And, having thus retrieved his finances, the gay-hearted Chevalier used,
henceforth, to make De Cameran go halves with him in all games in which
the odds were in his own favour. Even the staid Calvinist, Turenne, who
had not then renounced, as he did in after-life, the Protestant faith,
delighted in the off-hand merriment of the Chevalier. It was towards the
end of the siege of Trino, that De Grammont went to visit that general
in some new quarters, where Turenne received him, surrounded by fifteen
or twenty officers. According to the custom of the day, cards were
introduced, and the general asked the Chevalier to play.
'Sir,' returned the young soldier, 'my tutor taught me that when a man
goes to see his friends it is neither prudent to leave his own money
behind him nor civil to take theirs.'
'Well,' answered Turenne, 'I can tell you you will find neither much
money nor deep play among us; but that it cannot be said that we allowed
you to go off without playing, suppose we each of us stake a horse.'
De Grammont agreed, and, lucky as ever, won from the officers some
fifteen or sixteen horses, by way of a joke; but seeing several faces
pale, he said, 'Gentlemen, I should be sorry to see you go away from
your general's quarters on foot; it will do very well if you all send me
to-morrow your horses, except one, which I give for the cards.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125