Quadrille (patience)


Quadrille, also called Captive Queens, La Française or Partner is a card game of the Patience or Solitaire type using a pack of 52 playing cards. The name Quadrille is derived from the layout of the four Queens around which the cards are built; an alternative name, Captive Queens, describes the way the Queens become "enclosed" as the foundations are built upon. Alluding to the name, Quadrille, Parlett describes it as "a pleasant little pictorial which may be said to represent the dance of the cardboard court."
There are two variants:
Either way, the role of the Queens is purely decorative and plays no functional role in the game. The aim is to build the Sixes upwards in the same suit as far as the Jacks, and the Fives downwards as far as the Kings. The following chart clarifies which cards are placed on the foundations:
To play, cards are turned from the stock and built if possible or discarded if not possible into a wastepile, face up. Once the stock runs out, the cards are gathered from the wastepile and become the new stock from which cards are to be dealt. Three redeals are permitted.
The game is won when all the cards are in the foundations with the court cards at the top of each foundation, as shown on the right.