to 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: but at length I accommodated matters, by
telling the officer that he should have a place in it gratis, and his
servant might ride a-horse-back. He accepted the offer without
hesitation; but, in the mean time, we set out in the coach before them,
and having proceeded about a couple of miles, the road was so deep from
a heavy rain, and the beasts were so fatigued, that they could not
proceed. The postilions scourging the poor animals with great
barbarity, they made an effort, and pulled the coach to the brink of a
precipice, or rather a kind of hollow-way, which might be about seven
or eight feet lower than the road. Here my wife and I leaped out, and
stood under the rain up to the ancles in mud; while the postilions
still exercising their whips, one of the fore-horses fairly tumbled
down the descent, arid hung by the neck, so that he was almost
strangled before he could be disengaged from the traces, by the
assistance of some foot travellers that happened to pass. While we
remained in this dilemma, the chaise, with the officer and my servant,
coming up, we exchanged places; my wife and I proceeded in the chaise,
and left them with Miss C-- and Mr. R--, to follow in the co