PARIS.
Nothing more worthy of recording occurred before our arrival at Meurice
on the third day of our journey. My friend O'Leary had, with his usual
good fortune, become indispensable to his new acquaintance, and it was
not altogether without some little lurking discontent that I perceived
how much less often my services were called in request since his having
joined our party; his information, notwithstanding its very scanty
extent, was continually relied upon, and his very imperfect French
everlastingly called into requisition to interpret a question for the
ladies. Yes, thought I, "Othello's occupation's gone;" one of two things
has certainly happened, either Mrs. Bingham and her daughter have noticed
my continued abstraction of mind, and have attributed it to the real
cause, the pre-occupation of my affections; or thinking, on the other
hand, that I am desperately in love with one or other of them, have
thought that a little show of preference to Mr. O'Leary may stimulate me
to a proposal at once. In either case I resolved to lose no time in
taking my leave, which there could be no difficulty in doing now, as the
ladies had reached their intended destination, and had numerous friends
in Paris to advise and assist them; besides that I had too long neglected
the real object of my trip, and should lose no time in finding out the
Callonbys, and at once learn what prospect of success awaited me in that
quarter. Leaving my fair friends then to refresh themselves after the
journey, and consigning Mr. O'Leary to the enjoyment of his meershaum,
through the aid of which he had rendered his apartment like a Dutch swamp
in autumn, the only portion of his own figure visible through the mist
being his short legs and heavy shoes.
On reaching the house in the Rue de la Paix, where the Callonbys had
resided, I learned that they were still at Baden, and were not expected
in Paris for some weeks; that Lord Kilkee had arrived that morning, and
was then dining at the Embassy, having left an invitation for me to dine
with him on the following day, if I happened to call. As I turned from
the door, uncertain whither to turn my steps, I walked on unconsciously
towards the Boulevard, and occupied as I was, thinking over all the
chances before me, did not perceive where I stood till the bright glare
of a large gas lamp over my head apprised me that I was at the door of
the well known Salon des Etrangers, at the corner of the Rue Richelieu;
carriages, citadines, and vigilantes were crowding, crashing, and
clattering on all sides, as the host of fashion and the gaming-table were
hastening to their champ de bataille. Not being a member of the Salon,
and having little disposition to enter, if I had been, I stood for some
minutes looking at the crowd as it continued to press on towards the
splendid and brilliantly lighted stairs, which leads from the very street
to the rooms of the palace, for such, in the magnificence and luxury of
its decorations, it really is. As I was on the very eve of turning
away, a large and very handsome cab-horse turned the corner from the
balustrade, with the most perfect appointment of harness and carriage
I had seen for a long time.
While I continued to admire the taste and propriety of the equipage, a
young man in deep mourning sprung from the inside and stood upon the
pavement before me. "A deux heures, Charles," said he to his servant,
as the cab turned slowly around. The voice struck me as well known. I
waited till he approached the lamp, to catch a glimpse of the face; and
what was my surprise to recognise my cousin, Guy Lorrequer of the 10th,
whom I had not met with for six years before. My first impulse was not
to make myself known to him. Our mutual position with regard to Lady
Jane was so much a mystery, as regarded myself, that I feared the result
of any meeting, until I was sufficiently aware of how matters stood, and
whether we were to meet as friends and relations, or rivals, and
consequently enemies.
Before I had time to take my resolution, Guy had recognised me, and
seizing me by the hand with both his, called, "Harry, my old friend, how
are you? how long have you been here, and never to call on me? Why man,
what is the meaning of this?" Before I had time to say that I was only a
few hours in Paris, he again interrupted me by saying: "And how comes it
that you are not in mourning? You must surely have heard it."
"Heard what?" I cried, nearly hoarse from agitation. "Our poor old
friend, Sir Guy, didn't you know, is dead." Only those who have felt how
strong the ties of kindred are, as they decrease in number, can tell how
this news fell upon my heart. All my poor uncle's kindnesses came one by
one full upon my memory; his affectionate letters of advice; his
well-meant chidings, too, even dearer to me than his praise and approval,
completely unmanned me; and I stood speechless and powerless before my
cousin as he continued to detail to me the rapid progress of Sir Guy's
malady, and attack of gout in the head, which carried him off in three
days. Letters had been sent to me in different places, but none reached;
and at the very moment the clerk of my uncle's lawyer was in pursuit of
me through the highlands, where some mistaken information had induced him
to follow me.
