gaming-table after dinner. With this money Gaston's attendants

and even the prince himself sat down to play. It is probable,
however, that Voltaire extended a single instance or two into a

general habit or custom. That writer always preferred to deal
with the splendid and the marvellous rather than with plain

matter of fact.
There can be little doubt that the Spaniards pursued gaming in

the vulgar fashion, just as other people. At any rate the
following anecdote gives us no very favourable idea of Spanish

generosity to strangers in the matter of gambling in modern
times; and the worst of it is the suitableness of its application

to more capitals than one among the kingdoms of Europe. `After
the bull-feast I was invited to pass the evening at the hotel of

a lady, who had a public card-assembly. . . . This vile
method of subsisting on the folly of mankind is confined in Spain

to the nobility. None but women of quality are permitted to hold
banks, and there are many whose faro-banks bring them in a clear

income of a thousand guineas a year. The lady to whom I was
introduced is an old countess, who has lived nearly thirty years

on the profits of the card-tables in her house. They are
frequented every day, and though both natives and foreigners are

duped of large sums by her, and her cabinet-junto, yet it is the
greatest house of resort in all Madrid. She goes to court,

visits people of the first fashion, and is received with as much
respect and veneration as if she exercised the most sacred

functions of a divineprofession. Many widows of great men keep
gaming-houses and live splendidly on the vices of mankind. If

you be not disposed to play, be either a sharper or a dupe, you
cannot be admitted a second time to their assemblies. I was no

sooner presented to the lady than she offered me cards; and on my
excusing myself, because I really could not play, she made a very

wry face, turned from me, and said to another lady in my hearing,
that she wondered how any foreigner could have the

impertinence to come to her house for no other purpose than to
make an apology for not playing. My Spanish conductor,

unfortunately for himself, had not the same apology. He played
and lost his money--two circumstances which constantly" target="_blank" title="ad.经常地；不断地">constantly follow in

these houses. While my friend was thus playing _THE FOOL_, I
attentively watched the countenance and motions of the lady of

the house. Her anxiety, address, and assiduity were equal to
that of some skilful shopkeeper, who has a certain attraction to

engage all to buy, and diligence to take care that none shall
escape the net. I found out all her privy-counsellors, by her

arrangement of her parties at the different tables; and whenever
she showed an extraordinaryeagerness to fix one particular

person with a stranger, the game was always decided the same way,
and her good friend was sure to win the money.

`In short, it is hardly possible to see good company at Madrid
unless you resolve to leave a purse of gold at the card-

assemblies of their nobility.'[10]
[10] `Observations in a Tour through Spain.'

We are assured that this state of things is by no means
`obsolete' in Spain, even at the present time. At the time

in question, however, the beginning of the present century, there
was no European nation among which gaming did not constitute one

of its polite and fashionable amusements--with the exception of
the _Turks_, who, to the shame of Christians, strictly obeyed the

precepts of Mahomet, and scrupulously avoided the `gambling itch'
of our nature.

In England gambling prevailed during the reign of Henry VIII.;
indeed, it seems that the king was himself a gamester of the most

unscrupulous sort; and there is ample evidence that the practice
flourished during the reign of Elizabeth, James I., and

subsequently, especially in the times of Charles II. Writing on
the day when James II. was proclaimed king, Evelyn says, `I can

never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming and
all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it

being Sunday evening) which this day se'nnight I was witness of,
the king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth,

Cleaveland, and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love-songs,
in that gloriousgallery, whilst about twenty of the great

courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a
large table; a bank of at least L2000 in gold before them,

upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with
astonishment. Six days after all was in the dust!'

The following curious observations on the gaming in vogue during
the year 1668 are from the Harleian Miscellany:

`One propounded this question, "Whether men in ships at sea were
to be accounted amongst the living or the dead--because there

were but few inches betwixt them and drowning?" The same query
may be made of gamesters, though their estates be never so

considerable--whether they are to be esteemed rich or poor, since
there are but a few casts at dice betwixt a person of fortune (in

that circumstance) and a beggar.
`Betwixt twelve and one of the clock a good dinner is prepared by

way of ordinary, and some gentlemen of civility and condition
oftentimes eat there, and play a while for recreation after

dinner, both moderately and most commonly without deserving
reproof. Towards night, when ravenous beasts usually seek their

prey, there come in shoals of hectors, trepanners, gilts, pads,
biters, prigs, divers, lifters, kidnappers, vouchers, mill kens,

piemen, decoys, shop-lifters, foilers, bulkers, droppers,
gamblers, donnakers, crossbiters, &c., under the general

appellation of "rooks;" and in this particular it serves as a
nursery for Tyburn, for every year some of this gang march

thither.
`Would you imagine it to be true--that a grave gentleman, well

stricken in years, insomuch as he cannot see the pips of the
dice, is so infatuated with this witchery as to play here with

others' eyes,--of whom this quibble was raised, "Mr Such a one
plays at dice by the ear." Another gentleman, stark blind, I

have seen play at Hazard, and surely that must be by the ear too.
`Late at night, when the company grows thin, and your eyes dim

with watching, false dice are often put upon the ignorant, or
they are otherwise cozened, with topping or slurring, &c.; and,

if you be not vigilant, the box-keeper shall score you up double
or treble boxes, and, though you have lost your money, dun you as

severely for it as if it were the justest debt in the world.
`There are yet some genteeler and more subtle rooks, whom you

shall not distinguish by their outwarddemeanour from persons of
condition; and who will sit by a whole evening, and observe who

wins; and then, if the winner be "bubbleable," they will
insinuate themselves into his acquaintance, and civilly invite

him to drink a glass of wine,--wheedle him into play, and win all
his money, either by false dice, as high fulhams,[11] low

fulhams, or by palming, topping, &c. Note by the way, that
when they have you at the tavern and think you a sure "bubble,"

they will many times purposely lose some small sum to you the
first time, to engage you more freely to _BLEED_ (as they call

it) at the second meeting, to which they will be sure to invite
you.

[11] It appears that false dice were originally made at
_Fulham;_ hence so called, high and low fulhams; the high ones

were the numbers 4, 5, 6.
`A gentleman whom ill-fortune had hurried into passion, took a

box and dice to a side-table, and then fell to throwing by
himself; at length he swears with an emphasis, "D--e, now I

throw for nothin;, I can win a thousand pounds; but when I lay
for money I lose my all."

`If the house find you free to box, and a constant caster, you
shall be treated below with suppers at night, and caudle in the