A lady of a great house in
Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that the
first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army,
the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a
gamester.
These noble adventurers devote themselves in a
particular manner to the entertainment of travellers from our
country, because the English are supposed to be full of money,
rash, incautious, and utterly ignorant of play. But such a
sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts in couple with a
female. I have known a French count and his wife, who found means
to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth, supple,
officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome, unprincipled,
and artful. If the Englishman marked for prey was found upon his
guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him on
the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her
person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and
complained. If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered
his vanity, and piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and
generosity of the English; and if he proved deaf to all these
insinuations she, as her last stake, endeavoured to interest his
humanity and compassion. She expatiated, with tears in her eyes,
on the cruelty and indifference of her great relations;
represented that her husband was no more than the cadet of a
noble family - , that his provision was by no means suitable.
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