The day before our expedition we were occupied with a few necessary
preparations. When these matters were settled to our satisfaction, we
went off in good time to secure a few hours' sleep, as we were to start
at four A.M.
F---- and I were up in capital time, eager for the day's work, and
anxious, moreover, not to keep the rest of the party waiting. There was
an Austrian general, however, amongst the number, and therefore we might
safely have slept another hour. The morning was very unpromising, the
rain descended in a dull persistent downpour. We tried to hope it was
the pride of the morning. The prospect was dreary enough to damp the
spirits of some of our party. One man found that urgent private affairs
called him hence; another averred he had an inflammatory sore throat. I
expected a third would say he had married a wife and could not come.
Happily, however, the weather cleared a little as the morning advanced,
and further desertions were arrested.
At length the whole party got off in sundry _leiterwagen_, a vehicle
which has no counterpart in England, and the literal rendering of a
ladder-waggon hardly conveys the proper notion of the thing itself. This
long cart, it is needless to say, is without springs; but it has the
faculty of accommodating itself to the inequalities of the road in a
marvellous manner. It has, moreover, a snake-like vertebrae, and even
twists itself when necessary.
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