I was doing some reading in Alexandre Dumas' Twenty Years After--sequel to The Three Musketeers--when I came upon what surely must be the source of Nabokov's reference in PF to the card game lansquenet. As you will recall, this is the game two soldiers were playing in the courtyard outside the lumber room where King Charles was imprisoned and from which he would soon escape via the tunnel. In Twenty Years After, chapter LXV is titled "The Game of Lasquenet." In this chapter, the protagonists attend a game of Lasquenet thrown by Captain Groslow. The game takes place outside the room where King Charles I (Stuart) is held captive, and the four heroes hope they will be able to overpower the eight guards and set him free. In both passages, then, we have soldiers playing lasquenet outside outside the room where King Charles is held captive.

I've looked on the list, in Boyd & Meyer, and on the MLAIB for any notes about this allusion but finding none I thought I'd post it here. Apologies if it has already been noted elsewhere.

PS. I know that VN talks extensively about lansquenet and other "banking games" in his EO notes, so I'm not claiming that VN learned about the game from Dumas, just that the chapter in Dumas is clearly associated with the plot in PF.

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.