seventy guineas to be off the bet. But his opponent declined, though the price offered was far beyond the real value of his chance. He cast yet once more and threw nine, so that Mr. Ogden won his guinea.
Commenting on this, Mr. Proctor says:
Now here we have an instance of a most remarkable series of throws, the like of which has never been recorded before or since. Before they had been made it might have been asserted that the throwing of nine successive sevens with a pair of dice was a circumstance which chance would never bring about; for experience was as much against such an event as it would seem to be against the turning up of a certain number ten successive times at roulette. Yet experience now shows that the thing is possible, and if we are to limit the action of chance we must assert that the throwing of seven ten times in succession is an event which will never happen.
The late Astronomer Royal of England, Prof. Airy, once devoted a considerable part of every day for a week to tossing pennies with special reference to coincidences. During the time he had a run of twenty-eight successive "tails." By the law of chance this could not occur more than once in many hundred millions of times.
I will present one more, which I think will justify the assertion that no coincidence more wonderful has been recorded. The article was found by me in an Italian paper while Louis Napoleon was in prison at Wilhelmshöhe.
THE LETTER M AND THE NAPOLEONS
Marbœuf was the first to recognize the genius of Napoleon at the École Militaire, Marengo was the greatest battle gained by Bonaparte, and Melas opened to him the way into Italy. Mortier was one of his first generals, Moreau betrayed him, and Murat was the first martyr in his cause. Marie Louise partook
