he room were
several furnaces, where the innkeeper, his wife, several children, and
some servants were actively preparing the dishes required by the guests.
While every body seemed occupied, either in the preparation or in the
consumption of victuals, a loud cry was heard. It was the hostess, thus
expressing the pain occasioned by a knock on her head, which the husband
had administered with a shovel. At the cry, all the travellers looked in
the direction whence it proceeded; the woman retreated, with vehement
vociferations, to a corner of the kitchen; the innkeeper explained to the
company that he had been compelled to correct his wife for insolence,
insubordination, and an indifference to the interests of the
establishment, which eminently compromised its prosperity. Before he had
finished his version of the story, the wife, from her retreat in the
corner, commenced her's; she informed the company that her husband was an
idle vagabond, who passed his time in drinking and smoking, expending the
result of her labours for a whole month in a few days of brandy and
tobacco. During this extempore performance, the audience remained
imperturbably calm, giving not the smallest indication of approbation or
disapprobation. At length the wife issued from her retreat, and advanced
with a sort of challenging air to the husband: "Since I am a wicked
woman," cried she, "you must kill me. Come, kill me!" and so saying, she
drew herself up with a gesture of vast dramatic dignity immediately in
front of the husband. The latter did not adopt the suggestion to kill
her, but he gave her a formidable box on the ear, which sent her back,
screaming at the pitch of her voice, into her previous corner. Hereupon,
the audience burst into loud laughter; but the affair, which seemed to
them so diverting, soon took a very serious turn. After the most
terrible abuse on the one hand, and the most awful threats on the other,
the innkeeper at length drew his girdle tight about his waist, and
twisted his tress of hair about his head, in token of some decided
proceeding. "Since you will have me kill you," cried he, "I will kill
you!" and so saying, he took from the furnace a pair of long iron tongs,
and rushed furiously upon his wife. Everybody at once rose and shouted;
the neighbours ran in, and all present endeavoured to separate the
combatants, but they did not effect the object until the woman's face was
covered with blood, and her hair was al