his character, forgetting to mention, however, the
provocation he had given by the fraudulent charge for greasing. Having
finished his peroration, he proceeded to call witnesses to the fact of
the abuse, and cited Hans Felder, our postilion, to be first examined.
Hans, who had heard every syllable that passed, was not, however, so
manageable a subject as the plaintiff expected to find him. Whether,
like Toby Allspice in the play, he 'made it a rule never to disoblige
a customer;' or whether, which was not unlikely, he owed Karl Gurtler
a grudge, either for stopping him on his route, or for some previous
disagreement with that conscientious public functionary; or whether,
which was likeliest of all, he feared to compromise his claim for
_trinkgeld_ from the highborn, gracious gentlemen he had the honour of
driving, I cannot pretend to determine. Certain it is, that when
brought to the bar, he had heard nothing, and seen nothing, and knew
nothing, and could recollect nothing, and say nothing, about the
business in hand; and nothing but nothing could be got out of him by a
single member of the bench, though all took him in hand by turns. He
was finally sent down. By this time, so dilatory had been the
proceedings, the sun was sinking in the west. My companion, weary of
the prosecutor's long story, had withdrawn to the inn to order dinner.
As the second witness was about to give his testimony, a note was
handed to the old burgermeister, who, having given it a glance,
immediately adjourned the court till the next morning at nine o'clock.
The assembly broke up, and, returning to the inn, I found that the
proceedings had been stopped by the landlord, to save the reputation
of his cookery, which would have been endangered had the dinner waited
much longer. Having first consulted my fellow-traveller, he had
despatched directions to the judge to adjourn the case till the
morrow, who, like a good and obliging neighbour, had accordingly done
so.

The little town was unusually alive and excited that evening. Karl
Gurtler was the centre of an admiring circle, who soon enveloped him
in the incense of their meerschaums. He held a large levee in the
common room of the inn, where a succession of very terrific
battle-songs kept us up to a late hour, as it was of no use to think
of slumber during their explosion. The next morning, at the appointed
hour, the proceedings recommenced, and the remainder of the witnesses
were examined at full