an air of the utmost nonchalance, I thrust the card into my pocket, saying, "Ah, Count Weiler! pray conduct him to me when he calls again," and sauntered away to my stable-corner, to keep my charger company, and listen to the music of his munching; while the servant followed the lady into the front room, evidently to report the position of affairs. In a few minutes there came a loud ring at the bell, and, on the door being opened, Count Weiler inquired if Baron von Stein had returned. With an obsequious air, the lackey answered in the affirmative, and requested the count to walk into the Gesellschaftszimmer, and wait till he had announced his arrival to the baron. But the count most condescendingly declared he would seek me in my own apartments, and asked to be conducted thither. I accordingly received Count Weiler, alias the Weiszkopf, at my stable-door, with a hearty greeting, but many regrets that I had not better quarters to receive him in; and then grumbled at my unlucky lot; was sure my servants had better quarters in the villages, &c., &c.

The count shrugged his shoulders, and, glancing with a contemptuous air over the stable and the servant, said,

But where are you to sleep? Not in the manger I hope, eh?” "There is my spacious apartment," I replied, throwing open the door of the "chamber" before mentioned.

"Lieber Himmel! you are joking. You don't mean to say that they have given you that cupboard for a bedroom? It is perfectly ridiculous." "No less true than ridiculous. It is remarkably strange, that in their large house they can't find me better quarters than these."

"Strange!-ah! vraiment-ridicule, trop ridicule! By the beard of the Prophet! my dear baron, there must be some monstrous misunderstanding here. They cannot, surely, mean to insult you, eh?"

During this deceptive colloquy, the astonished footman, his eyes wandering from one to the other with a stare of stupefaction, stood all agape at the stable-door. His thoughts seemed to have taken leave for a time of all mundane matters, and having flown into our baronies, to be held there by some unseen agency, which prevented them from returning to the more plebeian purlieus of Herr von Querfurth's stables. When his wits were ultimately restored to their proper locality, he made an awkward bow, muttered something about "a mistake," said he would inform the Herrschaft, and left us.

"It is done," said the Weiszkopf. "Come, take my arm; we will have a walk, and if you haven't comfortable rooms by the time we return, confound it! I'll rub down every horse in the battery to-morrow morning."

Gesagt, gethan. I took his arm, and we marched through the house into the street. On passing the door through which the lady had disappeared, Count Weiler remarked, in a drawling tone, aping most successfully that hybrid lingo and peculiar twang which is affected by the good citizens of Berlin

"Ja, baron-ma foi! sehr ridicule! sehr ridicule !"

We loitered about the town till it was nearly dusk; and then, parting with the count, I returned to my quarters, to see how his predictions would be verified. On entering the house I was proceeding forthwith to

any

my closet, when the footman interposed, and begged me to follow him up-stairs, where an apartment had been prepared for me; they had made a sad mistake; hoped I would excuse them, and so forth. I made but brief responses to all his apologies, as I felt that elaborate attempt to sustain the hoax so ably commenced by my audacious comrade would inevitably prove fatal to my risible nerves in their excited condition, and produce a cachinnatory explosion, which might seriously endamage both our reputations. I was then led into a handsomely-furnished room, where, on a small table, stood two candles, flanked on either side by a plethoric bottle of Rheinwein, and surrounded by all the paraphernalia of an excellent supper, the principal dishes only waiting my arrival to make their appearance. Supper was then served, and I set to work with the appetite of a trooper, speedily transubstantiating a tolerable share of the viands that were placed before me, and tossing off bumpers to the health of my useful friend, Count Weiler, who, soon after I had despatched the supper, rejoined me, and assisted to dispose of the Hochheimer which his felicitous ingenuity had procured for me.

A CHAPTER ON GAMBLING.

VERY little doubt can be entertained that gambling is rapidly falling from its pristine eminence in the fashionable world: we seldom or never hear of thousands being now lost at a sitting; and those of the present generation can scarcely credit all that is said or written of the doings of their forefathers, or that whole estates were set on the hazard of a game of picquet, as a certain Irish writer veraciously informs us. Railway coupons have usurped the place of the cue and the dice-box, and the greedy passion finds an outlet in Capel Court. We do not for a moment mean to assert that gambling is dying away-the countless bettinglists in town and country furnish a melancholy proof of the widelyextended contagion-but still we do say that its very universality has brought it out of fashion, and that it is not regarded with that indulgence it formerly claimed, but is rather looked upon as the "dernier ressort" of the hard-up man about town.

