the opposite end of the wand, they put it to their lips and whispered a few words, endeavouring at the same time to disguise their voices. Ernestina who had proposed the game, and who was supposed to be well acquainted with it, became the victim of her good-nature, for she remained a long time unable to guess at any of the whisperers; she was lucky enough, however, to succeed at last, and each of the others were obliged to submit to be blinded in their turn.
Adriana shewed a good deal of cleverness at this game, and managed for a long time to avoid being caught; at last, the one who was blinded contrived by a little sly trick to make her betray herself. She threw her off her guard, and in her surprise, she spoke without disguising her voice; she was consequently immediately recognised, and triumphantly seized. It was Ernestina who played this trick, which Adriana resolved should not pass unrevenged, and accordingly she made use of every effort to catch Ernestina, who being the cleverest of the party contrived for a long time to escape. Adriana might easily have seized upon Adela, or Valeria, but it was Ernestina only that she wished to catch, and at last she succeeded.
When Ernestina’s eyes were bandaged, Adriana went to Madame D’Hernilly, who had till then remained seated at some distance without taking any share in the game, but at the desire of Adriana, she now drew near and held the wand. While she thus stood facing Ernestina, she remained silent, and the adroit Adriana, who was close to her, muttered a few words, interrupted every now and then by a titter. As Ernestina knew nothing of Madame D’Hernilly’s holding the wand, she guessed repeatedly, but always in vain. At last, wearied out with her ill luck, she declared she gave it up, and Adriana to complete her little revenge, acknowledged the stratagem she had practised, saying, “So you see, Ernestina, the plotter is caught in his own trap.” This joke terminated their sport at blindman’s buff, but as it was yet too early for them to retire to their apartments, they determined to finish the evening with another game; and they made choice of Hot-cockles. Madame D’Hernilly, who wished to put an end to their little tricks of deceiving and cheating one another, practices which we hope our young readers will condemn as being highly improper, determined to play herself the part of the confessor; each of the young people came in succession, and placing her hand upon Madame D’Hernilly’s lap, spread her right hand upon her back, and remained in this position which is called, being the penitent, till she could guess who struck her.
The rules of this game are extremely simple, but there is one precaution necessary in playing it, that of not striking too violently. Excesses of this sort were not much to be apprehended where the players were all young ladies; however, we must confess, that some of them felt inclined to give heavy blows; Madame D’Hernilly, who saw this, took great care to rein in their impetuosity. She obliged them also to the strict observance of the rules, one of which was, that two persons should never strike at the same time. Whenever this happened, the person who gave the last blow, ought to take the place of penitent; and Madame D’Hernilly took care always to inflict the penalty with inflexible severity.
While they were at play, the nursery-maid came to tell them that supper was ready. Ernestina wanted her to hide behind a bush for a little while, and then to strike Adriana, who, of course, would be a long time before she could guess who gave the blow. Madame D’Hernilly, who regretted having in a former instance lent herself to a deception, even though it was an innocent one, would not permit this little deceit to be practised. She broke up the game, and the children found, in their light and simple supper, a refreshment after the fatigues of play. They then retired to bed, where exercise, combined with their temperate repast, ensured them good repose.
There is also another description of hot-cockles, called “Brother, they strike me.” There are two penitents, the one who finds himself touched with the corner of a pocket-handkerchief, calls out to the other, “Brother, they strike me.” The other replies, “Who strikes you?” and the first one must guess. But one of the players is a false brother; sometimes he himself strikes, and sometimes his companion; he takes care not to name himself. The game does not finish till the person upon whom the trick is played perceives the cheat; but if his comrades are clever, the illusion may last a good while. The false brother complains that they strike him too violently, and is the first to call out and to complain of the trick. At the expiration of a certain time he gives up to another, who purposely allows himself to be caught; and this serves to prolong the joke and the game. At last they own to their deceived comrade, the trick they have been playing him, and they comfort him by telling him, that in future he may catch others in the same manner.
[3] The letter in which Madame de Sevigné speaks of the marriage of De Lauzun with Mademoiselle D’Orléans.