fashioned window, and kept my eyes fixed upon our
travelling-carriage, from which the wearied horses had been removed,
and which stood but a few paces from where I sat. At the end of an
hour, my patron having satisfied his appetite, declined to wait any
longer, and proposed that we should proceed on our journey. It was my
office to discharge all accounts, and of course to check any attempt
at peculation which might be made. I summoned the innkeeper, whose
just demand was soon paid, and ordered the horses to be put to. This
was done in a few minutes, and the stable-man, as we walked out to the
carriage, came forward and presented his little bill. As I ran it
hastily over before paying it, I saw that the rascal had charged for
services which he had not rendered. With the design of making the most
of a chance-customer, he had put down in his account a charge for
greasing the wheels of the carriage. Now, as I had never taken my eyes
from the carriage during the whole period of our stay, I could not be
deceived in the conviction that this was a fraud. True, it was the
merest trifle in the world; but the fellow who wanted to exact it was
the model of an ugly, impudent, and barefaced rogue, and therefore I
resolved not to pay him. Throwing him the money, minus the attempted
imposition, I told him to consider himself fortunate that he had got
that, which was more than such a rogue-_schurke_ was the word I
used--deserved.

'Do you call me a rogue?' said he.

'Certainly; a rogue is your right name,' I replied, and sprang into
the carriage.

'Ho! ho!' said he; 'that is against the law. Hans Felder,' he bawled
to the postilion, 'I charge you not to move; the horses may be led
back to the stable: the gracious gentleman has called me a rogue.
Stiefel, run for the police: the gracious gentleman says I am a rogue.
I will cite him before the council.'

It was in vain that I put my head out of the window, and bawled to the
postilion to proceed. He was evidently afraid to move. In a few
minutes a crowd began to collect around us, and in less than a quarter
of an hour half the inhabitants of the place had assembled in front of
the inn. The noise of a perfect Babel succeeded in an instant to the
dull silence of the quiet town. I soon gathered from the vehement
disputes that arose on all sides, that the populace were about equally
divided into two parties. The more reasonable portion were for
allowing us to proceed on our journey, and t