[206] An analogous case, at cards, of _begging_ for a point in order to inspire the adversary with an erroneous opinion of the _beggar_ being weak, is thus related by Paschasius Justus of Pope Leo X. His holiness once, when playing at a game similar to Primero, held such cards as made it impossible for him to lose, except from the circumstance of his being the last player; but as his adversary, whose turn it was to declare first, proposed a heavy stake, he concluded that he held as good cards as himself. Being reluctant to yield the game, "give me a point," he cried, "and I will see you." The other, not suspecting that the Pope held such capital cards, readily assented, and consequently lost.--The narrator says that he could applaud the trick, if his holiness had returned the loser his stake.--Pasc. Justi Aleæ, lib. i, p. 50. Edit. Neapoli Nemetum [Neustadt, in the diocese of Spires], 1617. [207] The Literary Register, or Weekly Miscellany, p. 296, Newcastle on Tyne, 1771. [208] "Uninflammable as the times were, they carried a great mixture of superstition. Masquerades had been abolished, because there had been an earthquake at Lisbon; and when the last jubilee-masquerade was exhibited at Ranelagh, the alehouses and roads to Chelsea were crowded with drunken people, who assembled to denounce the judgments of God on persons of fashion, whose greatest sin was dressing themselves ridiculously. A more inconvenient reformation, and not a more sensible one, was set on foot by societies of tradesmen, who denounced to the magistrate all bakers that baked or sold bread on Sundays. Alum, and the variety of spurious ingredients with which bread, and, indeed, all wares, were adulterated all the week round, gave not half so much offence as the vent of the chief necessary of life on a Sunday."--Earl of Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 283. [209] The king not only allowed of gaming at the groom porter's at the Christmas holidays, but used to pay a formal visit there himself at the commencement of the "season." [210] From an advertisement in the public papers, subsequently referred to by the author, it would appear that this compliment to the secretaries of state was ironical. It is there stated that a set of gentlemen of character and fortune had determined to enforce the acts of parliament respecting unlawful games of play, whether with cards or otherwise; and that they were firmly resolved that neither the sanctuary at WHITE's, nor the more sacred mansion of a secretary of state, should prevent their putting their design in execution. It is not surprising that cards should be a favorite game with diplomatists, seeing that their regular vocation consists in cutting and shuffling, and that their grand game is usually won by a trick. Talleyrand was a capital player both at cards and protocols. Espartero, when Regent of Spain, is said to have played at cards with the ministers as he lay in bed. Cabral, the Portuguese minister, is also a great card-player.