ad they been
as many millions, I would not have scrupled to risk them at such a
moment. There was a strange, almost insane spirit that seemed to
whisper to me that nothing could be too bold to adventure--no flight too
high--no contrast with my real condition too striking to attempt! They
who have braved danger and death to ascend some great glacier, the
whole object the one triumphant moment on which they behold the blaze
of sunrise, may form some conception of the maddening ecstasy of my
sensations.

"Do you play at whist? If so, come and join us," said the Prince.

"Take my purse," whispered O'Kelly, endeavoring to slip it into my hand
as he spoke.

I accepted the invitation; and, without taking any notice of O'Kelly's
offer, took my place at the table.

"We play low stakes, too low, perhaps, for you," said his Royal
Highness,--"mere guinea points; but there's Canthorpe, and Sedley, and
two or three more, will indulge you in any wager you fancy."

"Fifty on the rubber, if you like, sir," said Colonel Canthorpe, a tall,
soldier-like man, who stood with his back to the fire.

"If my friend O'Kelly will be my banker for to-night, I shall take your
offer."

Without the slightest hesitation, O'Kelly replied, "To be sure, my boy!"
and the game began.

My mastery at the game was soon apparent; and the Prince complimented me
by saying,--

"I wish we could discover in what you are deficient; for up to this we
have certainly not hit upon it."

It needed not all this flattery to make me feel almost mad with
excitement. I remember little of that scene; but still there is one
trait of it fast graven on my memory, to hold its place there forever.
It was this: that while I betted largely, and lost freely considerable
sums, O'Kelly, who had become the security for my debts, never
winced for a moment, nor showed the slightest mark of discomfiture or
uneasiness. My demand, in the first instance, was suggested by the not
over generous motive of making him pay the penalty he had incurred by
having invited me. He has called me his friend before the world, thought
I, and if he means this for a cruel jest, it shall at least cost him
dearly. In a sort of savage ferocity, I fed myself with thinking of the
tortures with which I should afflict him, in return for all the agony
and suffering I had myself gone through. He also shall know what it is
to act a lie, said I to myself; and with this hateful resolve I sat down
to play. His