In The Morning, I Was Seized
With A Dangerous Fit Of Hooping-Cough, Which Terrified My Wife,
Alarmed My People, And Brought The Whole Community Into The
House.
I had undergone just such another at Paris, about a year
before.
This forenoon, one of our coach wheels flew off in the
neighbourhood of Ancisa, a small town, where we were detained
above two hours by this accident; a delay which was productive of
much disappointment, danger, vexation, and fatigue. There being
no horses at the last post, we were obliged to wait until those
which brought us thither were sufficiently refreshed to proceed.
Understanding that all the gates of Florence are shut at six,
except two that are kept open for the accommodation of
travellers; and that to reach the nearest of these gates, it was
necessary to pass the river Arno in a ferry-boat, which could not
transport the carriage; I determined to send my servant before
with a light chaise to enter the nearest gate before it was
shut, and provide a coach to come and take us up at the side of
the river, where we should be obliged to pass in the boat: for I
could not bear the thoughts of lying another night in a common
cabaret. Here, however, another difficulty occurred. There was
but one chaise, and a dragoon officer, in the imperial troops,
insisted upon his having bespoke it for himself and his servant.
A long dispute ensued, which had like to have produced a quarrel:
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