"You are, therefore," continued Guy, "unaware that our uncle has dealt so
fairly by you, and indeed by both of us; I have got the Somersetshire
estates, which go with the baronetcy; but the Cumberland property is all
yours; and I heartily wish you joy of having nearly eight thousand per
annum, and one of the sweetest villas that ever man fancied on
Derwentwater. But come along here," continued he, and he led me through
the crowded corridor and up the wide stair. "I have much to tell you,
and we can be perfectly alone here; no one will trouble themselves with
us." Unconscious of all around me, I followed Guy along the gilded and
glittering lobby, which led to the Salon, and it was only as the servant
in rich livery came forward to take my hat and cane that I remembered
where I was. Then the full sense of all I had been listening to rushed
upon me, and the unfitness, and indeed the indecency of the place for
such communications as we were engaged in, came most forcibly before me.
Sir Guy, it is true, had always preferred my cousin to me; he it was who
was always destined to succeed both to his title and his estates, and his
wildness and extravagance had ever met with a milder rebuke and weaker
chastisement than my follies and my misfortunes. Yet still he was my
last remaining relative; the only one I possessed in all the world to
whom in any difficulty or trial I had to look up; and I felt, in the very
midst of my newly acquired wealth and riches, poorer and more alone than
ever I had done in my lifetime. I followed Guy to a small and dimly
lighted cabinet off the great salon, where, having seated ourselves, he
proceeded to detail to me the various events which a few short weeks had
accomplished. Of himself he spoke but little, and never once alluded to
the Callonbys at all; indeed all I could learn was that he had left the
army, and purposed remaining for the winter at Paris, where he appeared
to have entered into all its gaiety and dissipation at once.
"Of course," said he, "you will give up 'sodgering' now; at the best it
is but poor sport after five and twenty, and is perfectly unendurable
when a man has the means of pushing himself in the gay world; and now,
Harry, let us mix a little among the mob here; for Messieurs les
Banquiers don't hold people in estimation who come here only for the
'chapons au riz.' and the champagne glacee, as we should seem to do were
we to stay here much longer."
Such was the whirl of my thoughts, and so great the confusion in my ideas
from all I had just heard, that I felt myself implicitly following every
direction of my cousin with a child-like obedience, of the full extent
of which I became only conscious when I found myself seated at the table
of the Salon, between my cousin Guy and an old, hard-visaged,
pale-countenanced man, who he told me in a whisper was Vilelle the
Minister.
What a study for the man who would watch the passions and emotions of his
fellow-men, would the table of a rouge et noir gambling-house present
--the skill and dexterity which games of other kinds require, being here
wanting, leave the player free to the full abandonment of the passion.
The interest is not a gradually increasing or vacillating one, as fortune
and knowledge of the game favour; the result is uninfluenced by any thing
of his doing; with the last turned card of the croupier is he rich or
ruined; and thus in the very abstraction of the anxiety is this the most
painfully exciting of all gambling whatever; the very rattle of the
dice-box to the hazard player is a relief; and the thought that he is in
some way instrumental in his good or bad fortune gives a turn to his
thoughts. There is something so like the inevitable character of fate
associated with the result of a chance, which you can in no way affect
or avert, that I have, notwithstanding a strong bias for play, ever
dreaded and avoided the rouge et noir table; hitherto prudential motives
had their share in the resolve; a small loss at play becomes a matter of
importance to a sub in a marching regiment; and therefore I was firm in
my determination to avoid the gambling-table. Now my fortunes were
altered; and as I looked at the heap of shining louis d'or, which Guy
pushed before me in exchange for a billet de banque of large amount, I
felt the full importance of my altered position, mingling with the old
and long practised prejudices which years had been accumulating to fix.
There is besides some wonderful fascination to most men in the very
aspect of high play: to pit your fortune against that of another--to see
whether or not your luck shall not exceed some others--are feelings that
have a place in most bosoms, and are certainly, if not naturally
existing, most easily generated in the bustle and excitement of the
gambling-house. The splendour of the decorations; the rich profusion of
gilded ornaments; the large and gorgeously framed mirrors; the sparkling
lustres; mingling their effect with the perfumed air of the apartment,
filled with orange trees and other aromatic shrubs; the dress of the
company, among whom were many ladies in costumes not inferior to those
of a court; the glitter of diamonds; the sparkle of stars and
decorations, rendered more magical by knowing that the wearers were
names in history. There, with his round but ample shoulder, and large
massive head, covered with long snow-white hair, stands Talleyrand, the
maker and unmaker of kings, watching with a look of ill-concealed
anxiety the progress of his game. Here is Soult, with his dogged look
and beetled brow; there stands Balzac the author, his gains here are
less derived from the betting than the bettors; he is evidently making
his own of some of them, while in the seeming bon hommie of his careless
manners and easy abandon, they scruple not to trust him with anecdotes
and traits, that from the crucible of his fiery imagination come forth,
like the purified gold from the furnace. And there, look at that old and
weather-beaten man, with grey eyebrows, and moustaches, who throws from
the breast-pocket of his frock ever and anon, a handful of gold pieces
upon the table; he evidently neither knows nor cares for the amount, for
the banker himself is obliged to count over the stake for him--that is
Blucher, the never-wanting attendant at the Salon; he has been an
immense loser, but plays on with the same stern perseverance with which
he would pour his bold cavalry through a ravine torn by artillery; he
stands by the still waning chance with a courage that never falters.
