THE history of all nations is but the record of their
cupidity; and when the fury of gaming appears on the scene, it
has never failed to double the insolence and atrocities of
tyranny.
The atrocious gambling of the Hindoo Rajas has been
related;[14] and I have incidentally adverted to similar
concomitants of the vice among all nations. I now propose to
bring together a series of facts specially elucidative of the
harrowing theme.
[14] Chapter II.
One of the Ptolemys, kings of Egypt, required all causes
to be submitted to him whilst at play, and pronounced even
sentence of death according to chance. On one occasion his wife,
Berenice, pro
nounced thereanent those memorable
words: — `There cannot be too much deliberation when the death of
a man is concerned' — afterwards adopted by Juvenal —
Nulla
unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est.[15]
[15] ælian,
Var. Hist. lib. XLIV. c. xiii.; Juvenal,
Sat. vi.
Tolomnius, King of the Veii, happened to be playing at
dice when the arrival of Roman ambassadors was announced. At the
very instant he uttered the word Kill, a term of the game;
the word was misinterpreted by the hearers, and they went
forthwith and massacred the ambassadors. Livy suggests that this
was an excuse alleged after the commission of the deed;
but gamesters are subject to such absence of mind that there is
really nothing incredible or astonishing in the act. `Sire,'
exclaimed a messenger to the Caliph Alamin, `it is no longer time
for play — Babylon is besieged!' `Silence!' said the caliph,
`don't you see I am on the point of giving checkmate?' The same
story is told of a Duke of Normandy.
Wars have arisen from very trivial causes — among the rest
gambling. Henry, the son of William the Conqueror, was playing
at chess with Louis, the son of Philip, King of France. The
latter, perceiving that he was losing the game
got into a passion, and calling Henry the son of a bastard, flung
the chess-board into his face. Henry took the chess-board and
struck Louis with it so violently that he drew blood, and would
have killed him if his brother, who happened to come in, had not
prevented him. The two brothers took to flight, but a great and
lasting war was the consequence of the gambling
fracas.
A gaming quarrel was the cause of the slap in the face
given by the Duc Réné to Louis XII., then only Duc
d'Orleans. This slap was the origin of a ligue which was
termed `the mad war.' The resentment of the outraged prince was
not appeased until he mounted the throne, when he uttered these
memorable words: — `A King of France does not avenge insults
offered to a Duke of Orleans.'
Many narratives of suicide committed by desperate gamblers
are on record, some of which I now adduce.
