lady at a gaming-table, who claimed a stake although on a losing
card. Out of consideration for the distinguished trickstress,
the banker wished to pay the stranger as well; but the latter
with a blush, exclaimed--`Possibly madame won, but as for myself,
I am quite sure that I lost.'

But if women cheated at play, they also frequently lost; and were
often reduced to beggary, or to what is far viler, to sacrifice,
not only their own honour, but that of their daughters.

Gaming sometimes led to other crimes. The Countess of
Schwiechelt, a young and beautiful lady from Hanover, was much
given to gambling, and lost 50,000 livres at Paris. In order to
repair this great loss, she planned and executed the robbery of a
fine coronet of emeralds, the property of Madame Demidoff. She
had made herself acquainted with the place where it was kept, and
at a ball given by its owner the Hanoverian lady contrived to
purloin it. Her youth and rank in life induced many persons to
solicit her pardon; but Buonaparte left her to the punishment to
which she was condemned. This occurred in 1804.

In England, too, the practice of gambling was fraught with the
worst consequences to the finest feelings and best qualities of
the sex. The chief danger is very plainly hinted at in the
comedy of _The Provoked Husband_.


_Lord Townley_.--'Tis not your ill hours that always distract me,
but, as often, the ill company that occasions those hours.