One strong feature of the levelling character of a taste for play has
never ceased to impress me most forcibly--not only do the individual
peculiarities of the man give way before the all-absorbing passion--but
stranger still, the very boldest traits of nationality even fade and
disappear before it; and man seems, under the high-pressure power of this
greatest of all stimulants, resolved into a most abstract state.
Among all the traits which distinguish Frenchmen from natives of every
country, none is more prominent than a kind of never-failing elasticity
of temperament, which seems almost to defy all the power of misfortune to
depress. Let what will happen, the Frenchman seems to possess some
strong resource within himself, in his ardent temperament, upon which he
can draw at will; and whether on the day after a defeat, the moment of
being deceived in his strongest hopes of returned affection--the
overthrow of some long-cherished wish--it matters not--he never gives way
entirely; but see him at the gaming-table--watch the intense, the aching
anxiety with which his eye follows every card as it falls from the hand
of the croupier--behold the look of cold despair that tracks his stake as
the banker rakes it in among his gains--and you will at once perceive
that here, at least, his wonted powers fail him. No jest escapes the
lips of one, that would badinet upon the steps of the guillotine. The
mocker who would jeer at the torments of revolution, stands like a coward
quailing before the impassive eye and pale cheek of a croupier. While
I continued to occupy myself by observing the different groups about me,
I had been almost mechanically following the game, placing at each deal
some gold upon the table; the result however had interested me so
slightly, that it was only by remarking the attention my game had excited
in others, that my own was drawn towards it. I then perceived that I had
permitted my winnings to accumulate upon the board, and that in the very
deal then commencing, I had a stake of nearly five hundred pounds upon
the deal.
"Faites votre jeu, le jeu est fait," said the croupier, "trente deux."
"You have lost, by Jove," said Guy, in a low whisper, in which I could
detect some trait of agitation.
"Trente et une," added the croupier. "Rouge perd, et couleur."
There was a regular buz of wonder through the room at my extraordinary
luck, for thus, with every chance against me, I had won again.
As the croupier placed the billets de banque upon the table, I overheard
the muttered commendations of an old veteran behind me, upon the coolness
and judgment of my play; so much for fortune, thought I, my judgment
consists in a perfect ignorance of the chances, and my coolness is merely
a thorough indifference to success; whether it was now that the flattery
had its effect upon me, or that the passion for play, so long dormant,
had suddenly seized hold upon me, I know not, but my attention became
from that moment rivetted upon the game, and I played every deal. Guy,
who had been from the first betting with the indifferent success which I
have so often observed to attend upon the calculations of old and
experienced gamblers, now gave up, and employed himself merely in
watching my game.
"Harry," said he at last, "I am completely puzzled as to whether you are
merely throwing down your louis at hazard, or are not the deepest player
I have ever met with."
"You shall see," said I, as I stooped over towards the banker, and
whispered, "how far is the betting permitted?"
"Fifteen thousand francs," said the croupier, with a look of surprise.
"Then be it," said I; "quinze mille francs, rouge."
In a moment the rouge won, and the second deal I repeated the bet, and so
continuing on with the like success; when I was preparing my rouleau for
the fifth, the banquier rose, and saying--
"Messiers, la banque est fermee pour ce soir," proceeded to lock his
casette, and close the table.
"You are satisfied now," said Guy, rising, "you see you have broke the
banque, and a very pretty incident to commence with your first
introduction to a campaign in Paris."
Having changed my gold for notes, I stuffed them, with an air of
well-affected carelessness, into my pocket, and strolled through the
Salon, where I had now become an object of considerably more interest
than all the marshals and ministers about me.
"Now, Hal," said Guy, "I'll just order our supper in the cabinet, and
join you in a moment."
