■240 CUSTOMS A.ND MANNERS. 



lost fifty-two ounces of silver ; and then treated me as a pro- 

 digal and extravagant hussey, because he saw a waxen taper 

 burning in the candlestick, complaining that in this, and in 

 various other ways, I ruined the family. 



Neither can I, nor my children, venture into the entry, or 

 court-yard, because he keeps them filled with game-cocks, 

 sometimes tied up, and at other times loose, which he rears 

 with a care greater than that he bestows on the education of 

 the children. He is present at all the cock-fights the amphi- 

 theatre affords : he says he has no other vice than this one, and 

 that he cannot corre6l himself. Two months ago he betted 

 three hundred piastres on a cock of his own breeding, sprung 

 from a good race, which he named the Great Captain : his 

 cock was killed, and he lost his money. His choler and im- 

 precations were vented on me, without my having any other 

 fault than that of being the wife of a lout. 



He is at this time engaged in a law-suit, in consequence of 

 a legacy, for a part of the stream which runs through the 

 grounds : all that is essential in this affair is not worth three 

 snails ; but Yaco is very anxious about it, and says, that in 

 this consists the point of honour. He wastes the whole of the 

 morning in the gallery of the royal audience, and knows by 

 heart all the causes that are tried before that venerable tribunal, 

 with their origin and consequences. What disgusts me most, 

 is to see the lively interest he takes in the public elc6fions of the 

 university, and of the consulate, without being either a do6tor, 

 or a merchant.' On those days he ruiis, sweats, and overturns 

 all that he meets, without any other obje6l in view, than that 

 of giving himself the airs of one concerned in what is going 

 on. There is not a rafSe of horses, buckles, watches, &c. 



which 



