many. He has made his travellers play at the tables, in simple candour, and simply because, in the course of the three visits he has paid to Hombourg, he has observed that nine-tenths of the English visitors to the Kursaal do so play. And, while repudiating any graver general “purpose” than that of amusing, he has endeavoured to deduce from the adventures of his shadowy tourists a tiny scrap of morality, to the effect that the moths who flutter round the garish lamps at the Kursaal of Hombourg-von-der-Höhe, and its kindred Hades, almost invariably singe their wings; and that the chances at Roulette and Rouge generally turn out edged tools, with which those incautious enough to play with them are apt to cut their fingers, sometimes very dangerously. London, September, 1860. CONTENTS. PAGE From Mayence, alias Castel, by Hockheim, to Frankfort- Of the divers heavy blows and great discouragements undergone by the Stout Gentleman, the Slim Gentle- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 5 22 23 27 . 44 45 47 Frontispiece-The Roulette Table, Hombourg Kursaal. with the Iron Chest dreadful cough !”. 54 . 55 59 68 69 72 73 . |