other's impetuosity, passed his sword through his body. Disbrowe

fell.
`You are again successful,' he groaned, `but save my wife--save

her!'
`What mean you?' cried Parravicin, leaning over him, as he

wiped his sword.
But Disbrowe could make no answer. His utterance was choked by a

sudden effusion of blood on the lungs, and he instantly expired.
Leaving the body in care of the second, Parravicin and his

friends returned to the coach, his friends congratulating him on
the issue of the conflict; but the knight looked grave, and

pondered upon the words of the dying man. After a time, however,
he recovered his spirits, and dined with his friends at the

Smyrna; but they observed that he drank more deeply than usual.
His excesses did not, however, prevent him from playing with his

usual skill, and he won a large sum from one of his companions at
Hazard.

Flushed with success, and heated with wine, he walked up to
Disbrowe's residence about an hour after midnight. As he

approached the house, he observed a strangely-shaped cart at the
door, and, halting for a moment, saw a body, wrapped in a shroud,

brought out. Could it be Mrs Disbrowe? Rushing forward to one
of the assistants in black cloaks, he asked whom he was about to

inter.
`It is a Mrs Disbrowe,' replied the coffin-maker. `She died

of grief, because her husband was killed this morning in a duel;
but as she had the plague, it must be put down to that. We are

not particular in such matters, and shall bury her and her
husband together; and as there is no money left to pay for

coffins, they must go to the grave without them.'
And as the body of his victim also was brought forth, Parravicin

fell against the wall in a state of stupefaction. At this
moment, Solomon Eagle, the weird plague-prophet, with his burning

brazier on his head, suddenly turned the corner of the street,
and, stationing himself before the dead-cart, cried in a voice of

thunder--`Woe to the libertine! Woe to the homicide! for he
shall perish in everlasting fire! Woe! woe!'

Such is this English legend, as related by Ainsworth, but which I
have condensed into its main elements. I think it bids fair to

equal in interest that of the Hindoo epic; and if it be not true
in every particular, so much the better for the sake of human

nature.
CHAPTER III.

GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS, AND GREEKS.
Concerning the ancient Egyptians we have no particular facts to

detail in the matter of gambling; but it is sufficient to
determine the existence of any special vice in a nation to find

that there are severe laws prohibiting and punishing its
practice. Now, this testimony not only exists, but the penalty

is of the utmostseverity, from which may be inferred both the
horror conceived of the practice by the rulers of the Egyptians,

and the strong propensity which required that severity to
suppress or hold it in check. In Egypt, `every man was easily

admitted to the accusation of a gamester or dice-player; and if
the person was convicted, he was sent to work in the

quarries.'[19] Gambling was, therefore, prevalent in Egypt
in the earliest times.

[19] Taylor, _Ductor Dubitantium_, B. iv. c. 1.
That gaming with dice was a usual and fashionablespecies of

diversion at the Persian court in the times of the younger Cyrus
(about 400 years before the Christian era), to go no higher, is

evident from the anecdoterelated by some historians of those
days concerning Queen Parysatis, the mother of Cyrus, who used

all her art and skill in gambling to satiate her revenge, and to
accomplish her bloodthirsty projects against the murderers of her

favourite son. She played for the life or death of an
unfortunate slave, who had only executed the commands of his

master. The anecdote is as follows, as related by Plutarch, in
the Life of Artaxerxes.

`There only remained for the final execution of Queen Parysatis's
projects, and fully to satiate her vengeance, the punishment of

the king's slave Mesabetes, who by his master's order had cut off
the head and hand of the young Cyrus, who was beloved by

Parysatis (their common mother) above Artaxerses, his elder
brother and the reigning monarch. But as there was nothing to

take hold of in his conduct, the queen laid this snare for him.
She was a woman of good address, had abundance of wit, and

_EXCELLED AT PLAYING A CERTAIN GAME WITH DICE_. She had
been apparently reconciled to the king after the death of Cyrus,

and was present at all his parties of pleasure and gambling. One
day, seeing the king totallyunemployed, she proposed playing

with him for a thousand _darics_ (about L500), to which he
readily consented. She suffered him to win, and paid down the

money. But, affecting regret and vexation, she pressed him to
begin again, and to play with her--_FOR A SLAVE_. The king, who

suspected nothing, complied, and the stipulation was that the
winner was to choose the slave.

`The queen was now all attention to the game, and made use of her
utmost skill and address, which as easily procured her victory,

as her studiedneglect before had caused her defeat. She won--
and chose Mesabetes--the slayer of her son--who, being delivered

into her hands, was put to the most cruel tortures and to death
by her command.

`When the king would have interfered, she only replied with a
smile of contempt--"Surely you must be a great loser, to be so

much out of temper for giving up a decrepit old slave, when I,
who lost a thousand good _darics_, and paid them down on the

spot, do not say a word, and am satisfied." '
Thus early were dice made subservient to the purposes of

cruelty and murder. The modern Persians, being Mohammedans, are
restrained from the open practice of gambling. Yet evasions are

contrived in favour of games in the tables, which, as they are
only liable to chance on the `throw of the dice,' but totally

dependent on the `skill' in `the management of the game,' cannot
(they argue) be meant to be prohibited by their prophet any more

than chess, which is universally allowed to his followers; and,
moreover, to evade the difficulty of being forbidden to play for

money, they make an alms of their winnings, distributing them to
the poor. This may be done by the more scrupulous; but no doubt

there are numbers whose consciences do not prevent the disposal
of their gambling profits nearer home. All excess of gaming,

however, is absolutely prohibited in Persia; and any place
wherein it is much exercised is called `a habitation of corrupted

carcases or carrion house.'[20]
[20] Hyde, _De Ludis Oriental_.

In ancient Greece gambling prevailed to a vast extent. Of this
there can be no doubt whatever; and it is equally certain that it

had an influence, together with other modes of dissipation and
corruption, towards subjugating its civil liberties to the

power of Macedon.
So shamelessly were the Athenians addicted to this vice, that

they forgot all public spirit in their continued habits of
gaming, and entered into convivial associations, or formed

`clubs,' for the purposes of dicing, at the very time when Philip
of Macedon was making one grand `throw' for their liberties at

the Battle of Chaeronea.
This politicmonarch well knew the power of depravity in