orously imprisoned. These penalties might show great
horror of gaming, but they were too severe to be steadily inflicted, and
therefore failed to repress the crime against which they were directed.
The severer the law the less the likelihood of its application, and
consequently its power of repression.

Madame de Sevigne had beheld the gamesters only in the presence of their
master the king, or in the circles which were regulated with inviolable
propriety; but what would she have said if she could have seen the
gamblers at the secret suppers and in the country-houses of the
Superintendent Fouquet, where twenty 'qualified' players, such as the
Marshals de Richelieu, de Clairembaut, &c., assembled together, with
a dash of bad company, to play for lands, houses, jewels, even for
point-lace and neckties? There she would have seen something more
than gold staked, since the players debased themselves so low as to
circumvent certain opulent dupes, who were the first invited. To leave
one hundred pistoles, ostensibly for 'the cards,' but really as the
perquisite of the master of the lordly house; to recoup him when he
lost; and, when they had to deal with some unimportant but wealthy
individual, to undo him completely, compelling him to sign his ruin on
the gaming table--such was the conduct which rendered a man _recherche_,
and secured the title of a fine player!

It was precisely thus that the famous (or infamous) Gourville,
successively valet-de-chambre to the Duc de la Rochefoucault, hanged
in effigy at Paris, king's envoy in Germany, and afterwards proposed to
replace Colbert--it was thus precisely, I say, that Gourville secured
favour, 'consideration,' fortune; for he declares, in his Memoirs, that
his gains in a few years amounted to more than a million. And fortune
seems to have cherished and blessed him throughout his detestable
career. After having made his fortune, he retired to write the
scandalous Memoirs from which I have been quoting, and died out of
debt!(56)

(56) Mem. de Gourville, i.

France became too narrow a theatre for the chevaliers d'industrie and
all who were a prey to the fury of gambling. The Count de Grammont, a
very suspicious player, turned his talents to account in England, Italy,
and Spain.

This same Count de Grammont figured well at court on one occasion when
Louis XIV. seemed inclined to cheat or otherwise play unfairly. Playing
at backgammon, and having a doubtful throw, a dispute