ianna, a brown Neapolitan. The
carriage was crammed with all sorts of boxes, band-boxes, portmanteaus,
and so forth, and two pug-dogs, on Gianna's lap, yapped at me as I rode
up.

"Everything went swimmingly till we got to the last stage from the
Residenz, but there my horse was seized with the remarkable idea that
he ought to go home to his stable. A conviction that severe measures
are seldom effectual in such conjunctures induced me to try every
description of mild persuasion that I could think of. The perverse
animal was proof against all my gentle remonstrances. I wanted to go
forward; he wanted to go back. All that I could accomplish in the
circumstances was that, instead of retrograding, he kept describing
circles. Teresina leant out of the carriage, laughing most heartily;
whilst Lauretta put her hands before her eyes and screamed, as if I
were in the utmost danger. I jammed my spurs into the brute's sides,
and, ere I could say Jack Robinson, found myself on the broad of my
back on the turnpike road, with the horse standing over me, his long
neck stretched out, surveying me with an expression of calm derision.

"'I could not get up till the driver got off and helped me. Lauretta,
too, got out, and was weeping and screaming. I had twisted one of my
feet, and couldn't ride any further. What was to be done? The horse was
made fast to the back of the carriage, and I had to squeeze myself
inside, as best I could. Just picture to yourself two well-grown
young women, a fat maid, a couple of dogs, a dozen or so of baskets,
band-boxes, etc., and me in addition, squeezed up in a little two-seated
phaeton! Think of Lauretta's lamentations about the want of room; the
dogs' yapping; the Neapolitan's chattering, and the horrible pain of my
foot, and you will have some idea what a charming position I was in.
Teresina declared she could bear it no longer; the driver pulled up,
and with one bound she was out of the carriage. She loosed my horse,
got on his back, and trotted and curvetted down the road before us. She
certainly looked splendid; the grace and distinction which she
possessed in an eminent degree were more especially conspicuous on
horseback. She made us hand her out her guitar, and, slinging her
bridle over her left arm, she sang Spanish ballads as she rode along,
striking handfuls of chords in accompaniment. Her silk dress fluttered
in shimmering folds, and the white plumes in her hat nodded and
quivered, like air