As I remained for some minutes awaiting Guy's return, my attention was
drawn towards a crowd, in a smaller salon, among whom the usual silent
decorum of the play-table seemed held in but small respect, for every
instant some burst of hearty laughter, or some open expression of joy or
anger burst forth, by which I immediately perceived that they were the
votaries of the roulette table, a game at which the strict propriety and
etiquette ever maintained at rouge et noir, are never exacted. As I
pressed nearer, to discover the cause of the mirth, which every moment
seemed to augment, guess my surprise to perceive among the foremost rank
of the players, my acquaintance, Mr. O'Leary, whom I at that moment
believed to be solacing himself with his meershaum at Meurice. My
astonishment at how he obtained admission to the Salon was even less than
my fear of his recognising me. At no time is it agreeable to find that
the man who is regarded as the buffo of a party turns out to be your
friend, but still less is this so, when the individual claiming
acquaintance with you presents any striking absurdity in his dress or
manner, strongly at contrast with the persons and things about him; and
thus it now happened--Mr. O'Leary's external man, as we met him on the
Calais road, with its various accompaniments of blouse-cap, spectacles,
and tobacco-pipe, were nothing very outre or remarkable, but when the
same figure presented itself among the elegans of the Parisian world,
redolent of eau de Portugal, and superb in the glories of brocade
waistcoats and velvet coats, the thing was too absurd, and I longed to
steal away before any chance should present itself of a recognition.
This, however, was impossible, as the crowd from the other table were all
gathered round us, and I was obliged to stand fast, and trust that the
excitement of the game, in which he appeared to be thoroughly occupied,
might keep his eye fixed on another quarter; I now observed that the same
scene in which I had so lately been occupied at the rouge et noir table,
was enacting here, under rather different circumstances. Mr. O'Leary was
the only player, as I had just been--not, however, because his success
absorbed all the interest of the bystanders, but that, unfortunately, his
constant want of it elicited some strong expression of discontent and
mistrust from him, which excited the loud laughter of the others; but of
which, from his great anxiety in his game, he seemed totally unconscious.
"Faites votre jeu, Messieurs," said the croupier.
"Wait a bit till I change this," said Mr. O'Leary, producing an English
sovereign; the action interpreted his wishes, and the money was converted
into coupons de jeu.
I now discovered one great cause of the mirth of the bystanders, at least
the English portion of them. Mr. O'Leary, when placing his money upon
the table, observed the singular practice of announcing aloud the amount
of his bet, which, for his own information, he not only reduced to
English but also Irish currency; thus the stillness of the room was every
instant broken by a strong Irish accent pronouncing something of this
sort--"five francs," "four and a penny"--"ten francs," "eight and three
ha'pence." The amusement thus caused was increased by the excitement his
losses threw him into. He now ceased to play for several times, when at
last, he made an offering of his usual stake.
"Perd," said the croupier, raking in the piece with a contemptuous air
at the smallness of the bet, and in no way pleased that the interest
Mr. O'Leary excited should prevent the other players from betting.
"Perd," said O'Leary, "again. Divil another song you sing than 'perd,'
and I'm not quite clear you're not cheating all the while--only, God help
you if you are!"
As he so said, the head of a huge black-thorn stick was half protruded
across the table, causing renewed mirth; for, among other regulations,
every cane, however trifling, is always demanded at the door; and thus a
new subject of astonishment arose as to how he had succeeded in carrying
it with him into the salon.
"Here's at you again," said O'Leary, regardless of the laughter, and
covering three or four numbers with his jetons.
Round went the ball once more, and once more he lost.
"Look now, divil a lie in it, he makes them go wherever he pleases. I'll
take a turn now at the tables; fair play's a jewel--and we'll see how
you'll get on."
So saying, he proceeded to insinuate himself into the chair of the
croupier, whom he proposed to supersede by no very gentle means. This
was of course resisted, and as the loud mirth of the bystanders grew more
and more boisterous, the cries of "a la porte, a la porte," from the
friends of the bank, rung through the crowd.
"Go it, Pat--go it, Pat," said Guy, over my shoulder, who seemed to take
a prodigious interest in the proceedings.
At this unexpected recognition of his nativity, for Mr. O'Leary never
suspected he could be discovered by his accent; he looked across the
table, and caught my eye at once.
"Oh, I'm safe now! stand by me, Mr. Lorrequer, and we'll clear the room."
