However, As I Wished To Let The Boy, Who Went
Forward To Order The Horses, Get Considerably The Start Of Me, I
Bridled In My Impatience.
This precaution was unavailing, for after the three first posts I
had to wait two hours, whilst the people at the post-house went,
fair and softly, to the farm, to bid them bring up the horses which
were carrying in the first-fruits of the harvest.
I discovered here
that these sluggish peasants had their share of cunning. Though
they had made me pay for a horse, the boy had gone on foot, and only
arrived half an hour before me. This disconcerted the whole
arrangement of the day; and being detained again three hours, I
reluctantly determined to sleep at Quistram, two posts short of
Uddervalla, where I had hoped to have arrived that night.
But when I reached Quistram I found I could not approach the door of
the inn for men, horses, and carts, cows, and pigs huddled together.
From the concourse of people I had met on the road I conjectured
that there was a fair in the neighbourhood; this crowd convinced me
that it was but too true. The boisterous merriment that almost
every instant produced a quarrel, or made me dread one, with the
clouds of tobacco, and fumes of brandy, gave an infernal appearance
to the scene. There was everything to drive me back, nothing to
excite sympathy in a rude tumult of the senses, which I foresaw
would end in a gross debauch. What was to be done? No bed was to
be had, or even a quiet corner to retire to for a moment; all was
lost in noise, riot, and confusion.
After some debating they promised me horses, which were to go on to
Uddervalla, two stages. I requested something to eat first, not
having dined; and the hostess, whom I have mentioned to you before
as knowing how to take care of herself, brought me a plate of fish,
for which she charged a rix-dollar and a half. This was making hay
whilst the sun shone. I was glad to get out of the uproar, though
not disposed to travel in an incommodious open carriage all night,
had I thought that there was any chance of getting horses.
Quitting Quistram I met a number of joyous groups, and though the
evening was fresh many were stretched on the grass like weary
cattle; and drunken men had fallen by the road-side. On a rock,
under the shade of lofty trees, a large party of men and women had
lighted a fire, cutting down fuel around to keep it alive all night.
They were drinking, smoking, and laughing with all their might and
main. I felt for the trees whose torn branches strewed the ground.
Hapless nymphs! your haunts, I fear, were polluted by many an
unhallowed flame, the casual burst of the moment!
The horses went on very well; but when we drew near the post-house
the postillion stopped short and neither threats nor promises could
prevail on him to go forward. He even began to howl and weep when I
insisted on his keeping his word. Nothing, indeed, can equal the
stupid obstinacy of some of these half-alive beings, who seem to
have been made by Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was
so exhausted that he could only spare a spark to give life, not
animation, to the inert clay.
It was some time before we could rouse anybody; and, as I expected,
horses, we were told, could not be had in less than four or five
hours. I again attempted to bribe the churlish brute who brought us
there, but I discovered that, in spite of the courteous hostess's
promises, he had received orders not to go any father.
As there was no remedy I entered, and was almost driven back by the
stench - a softer phrase would not have conveyed an idea of the hot
vapour that issued from an apartment in which some eight or ten
people were sleeping, not to reckon the cats and dogs stretched on
the floor. Two or three of the men or women were on the benches,
others on old chests; and one figure started half out of a trunk to
look at me, whom might have taken for a ghost, had the chemise been
white, to contrast with the sallow visage. But the costume of
apparitions not being preserved I passed, nothing dreading,
excepting the effluvia, warily amongst the pots, pans, milk-pails,
and washing-tubs. After scaling a ruinous staircase I was shown a
bed-chamber. The bed did not invite me to enter; opening,
therefore, the window, and taking some clean towels out of my night-
sack, I spread them over the coverlid, on which tired Nature found
repose, in spite of the previous disgust.
With the grey of the morn the birds awoke me; and descending to
inquire for the horses, I hastened through the apartment I have
already described, not wishing to associate the idea of a pigstye
with that of a human dwelling.
I do not now wonder that the girls lose their fine complexions at
such an early age, or that love here is merely an appetite to fulfil
the main design of Nature, never enlivened by either affection or
sentiment.
For a few posts we found the horses waiting; but afterwards I was
retarded, as before, by the peasants, who, taking advantage of my
ignorance of the language, made me pay for the fourth horse that
ought to have gone forward to have the others in readiness, though
it had never been sent. I was particularly impatient at the last
post, as I longed to assure myself that my child was well.
My impatience, however, did not prevent my enjoying the journey. I
had six weeks before passed over the same ground; still it had
sufficient novelty to attract my attention, and beguile, if not
banish, the sorrow that had taken up its abode in my heart.
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