ey had not the generosity or the courage to
give away what was wanted.

The Cardinal d'Este, playing one day with the Cardinal de Medicis, his
guest, thought that his magnificence required him to allow the latter to
win a stake of 10,000 crowns--'not wishing,' he said, 'to make him pay
his reckoning or allow him to depart unsatisfied.' Brantome calls this
'greatness;' the following is an instance of what he calls 'kindness.'

'Guilty or innocent,' he says, 'everybody was well received at the
house of this cardinal, who kept an open table at Rome for the French
chevaliers. These gentlemen having appropriated a portion of his plate,
it was proposed to search them: 'No, no!' said the cardinal, 'they are
poor companions who have only their sword, cloak, and crucifixes; they
are brave fellows; the plate will be a great benefit to them, and the
loss of it will not make me poorer.'

Vigneul de Marville tells us of certain extravagant abbes, named
Ruccellai and Frangipani, who carried their ostentation to such a pitch
as to set gold in dishes on their tables when entertaining their gaming
companions! Were any of these base enough to put their hands in and help
themselves? This is not stated by the historian. These two Italian abbes
were ne plus ultras in luxury and effeminacy. In the reign of Henry IV.,
they laid before their guests vermilion dishes filled with gloves, fans,
coins to play with after the repast, essences and perfumes.(25) I wonder
if the delightful scent called Frangipani, vouchsafed to us by Rimmel
and Piesse and Lubin, was named after this exquisite ecclesiastic of
old?

(25) Melanges d' Hist. et de Lit.

One day when Henry IV. was dining at the Duc de Sully's, the latter, as
soon as the cloth was raised, brought in cards and dice, and placed upon
the table two purses of 4000 pistoles each, one for the King, the other
to lend to the lords of his suite. Thereupon the king exclaimed:--'Great
master, come and let me embrace you, for I love you as you deserve: I
feel so comfortable here that I shall sup and stay the night.' Evidently
Sully was more a courtier than usual on this occasion--as no doubt
the whole affair was by the king's order, with which he complied
reluctantly; but he made the king play with his own money only. The Duc
de Lerme, when entertaining Monsieur the brother of Louis XIII. at his
quarters near Maestricht, had the boldness to bring in, at the end of
the repast, two bags of 1000 pistol