So saying, and without any further provocation, he upset the croupier,
chair and all, with one sudden jerk upon the floor, and giving a
tremendous kick to the casette, sent all the five-franc pieces flying
over him; he then jumped upon the table, and brandishing his black-thorn
through the ormolu lustre, scattered the wax-lights on all sides,
accompanying the exploit by a yell that would have called up all
Connemara at midnight, if it had only been heard there; in an instant,
the gens d'armes, always sufficiently near to be called in if required,
came pouring into the room, and supposing the whole affair had been a
preconcerted thing to obtain possession of the money in the bank,
commenced capturing different members of the company who appeared, by
enjoying the confusion, to be favouring and assisting it. My cousin Guy
was one of the first so treated--a proceeding to which he responded by an
appeal rather in favour with most Englishmen, and at once knocked down
the gen d'arme; this was the signal for a general engagement, and
accordingly, before an explanation could possibly be attempted, a most
terrific combat ensued. The Frenchmen in the room siding with the gen
d'armerie, and making common cause against the English; who, although
greatly inferior in number, possessed considerable advantage, from long
habit in street-rows and boxing encounters. As for myself, I had the
good fortune to be pitted against a very pursy and unwieldy Frenchman,
who sacre'd to admiration, but never put in a single blow at me; while,
therefore, I amused myself practising what old Cribb called "the one,
two," upon his fat carcase, I had abundant time and opportunity to watch
all that was doing about me, and truly a more ludicrous affair I never
beheld. Imagine about fifteen or sixteen young Englishmen, most of them
powerful, athletic fellows, driving an indiscriminate mob of about five
times their number before them, who, with courage enough to resist, were
yet so totally ignorant of the boxing art, that they retreated,
pell-mell, before the battering phalanx of their sturdy opponents--the
most ludicrous figure of all being Mr. O'Leary himself, who, standing
upon the table, laid about him with a brass lustre that he had unstrung,
and did considerable mischief with this novel instrument of warfare,
crying out the entire time, "murder every mother's son of them," "give
them another taste of Waterloo." Just as he had uttered the last
patriotic sentiment, he received a slight admonition from behind, by the
point of a gen d'arme's sword, which made him leap from the table with
the alacrity of a harlequin, and come plump down among the thickest of
the fray. My attention was now directed elsewhere, for above all the
din and "tapage" of the encounter I could plainly hear the row-dow-dow
of the drums, and the measured tread of troops approaching, and at once
guessed that a reinforcement of the gen d'armerie were coming up.
Behind me there was a large window, with a heavy scarlet curtain before
it; my resolution was at once taken, I floored my antagonist, whom I had
till now treated with the most merciful forbearance, and immediately
sprung behind the curtain. A second's consideration showed that in the
search that must ensue this would afford no refuge, so I at once opened
the sash, and endeavoured to ascertain at what height I was above the
ground beneath me; the night was so dark that I could see nothing, but
judging from the leaves and twigs that reached to the window, that it
was a garden beneath, and auguring from the perfumed smell of the
shrubs, that they could not be tall trees, I resolved to leap, a resolve
I had little time to come to, for the step of the soldiers was already
heard upon the stair. Fixing my hat then down upon my brows, and
buttoning my coat tightly, I let myself down from the window-stool by my
hands, and fell upon my legs in the soft earth of the garden, safe and
unhurt. From the increased clamour and din overhead, I could learn the
affray was at its height, and had little difficulty in detecting the
sonorous accent and wild threats of my friend Mr. O'Leary, high above
all the other sounds around him. I did not wait long, however, to enjoy
them; but at once set about securing my escape from my present bondage.
In this I had little difficulty, for I was directed by a light to a
small door, which, as I approached, found that it led into the den of
the Concierge, and also communicated by another door with the street. I
opened it, therefore, at once, and was in the act of opening the second,
when I felt myself seized by the collar by a strong hand; and on turning
round saw the sturdy figure of the Concierge himself, with a drawn
bayonet within a few inches of my throat, "Tenez, mon ami," said I
quietly, and placing half a dozen louis, some of my recent spoils, in
his hand, at once satisfied him that, even if I were a robber, I was at
least one that understood and respected the conveniences of society. He
at once relinquished his hold and dropped his weapon, and pulling off
his cap with one hand, to draw the cord which opened the Porte Cochere
with the other, bowed me politely to the street. I had scarcely had
time to insinuate myself into the dense mass of people whom the noise
and confusion within had assembled around the house, when the double
door of the building opened, and a file of gens d'armerie came forth,
leading between them my friend Mr. O'Leary and some others of the
rioters--among whom I rejoiced to find my cousin did not figure. If I
were to judge from his disordered habiliments and scarred visage, Mr.
O'Leary's resistance to the constituted authorities must have been a
vigorous one, and the drollery of his appearance was certainly not
decreased by his having lost the entire brim of his hat--the covering of
his head bearing, under these distressing circumstances, a strong
resemblance to a saucepan.
As I could not at that moment contribute in any way to his rescue, I
determined on the following day to be present at his examination, and
render him all the assistance in my power. Meanwhile, I returned to
Meurice, thinking of every adventure of the evening much more than of my
own changed condition and altered fortunes.