Glendinning had been represented to my eager
      inquiries as immeasurably wealthy; and the sums which he had as
      yet lost, although in themselves vast, could not, I supposed,
      very seriously annoy, much less so violently affect him. That he
      was overcome by the wine just swallowed, was the idea which most
      readily presented itself; and, rather with a view to the
      preservation of my own character in the eyes of my associates,
      than from any less interested motive, I was about to insist,
      peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of the play, when some
      expressions at my elbow from among the company, and an
      ejaculation evincing utter despair on the part of Glendinning,
      gave me to understand that I had effected his total ruin under
      circumstances which, rendering him an object for the pity of all,
      should have protected him from the ill offices even of a fiend. What now might have been my conduct it is difficult to say. The
      pitiable condition of my dupe had thrown an air of embarrassed
      gloom over all; and, for some moments, a profound silence was
      maintained, during which I could not help feeling my cheeks
      tingle with the many burning glances of scorn or reproach cast
      upon me by the less abandoned of the party. I will even own that
      an intolerable weight of anxiety was for a brief instant lifted
      from my bosom by the sudden and extraordinary interruption which
      ensued. The wide, heavy folding doors of the apartment were all
      at once thrown open, to their full extent, with a vigorous and
      rushing impetuosity that extinguished, as if by magic, every
      candle in the room. Their light, in dying, enabled us just to
      perceive that a stranger had entered, about my own height, and
      closely muffled in a cloak. The darkness, however, was now total;
      and we could only feel that he was standing in our midst. Before
      any one of us could recover from the extreme astonishment into
      which this rudeness had thrown all, we heard the voice of the
      intruder. “Gentlemen,” he said, in a low, distinct, and
      never-to-be-forgotten whisper which thrilled to the very marrow
      of my bones, “Gentlemen, I make no apology for this behaviour,
      because in thus behaving, I am but fulfilling a duty. You are,
      beyond doubt, uninformed of the true character of the person who
      has to-night won at _écarté_ a large sum of money from Lord
      Glendinning. I will therefore put you upon an expeditious and
      decisive plan of obtaining this very necessary information. Please to examine, at your leisure, the inner linings of the cuff
      of his left sleeve, and the several little packages which may be
      found in the somewhat capacious pockets of his embroidered
      morning wrapper.”

      While he spoke, so profound was the stillness that one might have
      heard a pin drop upon the floor. In ceasing, he departed at once,
      and as abruptly as he had entered. Can I—shall I describe my
      sensations? Must I say that I felt all the horrors of the damned? Most assuredly I had little time given for reflection. Many hands
      roughly seized me upon the spot, and lights were immediately
      reprocured. A search ensued. In the lining of my sleeve were
      found all the court cards essential in _écarté_, and, in the
      pockets of my wrapper, a number of packs, facsimiles of those
      used at our sittings, with the single exception that mine were of
      the species called, technically, arrondees; the honours being
      slightly convex at the ends, the lower cards slightly convex at
      the sides. In this disposition, the dupe who cuts, as customary,
      at the length of the pack, will invariably find that he cuts his
      antagonist an honor; while the gambler, cutting at the breadth,
      will, as certainly, cut nothing for his victim which may count in
      the records of the game. Any burst of indignation upon this discovery would have affected
      me less than the silent contempt, or the sarcastic composure,
      with which it was received. “Mr. Wilson,” said our host, stooping to remove from beneath his
      feet an exceedingly luxurious cloak of rare furs, “Mr. Wilson,
      this is your property.” (The weather was cold; and, upon quitting
      my own room, I had thrown a cloak over my dressing wrapper,
      putting it off upon reaching the scene of play.) “I presume it is
      supererogatory to seek here (eyeing the folds of the garment with
      a bitter smile) for any farther evidence of your skill. Indeed,
      we have had enough. You will see the necessity, I hope, of
      quitting Oxford—at all events, of quitting instantly my
      chambers.”

      Abased, humbled to the dust as I then was, it is probable that I
      should have resented this galling language by immediate personal
      violence, had not my whole attention been at the moment arrested
      by a fact of the most startling character. The cloak which I had
      worn was of a rare description of fur; how rare, how
      extravagantly costly, I shall not venture to say. Its fashion,
      too, was of my own fantastic invention; for I was fastidious to
      an absurd degree of coxcombry, in matters of this frivolous
      nature. When, therefore, Mr. Preston reached me that which he had
      picked up upon the floor, and near the folding doors of the
      apartment, it was with an astonishment nearly bordering upon
      terror, that I perceived my own already hanging on my arm, (where
      I had no doubt unwittingly placed it,) and that the one presented
      me was but its exact counterpart in every, in even the minutest
      possible particular. The singular being who had so disastrously
      exposed me, had been muffled, I remembered, in a cloak; and none
      had been worn at all by any of the members of our party with the
      exception of myself. Retaining some presence of mind, I took the
      one offered me by Preston; placed it, unnoticed, over my own;
      left the apartment with a resolute scowl of defiance; and, next
      morning ere dawn of day, commenced a hurried journey from Oxford
      to the continent, in a perfect agony of horror and of shame. I fled in vain. My evil destiny pursued me as if in exultation,
      and proved, indeed, that the exercise of its mysterious dominion
      had as yet only begun. Scarcely had I set foot in Paris ere I had
      fresh evidence of the detestable interest taken by this Wilson in
      my concerns. Years flew, while I experienced no relief. Villain!—at Rome, with how untimely, yet with how spectral an
      officiousness, stepped he in between me and my ambition! At
      Vienna, too—at Berlin—and at Moscow! Where, in truth, had I not
      bitter cause to curse him within my heart?