Such being the case, it may cause our readers some surprise, on referring to the heading of this paper, to find it termed a chapter on gambling. Let them not expect any piquant details of English folly, or a peep behind the scenes of Club life. We have no wish to lay bare the secrets of our own land; and, indeed, too much has already been written on the subject; be it our task to give an account of the doings in foreign countries, and for this purpose we must ask them to accompany us across the Channel.

After the villanous dens in the Palais Royal were rooted out, the proprietors, who found the business much too profitable to be tamely resigned, turned their gaze beyond the Rhine, where a fair field for their exertions in the pursuit of a livelihood presented itself. After

many weary negotiations with the several governments, a company of banquiers, with M. Chabert at their head, simultaneously opened their establishments at Baden-Baden, Wisbaden, and Ems. It was a very hard contest between the Regents and the Frenchmen before the terms were finally settled, and they had to expend much money and many promises in getting a footing. But they eventually succeeded, and a few years saw their efforts richly rewarded. As they had a monopoly, they could do pretty much as they pleased, and made very stringent and profitable regulations relative to the "aprés" and other methods of gaining a pull. On the retirement of M. Chabert with an immense fortune, the company was dissolved, and M. Benazet became ostensibly sole proprietor of the rooms at Baden-Baden. The terms to which he had to subscribe were sufficient to frighten any one less enterprising than the general of an army of croupiers: he was compelled to expend 150,000 florins in decorating the rooms and embellishing the walks round the town; and an annual sum of 50,000 florins was furthermore demanded, for permission to keep the establishment open for six months in the year. The company, which leased Wisbaden and Ems, was treated much in the same manner, but still they progressed most successfully, till they were frightened from their propriety by Monsieur le Blanc. This gentleman, after struggling against immense opposition on the part of the Frankfort merchants, who were naturally alarmed at the danger to which their "commis" and cash-boxes were exposed by the proximity of a gambling-table, obtained a concession from the Elector of Hessen to establish a bank at Homburg-an-der-Höhe, which he speedily promulgated to the world, with the additional attraction of being open all the year round, and only a "trente et un aprés" for the players to contend against. Some time after, Wilhelmsbad was opened as a rival to Homburg, with no "aprés" at all, and the above mentioned, with the addition of Aix-la-Chapelle and Cöthen, form the principal establishments where " strangers are taken in and done for" through Germany.

The games universally played are rouge et noir" and "roulette," the former also denominated "trente et quarante," though both titles insufficiently explain the tendency of the game, especially as "noir" never has any part or parcel in the affair, all being regulated by "rouge" winning or losing. The appointments are simple in the extreme: a long table, covered with green cloth, divided into alternate squares marked with red and black "carreaux," and two divisions for betting on or against the "couleur," three packs of cards, half a dozen croupiers armed with rakes, and a quantity of rouleaus and smaller coin constituting the whole matériel. A croupier commences the pleasing game by dealing a quantity of cards till he arrives at any number above thirty (court-cards counting as ten), when he begins a second row, the first representing "noir," the other "rouge." The "couleur" is determined by the first card turned up. The two great pulls in favour of the bank are, first, the "aprés”—that is, when the two rows amount to the same number, and the croupier calls out, "Et trente trois," or any other number "aprés," the stakes are impounded, and can only be released by paying half the money down, or else by the same colour winning; and secondly-the chief thing-the

bank never loses its temper. As a martingale, or continual doubling of the stakes after losing, would infallibly cause a player to win in the end, there is a law in force that no stake can exceed three hundred louis-d'or without the permission of the banque: a permission it very rarely grants, except in extreme cases, as, for instance, at Homburg, when the Belgians so nearly broke the bank; but then it was conquer or die." The lowest amount allowed to be staked is a two florin piece. The expression, “V'la banque !" which we so frequently hear quoted, has its origin from this game. After a player has passed, that is, won, on the same colour two or three times consecutively, the croupier, to prevent any possible dispute, asks whether he wishes to risk the whole of the money down; if he intends to do so he employs the above cabalistic formula.

