It was these royal games of cards at the Court of Versailles which contributed in no small measure to the downfall of the old French monarchy, and to the outbreak of the great revolution in Paris a hundred years ago. The ill-fated Queen Marie-Antoinette of France became an inveterate gambler. It was her craze for high play that led her to admit not only to her court, but also to her card-table, parvenus of doubtful reputation and of questionable antecedents, such as the infamous Cagliostro, _soi-disant_ Count of St. Germain, and others of his class, whose only merit in her eyes was that they were rich and willing to lose their money without counting it. Indeed, the celebrated diamond necklace scandal, which compromised to such a terrible degree the reputation of this French queen, and precipitated the overthrow of the throne, would have been impossible had it not been for her gambling propensities. [Illustration: IN THE WHITE HALL _After a drawing by Oreste Cortazzo_] The "spiel-cour" only takes place on the eve of the wedding of a member of the Hohenzollern family. It is held in the _weisse-saal_ of the Berlin _schloss_, or palace. The kaiser and the kaiserin, with the bridal pair, seat themselves at a card table under a canopy of gold brocade, adorned with the imperial arms. The other royal personages sit at card-tables lower down on the dais on each side. The invited guests then pass before their majesties, precisely as at the "défiler-cour." The "sprech-cour" is, as its name signifies, a kind of _conversazione_. The persons invited are partitioned off, according to their ranks, in different rooms, through which their majesties promenade. Those not personally known to the emperor and empress are introduced by the masters of ceremonies in attendance, and others with whom their majesties are already acquainted are honored by a short conversation. "Trauer-cours," or mourning levées, are held immediately after the death of the reigning sovereign, and are exceedingly impressive, mainly by reason of the flowing robes and peculiar sable-hued attire which the ladies of the royal family of Prussia and of their courts are compelled by tradition and etiquette to adopt. Moreover, all the apartments are draped in black, the gilded ornaments being shrouded in crape. The last of these mourning courts was held by Empress Frederick, in the place of her dying husband, on the demise of old Emperor William, and so painful and depressing was this occasion, that at her urgent request, no ceremony of the kind was held when "_Unser Fritz_" in his turn, was gathered to his fathers.