Note 184 — C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE (continued 3)
Reading edition
Note 184:
(retour)
Voici le texte anglais de ce singulier engagement, dont nous conservons, dit M. Gaullieur, l'original écrit sur une carte (un valet de coeur), et dûment signé. Pour qui connaît la vie ultérieure de Benjamin Constant, la pièce a tout son prix: «By all that is deemed honorable and sacred, by the value I set upon the esteem of my acquaintance, by the gratitude I owe to my father, by the advantages of birth, fortune and education, which distinguish a gentleman from a rogue, a gambler and a blackguard, by the rights I have to the friendship of Isabella and the share I have in it, I hereby pledge myself, never to play at any chance game, nor at any game, unless forced by a lady, from this present date to the 1st of january 1793: which promise if I break, I confess myself a rascal, a liar, and a villain, and will tamely submit to be called so by every man that meets me.—Brunswick, the 19th of march 1788.
«H. B. DE CONSTANT.»