Thus enabling the bank on average stakes of 611·55 francs to realise £1,245,008. But it must be remembered that it is only during the winter season that considerable play takes place at Monte Carlo. Also that before profits are declared the prince has to pocket his share, all the officials have to be paid, the police, the lighting, the gardens have to be kept going, and the scores of unacknowledged dependents on the Casino have to receive enough to maintain them. Every season a little book appears, advocating an infallible system, and some of these cost twenty-five francs. Of course, every system is based on the assumption that there is no trickery. But if there be trickery, not one of these systems is worth the cost of the book that advocates it. [Illustration: THE CONCERT HALL, MONTE CARLO] “Le rouge gagne quelque fois, le noir gagne quelque fois, le _blanc_ toujours.” A very good story is told by “V. B.” in _Monte Carlo Anecdotes_, London, 1901. A few years ago a nobleman attended the English chapel and slipped out as the hymn was being sung before the sermon, as he went for worship and not be bored with the discourse. Now the hymn was No. 32, Ancient and Modern. He sauntered up to the Casino whistling the tune, and as he entered the rooms he heard, “Trente-deux, rouge, pair et passe!” sung out from the table on his right; and then from that on his left, “Trente-deux, rouge, pair et passe.” “Bless my soul!” said he, “that is the number of the hymn; be hanged if I won’t stake on it.” He hurriedly felt in his pocket, and going to the third table he announced, “Trente-deux en plein, les quatres chevaux, et quatres carrés par cinq francs”; and up rolled the number. To make a long story short, by passing from table to table, and by constantly clinging to 32 with gradually increasing stakes, he left the rooms with over £500 in his pocket. But this got wind, and, to the perplexity of the chaplain, next Sunday half his congregation left the chapel during the hymn before the sermon and rushed off to the Casino to back the number of the hymn. After this it became the rule at the Monte Carlo English chapel never thenceforth to give out a number under thirty-seven before the sermon. On the promontory of La Veille at the water’s edge is a grotto. When Edward Augustus, Duke of York, brother to George III., was on his way to Italy on a man-of-war, feeling too ill to proceed he was landed at Monaco and received into the palace, where he died in 1767. The body was embalmed and taken to London.