am persuaded,
I could have walked at the same pace all night long, without being very
much fatigued. It was near ten at night, when we entered the auberge in
such a draggled and miserable condition, that Mrs. Vanini almost
fainted at sight of us, on the supposition that we had met with some
terrible disaster, and that the rest of the company were killed. My
wife and I were immediately accommodated with dry stockings and shoes,
a warm apartment, and a good supper, which I ate with great
satisfaction, arising not only from our having happily survived the
adventure, but also from a conviction that my strength and constitution
were wonderfully repaired: not but that I still expected a severe cold,
attended with a terrible fit of the asthma: but in this I was luckily
disappointed. I now for the first time drank to the health of my
physician Barazzi, fully persuaded that the hardships and violent
exercise I underwent by following his advice, had greatly contributed
to the re-establishment of my health. In this particular, I imitate the
gratitude of Tavernier, who was radically cured of the gout by a
Turkish aga in Aegypt, who gave him the bastinado, because he would not
look at the head of the bashaw of Cairo, which the aga had in a bag, to
be presented to the grand signior at Constantinople.

I did not expect to see the rest of our company that night, as I never
doubted but they would stay with the coach at the inn on the other side
of the Arno: but at mid-night we were joined by Miss C-- and Mr. R--,
who had left the carriage at the inn, under the auspices of the captain
and my servant, and followed our foot-steps by walking from the
ferry-boat to Florence, conducted by one of the boatmen. Mr. R-- seemed
to be much ruffled and chagrined; but, as he did not think proper to
explain the cause, he had no right to expect that I should give him
satisfaction for some insult he had received from my servant. They had
been exposed to a variety of disagreeable adventures from the
impracticability of the road. The coach had been several times in the
most imminent hazard of being lost with all our baggage; and at one
place, it was necessary to hire a dozen of oxen, and as many men, to
disengage it from the holes into which it had run. It was in the
confusion of these adventures, that the captain and his valet, Mr. R--
and my servant, had like to have gone all by the ears together. The
peace was with difficulty preserved by the interposi