advice, and was told to try number 24. No sooner said than done,
and 24 came up in due course, whereby Mdlle L. C. won 140 odd
gulden in two coups, the amount risked by her being exactly four
florins. Like a wise girl, she walked off with her booty, and
played no more that day at Roulette. A few minutes later I saw
an Englishman go through the performance of losing four thousand
francs by experimentalizing on single numbers. Twenty times
running did he set ten louis-d'ors on a number (varying the
number at each stake), and not one of his selection proved
successful. At the "Thirty and Forty" I saw an eminent
diplomatist win sixty thousand francs with scarcely an
intermission of failure; he played all over the table, pushing
his rouleaux backwards and forwards, from black to red, without
any appearance of system that I could detect, and the cards
seemed to follow his inspiration. It was a great battle; as
usual, three or four smaller fish followed in his wake, till they
lost courage and set against him, much to their discomfiture and
the advantage of the bank; but from first to last--that is, till
the cards ran out, and he left the table--he was steadily
victorious. In the evening he went in again for another heavy
bout, at which I chanced to be present; but fortune had forsaken
him; and he not only lost his morning's winnings, but eight
thousand francs to boot. I do not remember to have ever seen the
tables so crowded--outside it was thundering, lightening, and
raining as if the world were coming to an end, and the whole
floating population of Wiesbaden was driven into the Kursaal by
the weather. A roaring time of it had the bank; when play
was over, about which time the rain ceased, hundreds of hot and
thirsty gamblers streamed out of the reeking rooms to the glazed-
in terrace, and the next hour, always the pleasantest of the