an the sun.'(49)

(49) Hist. de Henri le Grand.

Under him gambling became the rage. Many distinguished families were
utterly ruined by it. The Duc de Biron lost in a single year more than
five hundred thousand crowns (about L250,000). 'My son Constant,' says
D'Aubigne, 'lost twenty times more than he was worth; so that, finding
himself without resources, he abjured his religion.'

It was at the court of Henry IV. that was invented the method of speedy
ruin by means of written vouchers for loss and gain--which simplified
the thing in all subsequent times. It was then also that certain Italian
masters of the gaming art displayed their talents, their suppleness, and
dexterity. One of them, named Pimentello, having, in the presence of the
Duc de Sully, appealed to the honour which he enjoyed in having often
played with Henry IV., the duke exclaimed,--'By heavens! So you are the
Italian blood-sucker who is every day winning the king's money! You have
fallen into the wrong box, for I neither like nor wish to have anything
to do with such fellows.' Pimentello got warm. 'Go about your business,'
said Sully, giving him a shove; 'your infernal gibberish will not alter
my resolve. Go!'(50)

(50) Mem. de Sully.

The French nation, for a long time agitated by civil war, settled down
at last in peace and abundance--the fruits of which prosperity are
often poisoned. They were so by the gambling propensity of the people at
large, now first manifested. The warrior, the lawyer, the artisan, in a
word, almost all professions and trades, were carried away by the fury
of gaming. Magistrates sold for a price the permission to gamble--in the
face of the enacted laws against the practice.

We can scarcely form an idea of the extent of the gaming at this period.
Bassompierre declares, in his Memoirs, that he won more than five
hundred thousand livres (L25,000) in the course of a year. 'I won them,'
he says, 'although I was led away by a thousand follies of youth; and my
friend Pimentello won more than two hundred thousand crowns (L100,000).
Evidently this Pimentello might well be called a _blood-sucker_ by
Sully.(51) He is even said to have got all the dice-sellers in Paris
to substitute loaded dice instead of fair ones, in order to aid his
operations.

(51) In the original, however, the word is piffre, (vulgo)
'greedy-guts.'

Nothing more forcibly shows the danger of consorting with such bad
characters than the calumny c