EAELY SPOET. 65 



failed to cany the Englishmen off their legs, 

 the princes beat an orderly retreat, and the 

 besieo^ed were allowed to retire with all the 

 honours of war, i.e., the waiter lighted them 

 up to their rooms still sober enough to get 

 their boots off. 



So ended the night ; but the dawn had 

 hardly commenced when the sound of wheels 

 in the street below and tram23ling of feet 

 by our bedsides roused us unceremoniously 

 from our slumbers. There they were again, 

 like nightmares before our sleepy vision, the 

 Prince and his companions, looking as fresh as 

 paint, in full sporting costume, with rifles in 

 hand — men, carriao:es, and doers all below in 

 the street — begging us to tumble as speedily 

 as possible into our clothes and come down to 

 the street, where their people were waiting to 

 drive us to covert. Already, they urged, we 

 were almost too late. The dawn would be 

 visible in the sky in a few more minutes, the 



VOL. I. F 



