Suddenly the Croupier sprang from his seat, threw off his loose outer coat, and displayed the well-known uniform of an Officer in Her Majesty's Royal Shropshire Yeomanry Carabineers. All the other Croupiers did the same. Astonishment and dismay were depicted on the countenances of the players. "Gentlemen," said the Croupier, "I am sorry to say you are all my prisoners. Resist, and you will be shot without mercy!" "But I had just staked twenty thousand Louis on the black!" ejaculated a bewildered Gaul. "You have lost your stake, Monsieur," replied the Croupier, with politeness. "It is red, not black;" and, in a moment, all the English visitors who thronged the rooms had also thrown off _their_ overcoats, and the hall was filled with red-coats. "Treachery! _Perfide Alb_----" the Gaul shouted; but ere he could rise from his seat to give the alarm to the Toulon garrison, as he had fully intended doing, a hundred swords (made in Birmingham) had passed simultaneously through his body. Their stakes fell from the trembling hands of the players. "Then are we to understand," asked another Frenchman, who had somewhat recovered from the first shock of surprise, "that the English Government has suppressed Sablettes-les-Bains because it disapproves of the game of _Petits-Chevaux_?" "Not at all," replied the Croupier-Officer. "It is a military _coup-de-main_, that's all. The English company running this place, was, of course, in the pay of the British War Office. By a prearranged system of signals we have been making known everything that is going on at Toulon to the British Admiral out at sea. You may perhaps have noticed what an extremely large orchestra took part in last night's free classical concert; they were English marines disguised as musicians. And the gardens attached to the Casino, which rival those of Monte Carlo, what do you think those grassy slopes crowned with olives and orange-trees are in reality? Why, the artfully-contrived glacis of the impregnable fortress inside which you are now standing, and which I have the honour to command!" Just then the booming of cannon was heard outside. "It is our guns playing on the defences of Toulon!" exclaimed the Officer. "Toulon is ours!" And the treacherous Britons, having cleared the tables of the five-franc pieces still remaining on them, proceeded, with the aid of the Germans and Italians, to the dismemberment of France. * * * * * Nautical Economy. ["It is no use our building ships without the men to man them."--_Times' Correspondent._] PROVERB suggested by the above:--"Do not spoil the ship for a pound of tar." * * * * * NOVEL PROCEEDING.--New Issue, _Japhet in Search of Something Farther_. By MARRIOTT. * * * * * LAW AND JUSTICE _v._ DUTY "DONE." (_An Imaginary Conversation._) SCENE--_Opposite the Griffin_. TIME--_The present day_. _Enter two well-known personages._