At this period my uncle, who attended mass every day regularly, always put ten florins into the box.  Wherever we went, the tavern-keepers made us more welcome than royal princes.  We used to give away the broken meat from our suppers and dinners to scores of beggars who blessed us.  Every man who held my horse or cleaned my boots got a ducat for his pains.  I was, I may say, the author of our common good fortune, by putting boldness into our play.  Pippi was a faint-hearted fellow, who was always cowardly when he began to win.  My uncle (I speak with great respect of him) was too much of a devotee, and too much of a martinet at play ever to win greatly.  His moral courage was unquestionable, but his daring was not sufficient.  Both of these my seniors very soon acknowledged me to be their chief, and hence the style of splendour I have described.

I have mentioned H.I.H. the Princess Frederica Amelia, who was affected by my success, and shall always think with gratitude of the protection with which that exalted lady honoured me.  She was passionately fond of play, as indeed were the ladies of almost all the Courts in Europe in those days, and hence would often arise no small trouble to us; for the truth must be told, that ladies love to play, certainly, but not to pay.  The point of honour is not understood by the charming sex; and it was with the greatest difficulty, in our peregrinations to the various Courts of Northern Europe, that we could keep them from the table, could get their money if they lost, or, if they paid, prevent them from using the most furious and extraordinary means of revenge.  In those great days of our fortune, I calculate that we lost no less than fourteen thousand louis by such failures of payment.  A princess of a ducal house gave us paste instead of diamonds, which she had solemnly pledged to us; another organised a robbery of the Crown jewels, and would have charged the theft upon us, but for Pippi’s caution, who had kept back a note of hand ‘her High Transparency’ gave us, and sent it to his ambassador; by which precaution I do believe our necks were saved.  A third lady of high (but not princely) rank, after I had won a considerable sum in diamonds and pearls from her, sent her lover with a band of cut-throats to waylay me; and it was only by extraordinary courage, skill, and good luck, that I escaped from these villains, wounded myself, but leaving the chief aggressor dead on the ground:  my sword entered his eye and broke there, and the villains who were with him fled, seeing their chief fall.  They might have finished me else, for I had no weapon of defence.

Thus it will be seen that our life, for all its splendour, was one of extreme danger and difficulty, requiring high talents and courage for success; and often, when we were in a full vein of success, we were suddenly driven from our ground on account of some freak of a reigning prince, some intrigue of a disappointed mistress, or some quarrel with the police minister.  If the latter personage were not bribed or won over, nothing was more common than for us to receive a sudden order of departure; and so, perforce, we lived a wandering and desultory life.