CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A CHAPTER OF WHICH WE ARE EXTREMELY VAIN, AND WHICH INDEED WE LOOK
ON AS OUR CHEF-D'OEUVRE; CONTAINING A WONDERFUL STORY CONCERNING
THE DEVIL, AND AS NICE A SCENE OF HONOUR AS EVER HAPPENED.


My reader, I believe, even if he be a gamester, would not thank me
for an exact relation of every man's success; let it suffice then
that they played till the whole money vanished from the table.
Whether the devil himself carried it away, as some suspected, I
will not determine; but very surprising it was that every person
protested he had lost, nor could any one guess who, unless THE
DEVIL, had won.

But though very probable it is that this arch fiend had some share
in the booty, it is likely he had not all; Mr. Bagshot being
imagined to be a considerable winner, notwithstanding his
assertions to the contrary; for he was seen by several to convey
money often into his pocket; and what is still a little stronger
presumption is, that the grave gentleman whom we have mentioned to
have served his country in two honourable capacities, not being
willing to trust alone to the evidence of his eyes, had frequently
dived into the said Bagshot's pocket, whence (as he tells us in
the apology for his life afterwards published [Footnote: Not in a
book by itself, in imitation of some other such persons, but in
the ordinary's account, &c., where all the apologies for the lives
of rogues and whores which have been published within these twenty
years should have been inserted.]), though he might extract a few
pieces, he was very sensible he had left many behind. The