After this declaration, feeling myself entitled to play, I put down forty
louis, and lost them in two deals. I got up, and on the banker saying
very politely that he was sorry for my loss, I replied that it was a mere
nothing, but that I always made it a rule never to risk a sum of money
larger than the bank. Somebody then asked me if I knew a certain Abbe
Gilbert.

"I knew a man of that name," said I, "at Paris; he came from Lyons, and
owes me a pair of ears, which I mean to cut off his head when I meet
him."

My questioner made no reply to this, and everybody remained silent, as if
nothing had been said. From this I concluded that the abbe aforesaid must
be the same whose place I had occupied at dinner. He had doubtless seen
me on my arrival and had taken himself off. This abbe was a rascal who
had visited me at Little Poland, to whom I had entrusted a ring which had
cost me five thousand florins in Holland; next day the scoundrel had
disappeared.

When everybody had left the table, I asked Le Duc if I were well lodged.

"No," said he; "would you like to see your room?"

He took me to a large room, a hundred paces from the inn, whose sole
furniture consisted of its four walls, all the other rooms being
occupied. I complained vainly to the inn-keeper, who said,

"It's all I can offer you, but I will have a good bed, a table, and
chairs taken there."