'pitched into' each other--as
described by Lucian in his Saturnalia. Dusaulx assures us that he saw
an enraged gambler put a burning candle into his mouth, chew it, and
swallow it. A mad player at Naples bit the table with such violence that
his teeth went deep into the wood; thus he remained, as it were, nailed
to it, and suddenly expired.

The other players took to flight; the officers of justice visited the
place; and the corpse was deprived of the usual ceremony of burial.(10)

(10) Gazette de Deux-Ponts, du 26 Novembre, 1772.

The following strange but apparently authentic fact, is related in the
Mercure Francois (Tome I. Annee 1610).

'A man named Pennichon, being a prisoner in the Conciergerie during the
month of September, 1610, died there of a wonderfully sudden death. He
could not refrain from play. Having one day lost his money, he uttered
frightful imprecations against his body and against his soul, swearing
that he would never play at cards again. Nevertheless, a few days after,
he began to play again with those in his apartment, and on a dispute
respecting discarding, he repeated his execrable oaths. And when one of
the company told him he should fear the Divine justice, he only swore
the more, and made such confusion that there had to be another deal. But
as soon as three other cards were given him, he placed them in his hat,
which he held before him, and whilst looking at them, with his elbows
on the table and his face in the hat, he so suddenly expired that one
of the party said--"Come, now play," and pushed him with his elbow,
thinking he was asleep, when he fell down dead upon the floor.'

In some cases the effect of losses at play is simply stupefaction. Some
players, at the end of the sitting, neither know what they do nor
what they say. M. de Crequi, afterwards Duc de Lesdiguieres, leaving a
gambling party with Henry IV., after losing a large sum, met M. de Guise
in the court-yard of the castle. 'My friend,' said he to the latter,
'where are the quarters of the Guards now-a-days?' M. de Guise stepped
back, saying, 'Excuse me, sir, I don't belong to this country,' and
immediately went to the king, whom he greatly amused with the anecdote.

A dissipated buck, who had been sitting all night at Hazard, went to a
church, not far from St James's, just before the second reading of the
Lord's Prayer, on Sunday. He was scarcely seated before he dozed, and
the clerk in a short time bawled out AMEN, w