CHAP. X.
I directed my route to Madrid, where I arrived fix days after I left the widow. Here I resolved to spend all the ready money and bills I had brought with me from my estate, in mirth and joviality. I soon launched into dissipation, amidst a large circle of nominal friends, and passed near a twelvemonth in a continual round of concerts, masquerades, balls, and at the first gaming tables of the metropolis. I had always been on my guard against the plans of professed gamesters, but fate would have it, one unlucky night, that my money should melt in the hands of some of that rascally tribe. I rose from the pharo-table with no more property than would suffice to defray my necessary expences for another week. Overwhelmed with shame and despair, I made preparations to leave Madrid, where all my effects were sold to pay the debts I had contracted. I intended to return
