that the French
and Spanish improved upon it and gave it a plain significance; and there
is no reason to doubt that cards were actually employed to amuse Charles
VI. in his melancholy and dejection.

The four suits of cards are supposed to represent the four estates of
a kingdom:--1. The nobility and gentry; 2. The ecclesiastics or
priesthood; 3. The citizens or commercial men; 4. The peasantry or
Husbandmen. The nobility are represented in the old Spanish cards by
the espada, or sword, corrupted by us into 'spades,'--by the French with
piques, 'pikes or spears.' The ecclesiastical order is pointed out by
copas, or sacramental cups, which are painted in one of the suits of old
Spanish cards, and by coeurs, or 'hearts,' on French cards, as in
our own--thereby signifying choir-men, gens de choeur, or
ecclesiastics--from choeur de l'eglise, 'the choir of the church,' that
being esteemed the most important part or the HEART of the church.

The Spaniards depicted their citizens or commercial men under dineros,
a small coin, an emblem very well adapted to the productive classes; the
French by carreaux, squares or lozenges--importing, perhaps, unity
of interest, equality of condition, regularity of manners, and the
indispensable duty of this class of men to deal with one another 'on the
square.' The Spaniards made bastos, or knotty clubs, the emblem of the
'bold peasantry,' taken probably from the custom that the plebeians
were permitted to challenge or fight each other with sticks and
quarter-staves only, but not with the sword, or any arms carried by a
gentleman; while the French peasantry were pointed out under the ideas
of husbandry, namely, by the trefles, trefoil or clover-grass. So much
for the SUITS.

With regard to the depicted figures of cards, each nation likewise
followed its own inventions, though grounded in both on those ideas of
chivalry which then strongly prevailed. The Spanish cards were made to
carry the insignia and accoutrements of the King of Spain, the ace of
deneros being emblazoned with the royal arms, supported by an eagle. The
French ornamented their cards with fleurs de lis, their royal emblem.
The Spanish kings, in conformity to the martial spirit of the times
when cards were introduced, were all mounted on horseback, as befitted
generals and commanders-in-chief; but their next in command (among
the cards) was el caballo, the knight-errant on horseback--for the old
Spanish cards had no queens;