shelter. The rattle of dice was heard within a green-baize-covered door.
We could not stay for ever shivering on the outside. Fortune favoured
me; in half an hour I was master of a thousand pounds; it would have
been obvious folly and ingratitude to check the torrent of success for
the paltry prospects of an ensigncy. I played on, and won on. The clock
struck eight. I will own that I trembled as the first sound caught my
ear. But whether nervous or not, from that instant the torrent was
checked. The loss and gain became alternate. Wine was brought in; I
played in furious scorn of consequences. I saw the board covered with
gold. I swept it into my stake; I soon saw my stake reduced to nothing.
My eyes were dazzled, my hand shook, my brain was on fire, I sang,
danced, roared with exultation or despair. How the night closed, I know
not; but I found myself at last in a narrow room, surrounded with
squalidness, its only light from a high-barred window, and its only
furniture the wooden tressel on which I lay, fierce, weary, and
feverish, as if I lay on the rack. From this couch of the desperate, I
was carried into the presence of a magistrate, to hear that in the
_mélée_ of the night before, I had in my rage charged my honest-faced
acquaintance with palpable cheating; and having made good my charge by
shewing the loaded dice in his hand, had knocked him down with a
violence that made his recovery more than doubtful. He had seen my name
in the Gazette, and had watched me for the express purpose of final
plunder. The wretch died. I was brought to trial, found guilty of
manslaughter, and sentenced to seven years' expatriation. Fortunate
sentence! On my arrival in New South Wales, as I was found a perfect
gentleman, and fit for nothing, there was no resource but to make me try
the labour of my hands. Fortunate labour! From six at morning till six
at night, I had the spade or the plough in my hands. I dragged carts, I
delved rocks, I hewed trees; I had not a moment to spare. The appetite
that once grew languid over venison, now felt the exquisite delight of