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The Gaming Table-Vol. 1-Part10_Andrew Steinmetz(1816-1877)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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music and chats to the ladies about him. At last, at six

o'clock, they stop playing--they have no trouble in settling



their reckonings--there are no counters--the lowest pools are

five, six, seven hundred louis, the great ones a thousand, or



twelve hundred; they put in five each at first, that makes one

hundred, and the dealer puts in ten more--then they give four



louis each to whoever has Quinola--some pass, others play, but

when you play without winning the pool, you must put in sixteen



to teach you how to play rashly: they talk all together, and for

ever, and of everything. "How many hearts?" "Two!" "I



have three!" "I have one!" "I have four!" "He has

only three!" and Dangeau, delighted with all this prattle, turns



up the trump, makes his calculations, sees whom he has against

him, in short--in short, I was glad to see such an excess of



skill. He it is who really knows "le dessous des cartes."

`At ten o'clock they get into their carriages: _THE KING, MADAME



DE MONTESPAN_, the Duke of Orleans, and Madame de Thianges, and

the good Hendicourt on the dickey, that is as if one were in the



upper gallery. You know how these calashes are made.

`The queen was in another with the princesses; and then everybody



else, grouped as they liked. Then they go on the water in

gondolas, with music; they return at ten; the play is ready, it



is over; twelve strikes, supper is brought in, and so passes

Saturday.'



This lively picture of such frightful gambling, of the adulterous

triumph of Madame de Montespan, and of the humiliating part to



which the queen was condemned, will induce our readers to concur

with Madame de Sevigne, who, amused as she had been by the scene



she has described, calls it nevertheless, with her usual pure

taste and good judgment, _l'iniqua corte_, `the iniquitous



court.'

Indeed, Madame de Sevigne had ample reason to denounce this



source of her domesticmisery. Writing to her son and daughter,

she says:--`You lose all you play for. You have paid five or six



thousand francs for your amusement, and to be abused by fortune.'

If she had at first been fascinated by the spectacle which she so



glowingly describes, the interest of her children soon opened her

eyes to the yawning gulf at the brink of the flowery surface.



Sometimes she explains herself plainly:--`You believe that

everybody plays as honestly as yourself? Call to mind what took



place lately at the Hotel de la Vieuville. Do you remember

that _ROBBERY?_'



The favour of that court, so much coveted, seemed to her to be

purchased at too high a price if it was to be gained by ruinous



complaisances. She trembled every time her son left her to go to

Versailles. She says:--`He tells me he is going to play with his



young master;[54] I shudder at the thought. Four hundred

pistoles are very easily lost: _ce n'est rien pour Admete et



c'est beaucoup pour lui_.[55] If Dangeau is in the game he

will win all the pools: he is an eagle. Then will come to pass,



my daughter, all that God may vouchsafe--_il en arivera, ma

fille, tout ce qu'il plaira a Dieu_.'



[54] The Dauphin.

[55] `It is nothing for Admetus, but 'tis much for him.'



And again, `The game of _Hoca_ is prohibited at Paris _UNDER THE

PENALTY OF DEATH_, and yet it is played at court. Five thousand



pistoles before dinner is nothing. That game is a regular cut-

throat.'



Hoca was prodigiously unfavourable to the players; the latter had

only twenty-eight chances against thirty. In the seventeenth



century this game caused such disorder at Rome that the Pope

prohibited it and expelled the bankers.



The Italians whom Mazarin brought into France obtained from the

king permission to set up _Hoca_ tables in Paris. The parliament



launched two edicts against them, and threatened to punish them

severely. The king's edicts were equallysevere. Every of



offender was to be fined 1000 livres, and the person in whose

house Faro, Basset, or any such game was suffered, incurred the



penalty of 6000 livres for each offence. The persons who played

were to be imprisoned. Gaming was forbidden the French cavalry



under the penalty of death, and every commanding officer who




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