We took care to give no _pourboire_ in advance; but what with the
inevitable dilatoriness of the people down in these parts, it was after
seven o'clock before we left the Hercules-Bad, and we had fifty miles to
drive.
Not even the ten hours of undisturbed consecutive repose in the downy
bed at the Mehadia hotel had made up the deficiency of sleep during the
foregoing week, and drowsiness overcame us. I think we must have had a
couple of hours of monotonous jog-trot on the fairly level road when I
fell asleep, and I suppose my companions did the same.
I must have slept long and profoundly, for when I woke, pulling myself
together with some difficulty, having slept in the form of a doubled-up
zigzag, I found it was daylight. I was surprised that we were not
moving; I rubbed my eyes, and looked out at the back of the cart, and
there I saw a round tower on a slight eminence, encircled by a belt of
fir-wood, the very counterpart of a pretty bit of scenery I had noticed
in the twilight. I looked again, and sure enough it was just the tower
itself and no other, and the very same belt of wood. The explanation was
not far to seek. I was the first to wake up in our "fast coach." Every
mortal soul--and there were five of us, besides the four horses--had, it
seems, gone to sleep much about the same time that I did. The magic
sleep of eld must have fallen upon us. The simple fact was, we had
passed the night in the middle of the highroad.
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