A GERMAN AND AN ITALIAN. 335 



immediate cause will, I suppose, for ever remain 

 a mystery. Accident, however, brought matters 

 to a crisis. 



On arriving very late one night at the place 

 where we intended to sleep, we all agreed to be 

 ready to start at six o'clock the next morning. 

 Four of us occupied one room, while the Italian 

 and the German slept in another. About two 

 hours before the time we had agreed upon as the 

 hour of rising, we were awakened by our driver, the 

 Hungarian clown I have described, who came into 

 our room, told us that the Italian and German 

 were very anxious to proceed, and that we must 

 get up immediately. Now, telling an Englishman 

 he must do a thing, is just the very way to make 

 him resolutely determine that he will not ; accord- 

 ingly we four English at once vowed we would 

 not stir an inch before the appointed time. The 

 driver tried us again, then the waiter came, until 

 at last, having got rid of our persecutors by a 

 timely recourse to the school-boy argument of a 

 volley of shoes and boots thrown at them as they 

 entered the door, we bolted it on the inside, and 

 waited until the appointed time for our departure 

 arrived. Now this conduct on our part might very 



