[Illustration:  Fig. 177.—­Somersaults.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut in “Exercises in Leaping and Vaulting,” by A. Tuccaro:  4to (Paris, 1599).]

Tennis also became the favourite game amongst the bourgeois in the towns, and tennis-courts were built in all parts, of such spacious proportions and so well adapted for spectators, that they were often converted into theatres.  Their game of billiards resembled the modern one only in name, for it was played on a level piece of ground with wooden balls which were struck with hooked sticks and mallets.  It was in great repute in the fourteenth century, for in 1396 Marshal de Boucicault, who was considered one of the best players of his time, won at it six hundred francs (or more than twenty-eight thousand francs of present currency).  At the beginning of the following century the Duke Louis d’Orleans ordered billes et billars to be bought for the sum of eleven sols six deniers tournois (about fifteen francs of our money), that he might amuse himself with them.  There were several games of the same sort, which were not less popular.  Skittles; la Soule or Soulette, which consisted of a large ball of hay covered over with leather, the possession of which was contested for by two opposing sides of players; Football; open Tennis; Shuttlecock, &c.  It was Charles V. who first thought of giving a more serious and useful character to the games of the people, and who, in a celebrated edict forbidding games of chance, encouraged the establishment of companies of archers and bowmen.  These companies, to which was subsequently added that of the arquebusiers, outlived political revolutions, and are still extant, especially in the northern provinces of France.

[Illustration:  Fig. 178.—­The Spring-board.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut in “Exercises in Leaping and Vaulting,” by A. Tuccaro:  4to (Paris, 1599).]

At all times and in all countries the games of chance were the most popular, although they were forbidden both by ecclesiastical and royal authority.  New laws were continually being enacted against them, and especially against those in which dice were used, though with little avail.  “Dice shall not be made in the kingdom,” says the law of 1256; and “those who are discovered using them, and frequenting taverns and bad places, will be looked upon as suspicions characters.”  A law of 1291 repeats, “That games with dice be forbidden.”  Nevertheless, though these prohibitions were frequently renewed, people continued to disregard them and to lose much money at such games.  The law of 1396 is aimed particularly against loaded dice, which must have been contemporary with the origin of dice themselves, for no games ever gave rise to a greater amount of roguery than those of this description.  They were, however, publicly sold in spite of all the laws to the contrary; for, in the “Dit du Mercier,” the dealer offers his merchandise thus:—­

  “J’ay dez de plus, j’ay dez de moins,
  De Paris, de Chartres, de Rains.”