sions!-such was the gravity, the solemnity, the decorum which pervaded this temple of Fortune, that I

had come, and was thrown for some hours into the greatest embarrassment. I fancied myself at the court of Philip II. and it required the aid of the champagne and other generous wines to restore to me all my self-possession.

Mr. Corduroy, a rich Manchester question, inclosing tickets of admismanufacturer, of my acquaintance, sion for himself and two others. He was one day extolling his laquai de requested me to accompany him. place, whom he described as the About five o'clock in the afternoon most honest fellow in the world. I we repaired to the hôtel in question. came, heard, and on philosophical With the confidence with which a grounds concluded that the fellow virtuous man faces villains, I entered was a rogue. When a young man, the house, that might with greater he had assisted in storming the Bas- propriety be termed a palace. But→→ tille; during the Revolution, includ- what a fool is man! and how easily ing the imperial reign, he had been || is he dazzled by the grossest delusuccessively a coachman, friseur, water-carrier, porter, and commissionaire; but since the Restoration he had followed the profession of a lac-soon forgot the humour in which I quey. Though fifty-six years old, he was still brimful of sentimentality. He declared, that the aim of all his exertions was to save so much money as would enable him to retire to the lovely village which gave him birth on the banks of the Loire, that he might there end his days far from the vices and depravity of Paris. He described to my friend all the various species of dissipation to be found in that dissipated capital, in order to warn him against them. He could not in particular depict the gamblinghouses and those who frequented them in colours sufficiently black, and deplored the culpable means employed to lead strangers into ruin. He related, among other things, that at one of these establishments there was kept an open table twice a week for strangers, who were there right royally entertained. The magnificence of his description piqued the curiosity of his employer, who expressed a strong desire to dine for once at this decoy-house. The honest lacquey shrugged his shoulders, as a silent intimation of his danger. Next day, however, my friend received a polite invitation to dinner from the directors of the house in

We began indeed to feel some qualms in the street before we entered the hôtel. The most brilliant equipage, with tall yägers behind, drove up, and set down persons decorated with stars and ribbons. We were the only pedestrians. The porter, as we passed his lodge, inquired our business. We replied, that we had come to dinner. The porter smiled, and said, that no dinners were given here. My conductor shewed his tickets, and we were allowed to proceed. We entered an apartment on the ground-floor, where a dozen insolent menials were playing their wanton pranks. Mr. C. asked where the company dined. "Not here," was the reply. We left the place, and went up one pair of stairs, where at length we found the dining-room. My companion inquired of the attendants, who were engaged in laying the table, when dinner would be ready; but the scoundrels gave him

no answer.

entered, and with pantomimic ges-
tures I gave the inquirer to under-
stand, that this was the man who
could furnish satisfactory information
concerning me. The portly gentle-
man-
man-a marquis, as I afterwards
learned, who is appointed by the so-
ciety to which the house belongs, to
do the honours of it-then asked my
companion, who with several bows
explained that he had brought me
with him, who he was himself.
friend gave his name. The marquis

My

of his acquaintance; on which Mr. Corduroy for the third time produced his ticket. The marquis then bade us welcome, and on learning that we were English, observed that he too had once been in London.

We went down again to the servants' hall. Being again asked our business, the tickets of admission were once more produced, on which one of these gentry took charge of our hats, and conducted us to the company. On entering, I remarked that several of its members looked gravely at my feet, and I perceived with consternation that I was the only one of the party who appeared in boots. I took a seat at a table on which lay several ultra newspapers, for the purpose of conceal-replied, that he had not the honour ing my legs. After conning these journals for some time, a tall portly man, of a majestic figure, which reminded me of the description of Louis XIV. came up to me, and inquired who I was, and what was my pleasure. The chin of this personage was buried in his cravat, which was a bad sign: for those who are engaged in the study of mankind may take it for a rule, that people who muffle up their chins in cravats are to be trusted very little, if at all. was instantly aware of my ticklish situation, and had the presence of mind to pretend not to understand him. As, however, it was absolutely necessary to give him some answer, I determined to reply in a language which he did not understand. But what language was that to be? The generality of Frenchmen indeed know none but their mother tongue, but gamblers are cosmopolites, they are polyglots. I therefore hastily dished up for him a lingual ragout, compounded of our English Sir, the German Herr, and the Italian Signoro. This olla podrida produced the desired effect. The grand point namely was, to gain time till my Manchester friend, who had just left the room, should return. At length he

We were presently summoned to dinner. During my continental tour I had certainly seen several German courts at table, but I had only a bird's-eye view of them from the gallery. This was the first time that II had actually partaken of so sumptuous an entertainment. Well might it be denominated royal. Luckily I was not that day in a sentimental mood, otherwise I should not have been able to taste a morsel. I should have fancied that all these dishes were steeped in blood and tears shed by the despairing wretches and suicides who are daily plundered in the gambling-houses of Paris. I must, however, observe, that the whole party seemed to have excellent appetites, which was a pleasing sign of some remains of virtue; for consummate gamblers and sharpers live, it is well known, like anchorets, and eat and drink sparingly.

