irculated respecting the connection between
Henry IV. and this infamous Italian:--it was said that Henry was well
aware of Pimentello's manoeuvres, and that he encouraged them with the
view of impoverishing his courtiers, hoping thereby to render them
more submissive! Nero himself would have blushed at such a connivance.
Doubtless the calumny was as false as it was stupid.

The winnings of the courtier Bassompierre were enormous. He won at the
Duc d'Epernon's sufficient to pay his debts, to dress magnificently,
to purchase all sorts of extravagant finery, a sword ornamented with
diamonds--'and after all these expenses,' he says, 'I had still five or
six thousand crowns (two to three thousand pounds) left, _TO KILL TIME
WITH_, pour tuer le temps.'

On another occasion, and at a more advanced age, he won one hundred
thousand crowns (L50,000) at a single sitting, from M. De Guise,
Joinville, and the Marechal d'Ancre.

In reading his Memoirs we are apt to get indignant at the fellow's
successes; but at last we are tempted to laugh at his misery. He died
so poor that he did not leave enough to pay the twentieth part of his
debts! Such, doubtless, is the end of most gamblers.

But to return to Henry IV., the great gambling exemplar of the nation.
The account given of him at the gaming table is most afflicting, when we
remember his royal greatness, his sublime qualities. His only object
was to _WIN_, and those who played with him were thus always placed in
a dreadful dilemma--either to lose their money or offend the king by
beating him! The Duke of Savoy once played with him, and in order to
suit his humour, dissimulated his game--thus sacrificing or giving up
forty thousand pistoles (about L28,000).

When the king lost he was most exacting for his 'revanche,' or revenge,
as it is termed at play. After winning considerably from the king,
on one occasion, Bassompierre, under the pretext of his official
engagements, furtively decamped: the king immediately sent after him; he
was stopped, brought back, and allowed to depart only after giving the
'revanche' to his Majesty. This 'good Henri,' who was incapable of the
least dissimulation either in good or in evil, often betrayed a degree
of cupidity which made his minister, Sully, ashamed of him;--in order
to pay his gaming debts, the king one day deducted seventy-two thousand
livres from the proceeds of a confiscation on which he had no claim
whatever.

On another occasion h