saw the angel [messenger] of the Lord stand between the Earth and the Heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem".[1] It will not be forgotten that Josephus used almost the same language many centuries later under circumstances not altogether dissimilar.[2]
The following extract from the quarto edition of Littré's French Dictionary (sub. voc., Comète) will I think be new to English Readers and may appropriately end this chapter:—
"Comet: a card game played with 2 packs of cards from which the aces have been removed. One of the two packs is printed in black ink, and the other in red. On one of the cards the figure of a comet appears; or, as a substitute, the nine of diamonds in the black pack, and the nine of clubs in the red pack are used." "It is true that she made more progress in the game of comet and in backgammon than in spelling, and she plays the comet card more easily than she writes a letter."
The last sentence is given as a quotation from Voltaire describing the educational developement of a certain Mademoiselle Corneille.[3]
It may be added (though I have been unable to trace the authorities) that it has been said that the origin of the phrase the "Curse of Scotland", applied to the Nine of Diamonds, was that the "Game of Comet" was introduced into Scotland by French members of the retinue of Mary, Queen of Scots, and became so popular with the upper classes as to lead to an immense developement of gambling, the game acquiring its Scotch repute from the name of its Trump Card.
