column--you have
your own stake and two others;--if you have betted on either of these
three eventualities, _douze premier, douze milieu_, or _douze dernier_,
otherwise "first dozen," "middle dozen," or "last dozen," as one
to twelve, thirteen to twenty-four, twenty-five to thirty-six, all
inclusive, and have chanced to select _douze dernier_, the division in
which No. 29 occurs, you also obtain a treble stake, namely, your own
and two more which the bank pays you, your florin or your five-pound
note--benign fact!--metamorphosed into three. But, woe to the wight
who should have ventured on the number "eight," on the red colour
(compartment with a crimson lozenge), on "even," and on "not past
the Rubicon;" for twenty-nine does not comply with any one of these
conditions. He loses, and his money is coolly swept away from him by the
croupier's rake. With reference to the last chances I enumerated in the
last paragraph, I should mention that the number _EIGHT_ would lie in
the second column--there being three columns,--and in the first dozen
numbers.

'There are more chances, or rather subdivisions of chances, to entice
the player to back the "numbers;" for these the stations of the ball are
as capricious as womankind; and it is, of course, extremely rare that a
player will fix upon the particular number that happens to turn up. But
he may place a piece of money _a cheval_, or astride, on the line which
divides two numbers, in which case (either of the numbers turning up)
he receives sixteen times his stake. He may place it on the cross lines
that divide four numbers, and, if either of the four wins, he will
receive eight times the amount of his stake. A word as to _Zero_. Zero
is designated by the compartment close to the wheel's diameter, and
zero, or blank, will turn up, on an average, about once in seventy
times. If you have placed money in zero, and the ball seeks that haven,
you will receive thirty-three times your stake.'

The twin or elder brother of _Roulette_, played at Hombourg, _Rouge et
Noir_, or _Trente et Quarante_, is thus described by Mr Sala:--

'There is the ordinary green-cloth covered table, with its brilliant
down-coming lights. In the centre sits the banker, gold and silver in
piles and _rouleaux_, and bank-notes before him. On either hand, the
croupier, as before, now wielding the rakes and plying them to bring
in the money, now balancing them, now shouldering them, as soldiers do
their muskets,