in those who have
governed empires with some degree of success. It is not a superior
penetration that makes statesmen; it is their character. All men,
how inconsiderable soever their share of sense may be, see their own
interest nearly alike. A citizen of Bern or Amsterdam, in this
respect, is equal to Sejanus, Ximenes, Buckingham, Richelieu, or
Mazarin; but our conduct and our enterprises depend absolutely on
our natural dispositions, and our success depends upon fortune."
Age of Louis XIV., chap. 5.]

His avidity to heap up riches was not alone confined to the thousand
different means, with which he was furnished by his authority, and the
situation in which he was placed: his whole pursuit was gain: he was
naturally fond of gaming; but he only played to enrich himself, and
therefore, whenever he found an opportunity, he cheated.

As he found the Chevalier de Grammont possessed a great deal of wit, and
a great deal of money, he was a man according to his wishes, and soon
became one of his set. The Chevalier soon perceived the artfulness and
dishonesty of the Cardinal, and thought it was allowable in him to put
in practice those talents which he had received from nature, not only in
his own defence, but even to attack him whenever an opportunity offered.
This would certainly be the place to mention these particulars; but who
can describe them with such ease and elegance as maybe expected by
those who have heard his own relation of them? Vain is the attempt to
endeavour to transcribe these entertaining anecdotes: their spirit seems
to evaporate upon paper; and in whatever light they are exposed the
delicacy of their colouring and their beauty is lost.

It is, then, enough to say, that upon all occasions where address was
reciprocally employed, the Chevalier gained the advantage; and that if
he paid his court badly to the minister, he had the consolation to find,
that those who suffered themselves to be cheated, in the end gained no
great advantage from their complaisance; for they always continued in
an abject submission, while the Chevalier de Grammont, on a thousand
different occasions, never put himself under the least restraint. Of
which the following is one instance:

The Spanish army, commanded by the Prince de Conde and the
archduke,--[Leopold, brother of the Emperor Ferdinand the
III.]--besieged Arras. The Court was advanced as far as Peronne.--[A
little bat strong town, standing amon