our and reputation.' Thereupon Chevalier pulling
a halter out of his pocket, and throwing it between him and his
antagonist, exclaimed--'Begar, sir, we only fight for dis one piece
of rope--so e'en _WIN IT AND WEAR IT_.' The effect of this jest was
so great on his adversary that swords were put up, and they went home
together good friends.

Chevalier continued his sharping courses for about fourteen years,
running a reckless race, 'sometimes with much money, sometimes with
little, but always as lavish in spending as he was covetous in getting
it; until at last King James ascending the throne, the Duke of Monmouth
raised a rebellion in the West of England, where, in a skirmish between
the Royalists and Rebels, he was shot in the back, and the wound thought
to be given by one of his own men, to whom he had always been a most
cruel, harsh officer, whilst a captain of the Grenadiers of the Foot
Guards. He was sensible himself how he came by this misfortune; for when
he was carried to his tent mortally wounded, and the Duke of Albemarle
came to visit him, he said to his Grace--'Dis was none of my foe dat
shot me in the back.' 'He was none of your friend that shot you,' the
duke replied.

So dying within a few hours after, he was interred in a field near
Philip Norton Lane, as the old chronicler says--'much _UN_lamented by
all who knew him.'(138)

(138) Lucas, _Memoirs of Gamesters and Sharpers_.

JOHN HIGDEN.

This gambler, who flourished towards the end of the 17th century, was
descended from a very good family in the West of England. In his younger
days he was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, but
his inclinations being incompatible with close study of the law, he soon
quitted the inns of court and went into the army. He obtained not only a
commission in the first regiment of Boot Guards, but a commission of the
peace for the county of Middlesex, in which he continued for three or
four years as Justice Higden. He was very great at dice; and one night
he and another of his fraternity going to a gaming house, Higden drew
a chair and sat down, but as often as the box came to him he passed it,
and remained only as a spectator; but at last one of the players said
to him pertly, 'Sir, if you won't play, what do you sit there for?' Upon
which Higden snatched up the dice-box and said, 'Set me what you will
and I'll throw at it.' One of the gentlemen set him two guineas, which
he won, and then set