which ingenuity could prompt to decline the
wager. But the more eagerly he argued, the more resolute and determined
became the Duke; till at last, excited by his losses, and irritated
by an opposition to which he was but little accustomed, the Prince
cut short the discussion by the insolent taunt "that the Chevalier was
probably right, and deemed it safer to retain what he had won, than risk
it by another venture."

"Enough, sir; I am quite ready," replied my father, and reseated himself
at the table.

"There's my stake, then," said the Prince, throwing a sealed envelope on
the cloth.

"Your Royal Highness must correct me if I am in error," said my father,
"and make mine beneath what it ought to be." At the same moment he
pushed all the gold before him--several thousand louis--into the middle
of the table.

The Prince never spoke nor moved; and my father, after in vain waiting
for some remark, said,--

"I perceive, sir, that I have miscalculated. These are all that I
have about me;" and he drew from his pocket a mass of bank-notes of
considerable amount. The Prince still maintained silence.

"If your Royal Highness will not vouchsafe to aid me, I must only trust
to my unguided reason, and, however conscious of the inferiority of
the venture, I can but stake all that I possess. Yes, sir, such is my
stake."

The Prince bowed formally and coldly, and pushed the cards towards my
father. The fashionable game of the day was called Barocco, in which,
after certain combinations, the hand to whom fell the Queen of Spades
became the winner. So evenly had gone the fortune of the game that all
now depended on this card. My father was the dealer, and turned up each
card slowly, and with a hand in which not the slightest tremor could
be detected. The Prince, habitually the very ideal of a gambler's cold
impassiveness, was agitated beyond all his efforts to control, and
sat with his eyes riveted on the game; and when the fatal card fell at
length from my father's hand, his arms dropped powerless at either side
of him, and with a low groan he sank fainting on the floor.

He was quickly removed by his attendants, and my father never saw him
after! All his efforts to obtain an audience were in vain; and when his
entreaties became more urgent, he was given significantly to understand
that the Prince was personally indisposed to receive him. Another and
stronger hint was also supplied, in the-shape of a letter from the
Minister