f being open all the year round, and only a
"trente et un apres" for the players to contend against. Some time
after, Wilhelmsbad was opened as a rival to Homburg, with no "apres" at
all, and the above mentioned, with the addition of Aix-la-Chapelle and
Coethen, 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 _materiel_. 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 favor of
the bank are, first, the "apres"--that is, when the two rows amount to
the same number, and the croupier calls out, "Et trente trois," or any
other number "apres,"--the stakes are impounded, and can only be
released by paying half the money down, or else by the same color
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 color 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