Lucrative
Gambling

LOUIS XIII.--At the commencement of the reign of Louis XIII the laws against gambling were revived, and severer penalties were enacted. Forty-seven gaming houses at Paris, which had been licensed, and from which several magistrates drew a perquisite of a pistole or half a sovereign a day, were shut up and suppressed.

These stringent measures checked the gambling of the `people,' but not that of `the great,' who went on merrily as before.

Of course they `kept the thing quiet'--gambled in secret--but more desperately than ever. The Marechal d'Ancre commonly staked twenty thousand pistoles (L10,000).

Louis XIII. was not a gambler, and so, during this reign, the court did not set so bad an example. The king was averse to all games of chance. He only liked chess, but perhaps rather too much, to judge from the fact that, in order to enable him to play chess on his journeys, a chessboard was fitted in his carriage, the pieces being furnished with pins at the bottom so as not to be deranged or knocked down by the motion. The reader will remember that, as already stated, a similar gaming accommodation was provided for the Roman Emperor Claudius.

The cup and ball of Henry III. and the chessboard of Louis XIII. are merely ridiculous. We must excuse well-intentioned monarchs when they only indulge themselves with frivolous and childish trifles. It is something to be thankful for if we have not to apply to them the adage--Quic-quid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi--`When kings go mad their people get their blows.'

Partners: