We Were Received With Open
Arms, And A Suggestion Was At Once Made That We Were No Doubt
Picking Up News For European Newspapers.
"Air you a son of the Mrs.
Trollope?" said the correspondent.
"Then, sir, you are an accession
to Rolla." Upon which I was made to sit down, and invited to "loaf
about" at the headquarters as long as I might remain at Rolla.
Shortly, however, there came on a violent discussion about wagons.
A general had come in and wanted all the colonel's wagons, but the
colonel swore that he had none, declared how bitterly he was impeded
with sick men, and became indignant and reproachful. It was Brutus
and Cassius again; and as we felt ourselves in the way, and anxious
moreover to ascertain what might be the nature of the Rolla hotel,
we took up our heavy portmanteaus - for they were heavy - and with a
guide to show us the way, started off through the dark and over the
hill up to our inn. I shall never forget that walk. It was up hill
and down hill, with an occasional half-frozen stream across it. My
friend was impeded with an enormous cloak lined with fur, which in
itself was a burden for a coalheaver. Our guide, who was a clerk
out of the colonel's office, carried an umbrella and a small
dressing-bag, but we ourselves manfully shouldered our portmanteaus.
Sydney Smith declared that an Englishman only wasted his time in
training himself for gymnastic aptitudes, seeing that for a shilling
he could always hire a porter.
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