bath in the Eastern Carpathians which I
visited later, the separation is so complete that the Roumanians go at
one period of the season and the Hungarian visitors at another.

It had always been my intention to stay a few days at the Hercules-Bad,
and I had given the place as an address for English letters. Accordingly
I presented myself at the _poste restante_. Seeing that I was a
Britisher, the postmaster gave me all the letters he possessed with
English postmarks. Many of them were of considerable antiquity. Out of
the goodly pile I selected some half-dozen that bore my name; but I was
greatly surprised to come across one that had made a very bad shot for
its destination. It bore the simple name of some poor Jacktar, with the
address "H.M.S. Hercules."

The Romans had their _etablissement_ here. The present name comes from
the "Thermae Herculis" of classic times. There are many interesting
remains here--fragments of altars, sculptured capitals, and stones with
inscriptions, all telling the same story--the story of Roman dominion
and greatness.

Just then we had no time for archaeology, for we wanted to push on to
Karansebes, and we stayed only a day and a half at Mehadia. As it was
more than we could comfortably manage to do the whole distance in a day,
we arranged to drive as far as Terregova and sleep there. We left
Mehadia early in the afternoon, F----'s groom riding my horse. The road
was excellent--all the roads are in the districts of the Military
Frontier. As an example of the quick temper of the Wallacks, I will
mention a little incident which happened on the road. We met some of
these people, and one of them, who was looking another way, stumbled
most awkwardly against the groom's horse, and very nearly met with an
accident. Though it was so clearly his own fault, he had hardly
recovered himself when, raising his axe, he was about to strike our
servant on the head. Meanwhile another fellow seized a big stone, which
I believe was going to make a target of the same head. Luckily I turned,
and seeing the scuffle, I was out with my revolver in a moment, pointing
it at the man with the axe. He understood my language, and made a hasty
retreat. F---- said he had no doubt it would have gone badly with the
groom if the distance between us had been greater.

We were in for adventures in a small way that evening. Just after
sunset, when it was already rather dark in the valley, we found
ourselves suddenly stopped b