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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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GAMBLING IN FRANCE IN ALL TIMES

CHAPTER V. page 10

We can scarcely form an idea of the extent of the gaming at this
period. Bassompierre declares, in his Memoirs, that he won
more than five hundred thousand livres (L25,000) in the course
of a year. `I won them,' he says, `although I was led away by a
thousand follies of youth; and my friend Pimentello won more than
two hundred thousand crowns (L100,000). Evidently this
Pimentello might well be called a _blood-sucker_ by Sully.[51]
He is even said to have got all the dice-sellers in Paris to
substitute loaded dice instead of fair ones, in order to aid his
operations.

[51] In the original, however, the word is piffre, (vulgo)
`greedy-guts.'

Nothing more forcibly shows the danger of consorting with such
bad characters than the calumny circulated respecting the
connection between Henry IV. and this infamous Italian:--it was
said that Henry was well aware of Pimentello's manoeuvres, and
that he encouraged them with the view of impoverishing his
courtiers, hoping thereby to render them more submissive! Nero
himself would have blushed at such a connivance. Doubtless the
calumny was as false as it was stupid.

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