In Alexander Pushkin's short story The Queen of Spades, the Comte de Saint-Germain teaches a Russian noble woman a magical gambling technique which will never fail. Though the Comte is only mentioned in passing, Pushkin clearly includes him as a sort of Bogey-man, a mystical figure which will be accepted, but not entirely believed by the reader.
”My grandmother did not know what to do. She had shortly before become acquainted with a very remarkable man. You have heard of Count St. Germain, about whom so many marvelous stories are told. You know that he represented himself as the Wandering Jew, as the discoverer of the elixir of life, of the philosopher's stone, and so forth. Some laughed at him as a charlatan; but Casanova, in his memoirs, says that he was a spy. But be that as it may, St. Germain, in spite of the mystery surrounding him, was a very fascinating person, and was much sought after in the best circles of society. Even to this day my grandmother retains an affectionate recollection of him, and becomes quite angry if anyone speaks disrespectfully of him. My grandmother knew that St. Germain had large sums of money at his disposal. She resolved to have recourse to him, and she wrote a letter to him asking him to come to her without delay. The queer old man immediately waited upon her and found her overwhelmed with grief. She described to him in the blackest colours the barbarity of her husband, and ended by declaring that her whole hope depended upon his friendship and amiability.
St. Germain reflected.
”'I could advance you the sum you want,' said he; 'but I know that you would not rest easy until you had paid me back, and I should not like to bring fresh troubles upon you. But there is another way of getting out of your difficulty: you can win back your money.'
Then he revealed a secret, for which each of us would give a good deal...”
The Queen of Spades was originally published in 1833. This excerpt is from a pretty good modern edition, translated by T. Keane in 1916. The translation is currently published by Dover Books in The Queen of Spades and Other Stories (ISBN 0-486-28054-3).
CST Approved, 4/17/06.