, 
1822.] 
turn after turn, to rise from dejection 
to hope, and falls down again to sor- 
row, untilthe napoleon he stole from 
home, without his poor rib’s privity, is 
expended; and he stalks out of the 
room in a greater fitof abstraction than 
he entered it. 
My attention was principally fixed 
by those who lcoked to be habitual 
gamblers ; they circled near the bank, 
—among them were very old men,— 
sat provided with a card, traced in red 
and black lines, and were armed with 
a strong pin, to mark on it the winning 
section as it was declared, and so 
form notes of elucidation, to guide 
their progress. ‘They generally played 
a martingale, that is, stroke after 
stroke continued to deposit the amount 
just lost with an additional stake: 
thus, supported by a sufiicient fund, 
(and it must, indeed, be a great one,) 
siudying to secure a gain moderate 
and gradual. Upon the repetition of 
such benefit, coolly and invariably 
prolonged, some men, who want a 
more reputable means of income, and 
whose blood has been tempered into 
prudence enough for the exertion by 
years of. vicissitude and sufferance at 
it, are enabled to live in genteel enjoy- 
ment.’ S@veral such were described 
to me; two or three pointed out,—one 
i knew. 
At this scheme Dumar of Picardy: 
was earnestly engaged, when his trou- 
bled looks drew me behind his chair. 
A hundred napoleons were before him 
on the Odd section, and I saw by the 
card he had pricked that he had lost 
eleven balls successively. A glass of 
ice was by his side, (such light refresb- 
ment, a drink of wine, or a bottle of 
beer, are gratuitously supplied by the 
administration,) with this he momen- 
tarily cooled the fever of his passion: 
his countenance was pale, the pin of 
calculation trembled in his fingers, 
and his eyes swelied beyond their or- 
dinary size as he, breathless, fixed 
them upon the ball. It stopped, and 
the banker cried ‘tfive!’ Dumar 
finished his ice at a swallow, put 200 
napoleons into his pocket, and said in - 
a gay tone to the banker, ‘‘ Fare ye 
well, friend: from this day I never 
playa sous more.” Atthe same time, 
he rose from the table, bowed very 
civilly to the company, and came and 
chatted with me. We. walked toge- 
ther to our hotel, and I ventured to 
observe to him, as we went, that I 
MontuLy Mac. No, 375. 
Notes during a Visit to Paris, 
409 
should praise his resplution, but that 
I imagined, as it was made in one mo- 
ment of agitation, so it would be for- 
gotten in another. ‘‘ You mistake me 
(he answered); I have faults, you have 
seen; but you shall also see I have 
some virtue, and a little determina- 
tion.” We reached his apartments, 
and he asked mé in. ‘*'There,” he 
said, as he opened a desk, and rolled 
into it the night’s acquisition ; ‘there, 
at jiast, is the round sum 10,000. 
Look at them, count them. Now, if 
at any time I happen to fall in love 
with a pretty face, and wish to marry 
after my own fancy, and my mother 
object, why with these napoleons I 
remove the difliculty.——Come, (he 
added,) you shall be my friend; take 
the key: V’ll pass through a period of 
probation, and put the power of re- 
lapse out of my hands. ’Tis an infer- 
nal game: I never before suffered at it 
as I did to-night; [ll shun the possi- 
bility of feeling so much again.” 
I smiled as I took the key, from a 
notion that it would not be left in my 
trust for a week ; byt two months have 
passed, and I hold it still. And such 
altogether I have found to be the com- 
plexion of the Frenchman’s character: 
he will occasionally astonish by the 
impetuosity with which he dares the 
most precipitous extremities; and, 
though often fearful at his own teme- 
rity, he fall irrecoverably, still he will 
now and then surprise by the ease and © 
leyity with which he retraces the path 
of danger. PHELIM SENAcHY. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, , 
PON reading in your number for 
October, page 238, the “‘ Brief 
Analysis” of the report of the French 
physicians sent to Barcelona to inyes- 
tigate the nature of the fatal fever 
which raged there, I was struck with 
the following remark, “That 300 
fishermen, lodged in the most unheal- 
thy quarter of the city, had escaped the 
dreadful scourge, merely from living 
in seclusion.” Now, 1 am rather in- 
clined to doubt the latter part of this 
sentence, which I have marked in 
italics: that they escaped, I take .to be 
an undoubted fact; but I am of opi- 
nion that their profession had more to 
do with the escape than their isola- 
tion; not that I mean to deny the use- 
fulness of seclusion in contagious cases, 
—but it will be allowed, from the’ 
3G very 
