ht him to his senses--as well it might. He
then invented an excuse for not paying that sum, by saying that he was
under an agreement with his partner not to draw for a larger amount than
L300 for his private account--and gave them a draft for that amount,
promising the remainder at a future day. This promise, however, he
did not attend to, not feeling himself bound by such a villainous
transaction, especially after giving them so much. But the robbers found
out who he was and his residence, and had the audacity to go, armed with
bludgeons, and attack him publicly on his own premises, in the presence
of those employed there, demanding payment of their nefarious 'debt of
honour,' and threatening him, if he did not pay, that he should fight!

This exposure had such an effect on his feelings that he made an excuse
to retire--did so--and blew out his brains with a pistol!

This rash act was the more to be lamented because it prevented the
bringing to condign punishment, the plundering villains who were the
cause of it.(16)

(16) Annual Register, vol. lviii.

OTHER INSTANCES.

A gallant Dutch officer, after having lost a splendid fortune not long
since (1823) in a gambling house at Aix-la-Chapelle, shot himself. A
Russian general, also, of immense wealth, terminated his existence
in the same manner and for the same cause. More recently, a young
Englishman, who lost the whole of an immense fortune by gambling at
Paris, quitted this world by stabbing himself in the neck with a fork. A
short time previously another Englishman, whose birth was as high as his
wealth had been considerable, blew his brains out in the Palais Royal,
after having literally lost his last shilling. Finally, an unfortunate
printer at Paris, who had a wife and five children, finished his earthly
career for the same cause, by suffocating himself with the fumes of
charcoal; he said, in his farewell note to his unhappy wife--'Behold the
effect of gaming!'(17)

(17) Ubi supra.

'IF I LOSE I SHALL COMMIT SUICIDE.'

A young man having gambled away his last shilling, solicited the loan
of a few pounds from one of the proprietors of the hell in which he had
been plundered. 'What security will you give me?' asked the fellow.
'My word of honour,' was the reply. 'Your word of honour! That's poor
security, and won't do,' rejoined the hellite; 'if you can pawn nothing
better than that, you'll get no money out of me.' 'Then you won't lend
me a couple of po