bank. One case was, however, not invented;
it occurred in the year 1859, and in that year
the shareholders got only a dividend of thirty
per cent, instead of forty. The fortunate man
was one of the Bonaparte princes. He came to
Homburg when assisting at a scientific meeting
in Wiesbaden. He lost, at trente-et-un,
about twenty thousand francs: when, leaving the
saloon, he felt in his pocket three twenty-franc
pieces, and put them à cheval on three different
chances on the roulette. In an hour's time he
was the winner of thirty thousand francs, and
went to breakfast with his adjutant. Before
sitting down, the adjutant said to the prince, " I
am certain you will lose all again before even-
ing." The prince offered a bet of one thousand
francs that he would win eight thousand francs
before his friend finished his cutlet. It was
accepted. The prince returned to the trente-et-un,
and asked one of the croupiers, jokingly,
" Well, which will it be, red or black?" " Well,
red or—" "Right, you said red," replied
the prince, and staked eight thousand francs
upon the colour. He won the stake and
his bet. In the evening the prince won sixty
thousand francs. The next day he was following
his run of good luck. The whole neighbourhood
was in the greatest agitation, for there
never had been such a run of luck before. The
prince came off a winner of seven hundred
thousand francs, and left when the bank thought it
wise to reduce the maximum by half. Out of
his winnings he released four Frenchmen from
prison and paid their debts; he gave twenty
thousand francs to the poor in Homburg, and
took with him twenty thousand pounds.
General Haynau won also one hundred thousand
florins.

Such exceptional cases do a good deal of
mischief. Sometimes the bank thinks it wise
to get rid of a too lucky fellow. He is, before
lie knows how it was brought about, entangled in
a quarrel in the saloon, and on that account
denied future admission. Or the quarrel occurs
outside, with one of the bullies of the bank, and
a duel is the result, or the police orders the
troublesome stranger to leave Homburg to
prevent a duel.

Among the noticeable visitors to Homburg
there has been an old French marquis, with one
of his yellow skeleton hands always under the
table, and the other too, as often as he could
spare it. In this one hand he held a leaden
image of some saint, which he was eagerly
caressing with the other as long as the ivory
ball was running, or the cards dealing, or after a
good hit. There was an old Russian princess
resident in the place who, playing constantly
and at random, left the bank its regular advantage
of the zeros in an average loss to it of
half her income, that is to say, of five-and-twenty
pounds a day. There was a ruined major,
who had gambled away four estates, praying
piously for luck, and denying to no beggar a
kreutzer, lest the want of charity might lead to
the Divine confounding of his game. There was
again a lady, once lady of honour to the Queen
of France, who, when retiring from her place,
took lodgings in a fashionable hotel of Homburg.
She kept a carriage and several servants, and
was reported rich by the spies of the bank. She
was compelled to part with her carriage at the
end of the first year; after the second year she
must part even with her chambermaid, and
remove to a less expensive hotel. However, she
did not part with her habit of gambling. After
another half-year all her resources were exhausted,
and nothing left but a pension of eight
pounds, which she received regularly from Paris
on the first day of each month.

This poor old lady was perfectly aware of her
folly, but she could neither desist from playing
nor decide to leave the place. When reduced to
her pension, she took a wretched room, containing
but a bed, a table, a chest of drawers, four
straw-bottomed chairs, and a looking-glass, and
agreed with her landlord to pay him in advance
fifty francs every month for lodging, board, and
a daily half-chopine of spirits. The remaining
one hundred and fifty francs were reserved for
the gambling-table. On the second day of the
month she took her place there, and began
punting with florin-pieces. Her pleasure lasted
generally four or five days. When the last florin
had been taken in by the raker, she was shut up
in her room, playing patience with cards and
drinking her allowance of spirits. She associated
with nobody, and never spoke about the play.

Commercial travellers here gamble away the
money of their firms; clerks rob their masters
to try their good luck at the bank; officers lose
the funds confided to their care; and it is said
that the bank was the cause of several deficits in
the treasury of the German Confederation in
Frankfort. Farmers and peasants, attracted by
the hope to gain a few florins without trouble,
lose what they have earned by hard work during
years.

Suicides are numerous, although the bankers
do all they can either to prevent such cases
or to conceal them when occurring. Having
ascertained by their spies that some poor
fellow is desperate, they give him the means to
pay his bill, if not too heavy, and to carry away
his despair to any other place. When these
spies find a poor wretch hanging in the park, the
body is removed by their friends in the police, and
the incident kept secret as much as possible. If
there are witnesses, money is placed in the
pockets of the suicide, in order to prove that he
did not kill himself in consequence of gambling,
although it may indeed look suspicious enough,
to find a thousand-franc note in the pocket of a
man who has just pawned his watch for a few
florins. Very often, even the inhabitants of the
little town are not able to ascertain the circumstances
attending such a case, and the papers do
not publish them.

A person in Homburg had not only lost his
fortune and place, but also funds trusted to him.
He resolved to enter the saloon of the bank with
two loaded pistols in his pocket. As soon as he
had lost his last florin he intended to kill with
one pistol the " chef de partie," and with the