one

Roulette is a very much more complicated affair; for this, a table is required with a basin in the centre, containing a spiral tube with an orifice at the top, through which the ball passes, and falls into one of the thirty-eight holes in the basin, which are respectively marked with figures, and alternately painted red and black. There are four projecting pieces of iron, one of which the croupier twirls, crying, "Faites votre jeu, messieurs;" when he says, "Le jeu est fait, rien n'va plus," no more money can be put down. In the middle of the table are the numbers, from one to thirty-six, going regularly downwards, in three rows, while at the head of them are the two "zeros "-rouge single and noir double. On either side of the numbers are three divisions; on hand, marked "rouge, impair et passe," on the other, "noir, pair et manque." Besides these, there are three compartments at the end of the columns, for the purpose of backing the numbers contained in the column; and three others on each side of the numbers, in which to bet on the first, second, or third series of twelve. The odds are regulated in the following fashion. If a player back a single number, he receives thirty-five times the amount of his stake, in the event of its coming up; if he back three at once, he only gets eleven times; if six, only five times the amount. For either of the other compartments he receives, if he gain, the simple amount of his stake, with the exception of the divisions at the end of the columns, and the series of twelve, when he receives double if he win, as the odds are two to one against him. The banque has a most iniquitous advantage in the two zeros, which are calculated to recur once in nineteen times: if the single rouge turn up, they sack all the money, except that placed on the red; if double zero, they take all.

The amount of the stakes at roulette is limited to two hundred louisd'or on a colour, and six on a single number; the lowest stake allowed is a florin. Though it may be supposed that a run at "trente et quarante" would be a much more likely occurrence than at roulette-and, indeed, we can remember at the former game the "noir" passing twoand-twenty times, though no one had the courage to take advantage of such an extraordinary circumstance-yet it is a very frequent thing at roulette for the ball to have a predilection for a certain series of numbers-probably through the croupier twisting the machine with the same force each time-and on such occasions a good deal of money may be won by a careful observer. One young Englishman, who was perfectly

ignorant of the game, we saw at Wisbaden place a five-franc piece on the last series of twelve, and he left his money down six times, winning double the amount of his stake every turn. He then discovered the money was his, by the croupier asking him if he wished to stand on the whole sum; but he never gave the banque another chance, for he picked up, and quickly went off with it.

it

Every player at roulette seems to have a different system: some powder the numbers with florins or five-franc pieces, in the hope of one coming up out of them; others speculate merely on the rouge or noir. One Spaniard at Ems, we remember, made a very comfortable living at it by a method of playing he had invented. He placed three louis-d'or on the manque, which contains all the numbers to eighteen, and two louis on the last series of twelve; that is, from twenty-four to thirtysix. Thus he had only six numbers and two zeros against him. If manque gained, he won three louis and lost two; if a number in the last twelve came up, he won four and lost three; but a continuation of zeros would have ruined his calculation. Some, again, back the run, others play against it; a very favourite scheme, and one generally successful, being to bet against a colour after it has passed three times : but then, again, there is no law on the subject, and a man may lose heavily in spite of the utmost caution. In short, the best plan by far would be, if play one must, to stick to "rouge et noir," which bears some semblance of fairness.

The habitués of the rooms are well known to the croupiers. At BadenBaden we had for many years the old ex-Elector of Hesse, who made his money by selling his soldiers to England at so much a head, like cattle, during the American war, and who was easily to be recognised by the gold-headed and coroneted rake he always had in his hand. He was, indeed, a most profitable customer to Monsieur Benazet. But, alas! the superior attractions of Homburg led him away, and we never saw him again in Baden: the revolution of 1848 frightened, or angered, him to death. Wisbaden boasts of a banker from Amsterdam, who usually plays on credit that is to say, he pockets his winnings, but, if he loses, borrows money of the banquier, squaring his account, which is generally a heavy one, at the end of the week; and an English baronet, who always brings a lozenge box with him, which, when he has filled, he retires with; and this he frequently contrives to accomplish, for he possesses his own luck, and that of some one else in the bargain. Ems is the principal resort of Russians, who play fearfully high, and a good deal of private gambling is done there on the quiet; while Aix-la-Chapelle appears only destined as a trap for incautious travellers, many of whom, in consequence, never see the Rhine, and return to England with very misty ideas about Germany.

Aix-la-Chapelle will never be erased from our memory, on account of a most ludicrous scene which happened on our first visit to Germany. Being unacquainted with German at the time, and our French being of the sort which Chaucer calls "French of Bow," we had selected one of our party, who boasted of his knowledge of most foreign tongues, and installed him as "Dolmetscher." His first experiment was in ordering supper, which he proceeded to do in something he was pleased to call German. "Plait-il, M'nsieu?" said the waiter.

The order was repeated.