I now asked the Wallack in German if he could drive me to Oravicza, for
I saw he had made up his mind to drive me somewhere. To my relief I
found he could speak German, at all events a few words. He replied he
could drive the "high and nobly born Excellency" there in four hours.
The time was one thing, but the charge was quite another affair. His
demand was so outrageous that I supposed it was an implied compliment to
my exalted rank: certainly it had no adequate reference to the services
offered. The fellow asked enough to buy the whole concern outright--cart
and four horses! They were the smallest horses I almost ever saw, and
were further reduced by the nearest shave of being absolute skeletons;
the narrow line between sustaining life and actual starvation must have
been nicely calculated.
We now entered upon the bargaining phase, a process which threatened to
last some time; all the stragglers in the place assisted at the
conference, taking a patriotic interest in their own countryman. The
matter was finally adjusted by the Wallack agreeing to take a sixth part
of the original sum.
Seated on a bundle of hay, with my things around me, I was now quite
ready for the start, but the driver had a great many last words with the
public, which the interest in our proceedings had gathered about us.
Presently with an air of triumph he took his seat, gave a loud crack or
two with his whip, and off we started at a good swinging trot, just to
show what his team could accomplish.
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