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extravagance of his life at one period would imply that he was a winner.
These gambling contests between the Duke and himself had latterly become
like personal conflicts, wherein each staked skill, fortune, and address
on the issue,--duels which involved passions just as deadly as any whose
arbitrament was ever decided by sword or pistol! As luck favored my
father, the Duke's efforts to raise money were not less strenuous, and
frequently as costly, as his own; while on more than one occasion the
jewelled decorations of his rank--his very sword--were the pledges of
the play-table. At last, so decidedly had been the run against him that
the Prince was forced to accept of loans from my father to enable him to
continue the contest. Even this alternative, however, availed nothing.
Loss followed upon loss, till at length, one night, when fortune had
seemed to have utterly forsaken him, the Prince suddenly rose from
the table, and saying, "Wait a moment, I'll make one 'coup' more,"
disappeared from the room. When he returned, his altered looks almost
startled my father. The color had entirely deserted his cheeks; his very
lips were bloodless; his eyes were streaked with red vessels; and when
he tried to speak, his first words were inaudible. Pressing my father
down again upon the seat from which he had arisen, he leaned over his
shoulder, and whispered in a voice low and broken,--

"I have told you, Chevalier, that I would make one 'coup' more. This
sealed note contains the stake I now propose to risk. You are at liberty
to set any sum you please against it. I can only say, it is all that
now remains to me of value in the world. One condition, however, I must
stipulate for; it is this: If you win"--here he paused, and a convulsive
shudder rendered him for some seconds unable to continue--"if you win,
that you leave France within three days, and that you do not open this
paper till within an hour after your departure."

My father was not only disconcerted by the excessive agitation of his
manner, but he was little pleased with a compact, the best issue of
which would compel him to quit Paris and all its fascinations at a
very hour's notice. He tried to persuade the Prince that there was no
necessity for so heavy a venture; that he was perfectly ready to advance
any sum his Royal Highness could name; that fortune, so persecuting as
she seemed, should not be pushed further, at least for the present.
In fact, he did everything