being wearied, they strove to find some cottage where they
might sleep, but failed; and it was, therefore, determined to visit the
Falls, snatch a hasty meal, and return to Gottenborg the same evening.
Having beheld the awful cataract, and eaten their humble dinner, at set
of sun they started.

The moon was bright, and, not having climbed half way up the Heavens,
surety of her light was promised throughout the night. The strict
enforcement of the laws had cleared the roads of robbers, and no ill was
to be feared from bears or wolves, for the approach of summer had driven
these animals to the farthest highlands of the kingdom to seek for food
and coolness.

With minds at ease, then, and drowsy by the process of digestion, R----
and P----, hushed by the rolling of the carriage, fell fast asleep. The
night crept on, and the moon began to go down on the other side of the
sky, and, still, R---- and P---- slumbered; and, moreover, their
pleasant snores, invading the ears of King, accustomed only to the lusty
roar of ocean, soon enticed him with a stupefying influence from his
watchful attitude on the box, and laid his head in similar forgetfulness
on the shoulder of the coachman.

They might have slept for three hours, and King and the coachman for
two, when the unguided carriage gave a violent jolt, a loud creak, a
revolving motion, and fell, wheels uppermost, on the road-side. King
awoke in an instant, but too late to resist being plunged to the top of
a high, irritable bramble hedge that showed him no mercy, while R----
and P---- found themselves, in a state of perfect sensibility, on their
knees and hands in a dry but deep ditch, with the cushions, the empty
drawers, little pieces of old carpet, and all the other interior
appointments of their travelling carriage piled mysteriously on their
backs and the napes of their necks.

The riddle was soon solved. The horses being sensible of what was
restraint and what was not, felt the reins dangling about their hocks,
and, having had no food since they left their stables at Gottenborg,
walked to the wayside, and began to crop the grass; but, as mindless of
the vehicle at their tails, as desirous to swallow the green fare before
their eyes, they approached too near the gutter, and one wheel, sliding
plump into it, drew the other three wheels after, and immediately caused
the accident I have mentioned.

With its tributary streams, a branch of the river Gotha flows through
th