At the centre of the oval table was seated the marquis and master of the ceremonies, alike surpassing

all in majesty of person and dignity || most venomous serpents have at least of demeanour. During the whole a beautiful skin. But in fact this pro|| repast, his aids-de-camp were inces-voking gravity is one of the mortal santly bringing him dispatches of all sins in which the innate demon of arsizes, from duodecimo to the largest rogance speaks most distinctly. Most folio, with seals of corresponding di- assuredly, the ancient Roman senamensions. The marquis opened them, tors, when the Gauls were before perused them without moving a mus- their gates, could not have assumed cle, and then handed them to a foot- a more important mien, than a petman who stood behind him. It had ty clerk in a passport-office puts on the air all around him of a general's when he takes down a description of head-quarters. I asked my philoso- your person. This importance was phy the meaning of this brisk corre- always particularly obnoxious to me spondence. It replied, that these in bankers and other commercial men. were innocent love-letters which the To count and make money, and to police exchanged with the marquis; calculate the profit, is to be sure a for, be it remarked, the former is on very cheerful business; but there is the most friendly terms with the di- nothing sublime in it, and I cannot rectors of the establishment, and they conceive why those gentlemen should communicate to each other the result assume such a pompous and imposing of their anthropological observations. look. The second reflection which For the rest, the conversation at ta- I am accustomed to make at tables ble was dull enough, and I could where games of chance are played is not help quizzing the company in this: If all the energy and passion, my own mind by way of pastime. the emotions and exertions, the hopes and fears, the nocturnal vigils, the

Dinner over, and having taken coffee, play began. My Manches-joys and sorrows, which are annually ter friend whispered me, that we could not certainly have dined any where in such style as we had done under fifty francs, and it would be exceedingly indelicate if one of us at least did not join in the game. I replied, "that if he chose to be delicate I could have no objection, but that I would not play," My companion accordingly took his seat at the table, and carried his delicacy to such a length, that he lost twelve hundred francs. Meanwhile, I had occasion to confirm observations which I had previously made on games of chance. The first is, that the gravity preserved by the keepers of the bank while following their rascally occupation is quite intolerable. They might sport a joke now and then: the

squandered throughout Europe at the gaming-table; if all these were spared, would they suffice to form a Roman people and a Roman history? But there's the rub! Because every man is born as a Roman, civil society seeks to unromanize him; and therefore we have games of hazard, and novels, and Italian operas, and masquerades, and lotteries, and routs, and attendances, and ceremonies, and the fifteen or twenty articles of dress, which, with salutary loss of time, we have daily to put on and off-therefore are all these things introduced, that the exuberant energies may insensibly evaporate. Fortunately, men have not succeeded in doing that with Nature which they have accomplished with their own kind; otherwise

they would long since have dribbled || play: at length he staked his wife's away the ocean in fountains, and frit-country-seat against an Englishman, tered away volcanoes in Chinese fire- and lost that too. The winner postworks, that they might have no more ed away immediately from the gamto apprehend from tempests and ing-table in the middle of the night lava! to the estate, four leagues distant from Paris, and very early in the morning rang violently at the bell of the house. The dogs barked furi

sion for you." The marchioness, roused by the scuffle, ran down stairs

We returned home; I, refreshed in body and mind, but my companion exceedingly out of humour. He related to his honest lacquey what ill-ously, and the gardener inquired luck he had experienced. This af- what was his business at so early an forded me a fresh occasion for ob- hour. Regardless alike of dogs and serving what amiable creatures the men, the intruder proceeded at his French are. A pedantic English leisure to inspect the premises. The moralist, who, like this laquai de gardener at length began to be rude; place, had warned my friend to be- on which the Englishman seized him ware of gamblers, would have loaded by the collar, and tumbled him out him with reproaches, had he disre- of the house, with this valediction: garded this warning, and thereby" Go to the d-l! I have no oççasustained loss, and would have said, "It serves you right! Why did you not follow my advice?" Our gene-in a great fright, half dressed, and rous lacquey pursued a very differ- inquired of the stranger what was ent course. At first, after my coun- his pleasure. He replied, that he tryman's recital of his misfortune, he was merely come to take a walk in smiled without saying a word, proba- his park, and at the same time shewbly calculating in silence the amounted her the paper by which the marof the commission he was to receive from the directors of the gamblinghouse. He then merely observed, "Don't fret, sir! you will have better luck another time." By way of cheering up his spirits, he related several anecdotes of gamblers, and among others the following: The marquis above-mentioned, formerly an emigrant, and who returned to France a beggar at the Restoration, had the good fortune to marry a rich wife. In one night he lost all he was worth at || parted.

quis ceded to him the estate. The unhappy woman died soon afterwards of a broken heart. The directors of the gambling-house, however, behaved very generously to the marquis, as they sometimes do to their victims, and appointed him to do the honours of that house, with a salary of one hundred francs a day.

What effect this story had on the mind of my friend I know not. It was very late: we shook hands and

THE COMPLAINTS OF A HALF-PAY OFFICER;
Or, Was it so Twenty Years ago?

"OH! the charms of a country || same eternal park-chaise has passed town!" I exclaimed as I reclined in my door at least half-a-dozen times my easy chair after dinner. "The within this half-hour. There must

be a ball in the town. I'll ring and || speckled his head; and his frame inquire. Betty, what is there going could no longer boast the charms of on in the town this evening?"" La, true proportion. The waistcoat and sir! don't you know? There's a ball its neighbour required to be slackgiven by the officers of the regiment ened ere they could be brought to to-night."-"Bless my soul! now I re-fit the increased dimensions of my