Page 119 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III

Notes And I did go on—went on at such a rate, that in another quarter of an hour the croupier called
out, “Gentlemen, the bank has discontinued for to-night.” All the notes and all the gold in that
“bank,” now lay in a heap under my hands; the whole floating capital of the gambling-house
was waiting to pour into my pockets!
“Tie up the money in your pocket-handkerchief, my worthy sir,” said the old soldier, as I wildly
plunged my hands into my heap of gold. “Tie it up, as we used to tie up a bit of dinner in the
Grand Army; your winnings are too heavy for any breeches-pockets that ever were sewed.
There! that’s it—shovel them in, notes and all! Credie! what luck! Stop! Another napoleon on the
floor! Ah! sacre petit polisson de Napoleon! have I found thee at last? Now then, sir—two tight
double knots each way with your honourable permission, and the money’s safe. Feel it! feel it,
fortunate sir! Hard and round as a cannon ball—Ah, bah! If they had only fired such cannon balls
at us at Austerlitz—nom d’une pipe! If they only had! Now, as an ancient grenadier, as an
ex-brave of the French army, what remains for me to do? I ask what? Simply this: to entreat my
valued English friend to drink a bottle of Champagne with me, and toast the goddess Fortune in
foaming goblets before we part!”

Excellent ex-brave! Convivial ancient grenadier! Champagne by all means! An English cheer for
an old soldier! Hurrah! Hurrah! Another English cheer for the goddess Fortune! Hurrah! Hurrah!
Hurrah!
“Bravo! The Englishman; the amiable, gracious Englishman, in whose veins circulate the vivacious
blood of France. Another glass? Ah, bah!—the bottle is empty! Never mind! Vive le vin! I, the old
soldier, order another bottle, and half a pound of bonbons with it!”
“No, no, ex-brave; never—ancient grenadier! Your bottle last time; my bottle this. Behold it!
Toast away! The French Army! The great Napoleon! The present company! The croupier! the
honest croupier’s wife and daughters—if he has any! The Ladies generally! Everybody in the
world!”
By the time the second bottle of Champagne was emptied, I felt as if I had been drinking liquid
fire—my brain seemed aflame. No excess in wine had ever had this effect on me before in my
life. Was it the result of stimulant acting upon my system when I was in a highly excited state?
Was my stomach in a particularly disordered condition? Or was the Champagne amazingly
strong?
“Ex-brave of the French Army!” cried I, in a mad state of exhilaration, “I am on fire! How are
you? You have set me on fire! Do you hear my hero of Austerlitz? Let us have a third bottle of
Champagne to put the flame out!”
The old soldier wagged his head, rolled his goggle-eyes, until I expected to see them slip out of
their sockets; placed his dirty forefinger by the side of his broken nose; solemnly ejaculated
“Coffee!” and immediately ran off into an inner room.

The word pronounced by the eccentric veteran seemed to have a magical effect on the rest of the
company present. With one accord, they all rose to depart. Probably they had expected to profit
by my intoxication; but finding that my new friend was benevolently bent on preventing me
from getting dead drunk, had now abandoned all hope of thriving pleasantly on my winnings.
Whatever their motive might be, at any rate they went away in a body. When the old soldier
returned, and sat down again opposite to me at the table, we had the room to ourselves. I could
see the croupier, in a sort of vestibule, which opened out of it, eating his supper in solitude.
The silence was now deeper than ever.
A sudden change, too, had come over the “ex-brave.” He assumed a portentously solemn look;
and when he spoke to me again, his speech was ornamented by no oaths, enforced by no finger
snapping, enlivened by no apostrophes or exclamations.

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