A Game for Two Players
“The muster-place be Lanrick mead.”
The Game is played on a chess-board, each Player having 5 men; the other requisites are a die and dice-box, and something (such as a coin) to mark a square.
The interior of the board, excluding the border-squares, is regarded as containing 6 ‘rows’ and 6 ‘columns.’ It must be agreed which is the first row and first column.
1.—The Players set the men in turn, on any border-squares they like.
2.—The die is thrown twice, and a square marked accordingly, the first throw fixing the row, the second the column; the marked square, with the 8 surrounding squares, forms the first ‘rendezvous,’ into which the men are to be played.
3.—The men move like chess-queens; in playing for the first ‘rendezvous,’ each Player may move over 6 squares, either with one man, or dividing the move among several.
4.—When one Player has got all his men into the ‘rendezvous’ the other must remove from the board one of his men that has failed to get in; the die is then thrown for a new ‘rendezvous,’ for which each Player may move over as many squares as he had men in the last ‘rendezvous,’ and one more.
5.—If it be found that either Player has all his men already in the new ‘rendezvous,’ the die must be thrown again, till a ‘rendezvous’ is found where this is not the case.
6.—The Game ends when one Player has lost all his men.
Jan. 16, 1879