Mr. Baring-Gould, in his “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” mentions the discovery in 1850 of a Gallo-Roman palace near Pau in France. In one of the rooms the pavement consisted of squares which were ornamented with crosses of different shapes. Those of Saint Andrew “terminated in either a heart-shaped leaf or a trefoil.” Here then may be seen the various devices adopted by the card-maker. On the “Carreaux,” or diamond-shaped tiles, were displayed Clubs, Hearts, and Spades, beneath the feet of the worshipper in his church or the courtier in the palace; and to transfer the emblems to the card in place of the symbols used by the Oriental was an easy matter. The “Club,” as we name it, is a favourite emblem of the Trinity, which has been used for centuries as its symbol; and we need not search for an Agnes Sorel or a Saint Patrick as the first to use the clover-leaf, and fancy that the French courtier meant to compliment the King’s mistress by placing her device among the cards. It might just as well have been directly the reverse, and that she, seeing how pretty the leaf and how appropriate the pun on her name, might have adopted it from the card pips. It is quite possible that beside the Tarot cards there were others in use about the fifteenth century, and that their emblems became favourites in France and Germany, while Italy and Spain clung to those seen in the Saracen pack. ODDS AND ENDS. Among the other extravagant fashions of the French Court from the time of Charles the Sixth to that of Louis the Sixteenth, that of decorating the card-room, its furniture, accessories, and even the cards themselves, was by no means the least. It was perhaps fitting that the place in which enormous sums of money changed hands should be decorated as a shrine to the God of Play, and it is certain that they were luxuriously furnished and magnificently adorned. Under Louis the Fourteenth the cloths were of green velvet embroidered in gold and enriched with bullion fringes. The counters were of various metals,—mother of pearl, or other valuable substances. We read of a pack embroidered on white satin enriched with silver, and another one engraved on mother of pearl. Some of the more luxurious among the aristocracy ordered their cards from the most famous miniature painters of the day, in order to differ as widely as possible from the roughly produced and cheap cards used by the common people; and of course for these cards enormous prices were given. The decorations of the card-rooms were in harmony with the accessories of the tables, and tapestries were designed and woven to accord with the scenes which they surrounded; even within a few years one of the modern palaces in Europe has been adorned with mural decorations which represented the court cards of obsolete packs; and the four Knaves in picturesque costumes, life size and beautifully designed and executed, surround the card-room.