hat I
swear by Jupiter I can scarcely play any more.' Nothing is more
distasteful to a losing gamester than a hint of leaving off; so the
Count entreated the Chevalier to continue, and assured him that
'Monsieur Matta might say what he pleased, for it did not give him the
least uneasiness to continue.'

The Chevalier allowed the Count to play upon credit, and that act of
courtesy was taken very kindly: the dupe lost 1,500 pistoles, which he
paid the next morning, when Matta was sharply reprimanded for his
interference.

'Faith,' he answered, 'it was a point of conscience with me; besides, it
would have given me pleasure to have seen his Horse engaged with my
Infantry, if he had taken anything amiss.'

The sum thus gained set the spendthrifts up; and De Grammont satisfied
his conscience by giving it away, to a certain extent, in charity. It is
singular to perceive in the history of this celebrated man that moral
taint of character which the French have never lost: this total absence
of right reasoning on all points of conduct, is coupled in our Gallic
neighbours with the greatest natural benevolence, with a generosity only
kept back by poverty, with impulsive, impressionable dispositions, that
require the guidance of a sound Protestant faith to elevate and correct
them.

The Chevalier hastened, it is related, to find out distressed comrades,
officers who had lost their baggage, or who had been ruined by gaming;
or soldiers who had been disabled in the trenches; and his manner of
relieving them was as graceful and as delicate as the bounty he
distributed was welcome. He was the darling of the army. The poor
soldier knew him personally, and adored him; the general was sure to
meet him in the scenes of action, and to seek his company in those of
security.

And, having thus retrieved his finances, the gay-hearted Chevalier used,
henceforth, to make De Cameran go halves with him in all games in which
the odds were in his own favour. Even the staid Calvinist, Turenne, who
had not then renounced, as he did in after-life, the Protestant faith,
delighted in the off-hand merriment of the Chevalier. It was towards the
end of the siege of Trino, that De Grammont went to visit that general
in some new quarters, where Turenne received him, surrounded by fifteen
or twenty officers. According to the custom of the day, cards were
introduced, and the general asked the Chevalier to play.

'Sir,' returned the young soldier, 'my tuto