s daughter the real history of my case, to their unspeakable
astonishment, and consulted them as to my future operations. The
fisherman volunteered to land me at a small village a few miles below,
from whence he would proceed with me to K----, where, upon
representing my case to the magistrates, I should be furnished with
the means of getting back to B----, and recovering my property.

This, in fact, was the only thing I could do. I engaged the fisherman
to accompany me through the whole route; and as he had naturally no
desire to lose sight of me, he made no objection. I had slept thirteen
hours; and it was ten o'clock in the day, when the old man and I, and
his two lads, embarked in the boat for the nearest village. We arrived
there before noon, and he hired a conveyance in which we both
proceeded to the place he had mentioned, a distance of some twenty
miles, which we reached about three in the afternoon. But my companion
had no more of either money or credit, and I was compelled to apply to
the chief magistrate of the town, whom, by good-fortune, we found at
his private residence. He proved a good-natured but rather fussy old
gentleman; and when he had heard my story, which he interrupted with a
thousand demonstrations of horror, alarm, and sympathy, insisted upon
my sharing the hospitality of his house for the night, assuring me
that it would be impossible to proceed that day. I gave a reluctant
consent, upon his promising that he would put me in a condition to
start at an early hour in the morning. Hereupon, consigning my
companion to the charge of a servant, he ushered me into a saloon
adjoining his study, and introduced me to his family, consisting of
two grown-up sons, three daughters, and their mother, to whom I had to
tell my luckless adventures over again. That, however, was not the
worst of it. As the hour of dinner drew near, the house began to fill
with visitors: it was plain that my arrival, and the circumstances
connected with it, had been regularly advertised through the town, and
all the world was flocking to see the new 'lion' which the river had
turned up. And certainly a lion I was, as the play-bills have it, 'for
that night only.' I had to tell my story ten times over, and to submit
to questionings and cross-questionings without number. All this,
perhaps, was but natural enough, considering the circumstances; but it
occasioned me no small annoyance; and feigning excessive fatigue, for
which I had