stands for _Zero_, number _Nothing_. Round the upper edge, too,
run a series of little brass hoops, or bridges, to cause the ball
to hop and skip, and not at once into the nearest compartment.
This is the regimen of Roulette. The banker sits before the
wheel,--a croupier, or payer-out of winnings to and raker in of
losses from the players, on either side. Crying in a voice
calmly sonorous, "_Faites le Jeu, Messieurs_,"--"Make your
game, gentlemen!" the banker gives the wheel a dexterous twirl,
and ere it has made one revolution, casts into its Maelstrom of
black and red an ivory ball. The interval between this and the
ball finding a home is one of breathless anxiety. Stakes are
eagerly laid; but at a certain period of the revolution the
banker calls out--"_Le Jeu est fait. Rien ne va plus_,"--
and after that intimation it is useless to lay down money.
Then the banker, in the same calm and impassable voice, declares
the result. It may run thus:--"_Vingt-neuf, Noir, Impair, et
Passe," "Twenty-nine, Black, Odd, and Pass the Rubicon_" (No.
18); or, "_Huit, Rouge, Pair, et Manque_," "Eight, Red, Even,
and _NOT_ Pass the Rubicon."

`Now, on either side of the wheel, and extending to the extremity
of the table, run, in duplicate, the schedule of _mises_ or
stakes. The green baize first offers just thirty-six square
compartments, marked out by yellow threads woven in the fabric
itself, and bearing thirty-six consecutive numbers. If you place
a florin (one and eight-pence)--and no lower stake is permitted--
or ten florins, or a Napoleon, or an English five-pound note, or
any sum of money not exceeding the maximum, whose multiple is the
highest stake which the bank, if it loses, can be made to pay, in
the midst of compartment 29, and if the banker, in that calm