ed in vain to make the gentlemen
take a hand. The Englishmen and the Saxons said politely that they should
be delighted to play if she or I would take the bank, but they feared the
count's extraordinary fortune.

Thereupon Goudar had the impudence to ask me to deal for a fourth share.

"I will not deal under a half share," I replied, "though I have no
confidence in my luck."

Goudar spoke to Medini, who got up, took away his share, and left me the
place.

I had only two hundred ounces in my purse. I placed them beside Goudar's
two hundred, and in two hours my bank was broken, and I went to console
myself with my Callimena.

Finding myself penniless I decided to yield to the pressure of Agatha's
husband, who continued to beg me to take back the jewelry I had given his
wife. I told Agatha I would never have consented if fortune had been
kinder to me. She told her husband, and the worthy man came out of his
closet and embraced me as if I had just made his fortune.

I told him I should like to have the value of the jewels, and the next
day I found myself once more in possession of fifteen thousand francs.
From that moment I decided to go to Rome, intending to stop there for
eight months; but before my departure the advocate said he must give me a
dinner at a casino which he had at Portici.

I had plenty of food for thought when I found myself in the house where I
had made a small fortune by my trick with the mercury five-and-twenty
years ago.

The king was then at Portici with his Court, and our curiosity attracting
us we were witnesses of a most singular spectacle.

The king was only nineteen and loved all kinds of frolics. He conceived a
desire to be tossed in a blanket! Probably few crowned heads have wished
to imitate Sancho Panza in this manner.

His majesty was tossed to his heart's content; but after his aerial
journeys he wished to laugh at those whom he had amused. He began by
proposing that the queen should take part in the game; on her replying by
shrieks of laughter, his majesty did not insist.

The old courtiers made their escape, greatly to my regret, for I should
have liked to see them cutting capers in the air, specially Prince Paul
Nicander, who had been the king's tutor, and had filled him with all his
own prejudices.

When the king saw that his old followers had fled, he was reduced to
asking the young nobles present to play their part.

I was not afraid for myself, as I was unknown, and n