"These paroxysms of madness run sometimes so high, that you would think the Devil had seiz'd the organs of speech, and that they were possess'd in every syllable: and to finish farther, these hideous sallies are sometimes carry'd on to quarrelling and murther. The dice, it may be, are snatch'd too quick, the cast is disputed, the loading and legerdemain is discover'd. "Jamque faces et saxa volant:-- Upon this, they run to arms, and after some artillery discharg'd in swearing, come to a close encounter. And thus one of them is run through the lungs, and left agonizing upon the place: or, as it happen'd not long since, the gamester is knocked down with a pint-pot, and his skull broken: he is forced to be trepan'd, and then relapsing into play and drinking, dies of a frenzy. "As to the hazards, they are frightful, and sufficient to overset the temper of better principled people than gamesters commonly are. Have we not heard of ladies losing hundreds of guineas at a sitting? And others more slenderly stock'd, disfurnish their husbands' studies, and play off the books which, it may be, help'd to feed them. And when the women are thus courageous, the men conclude their own sex calls for a bolder liberty: that they ought to go farther in danger, and appear more brave in the methods of ruin: thus a manor has been lost in an afternoon; the suit and service follow the cast, and the right is transfer'd sooner than the lawyer can draw the conveyance. A box and dice are terrible artillery, a battery of cannon scarcely plays with more execution. They make a breach in a castle, and command a surrender in a little time."[348]