CHAPTER VIII.
A SECOND DEFEAT.
The sun was well up, showing a jolly red face, which indicated that he had been passing the night in the tropics, when Claudius, having said his farewell within the hospitable house where his bill had been obstinately withheld from him, took the reins in the chaise.

The grinning ostler held the unbarred door of the yard ready to open it quickly and slam it behind him.

At least, he had not the host's delicacy and he had accepted his gratuity.
"Good speed, master!" he had hastily cried out as the equipage rolled out into the street.
It was deserted.

The horse and vehicle aroused no curiosity where odder animals and more curiously antiquated rattletraps were also out.

He traversed the town as unimpeded as a Czar environed by secret guards.
The officer at the gate, yawning behind the passport which he did not trouble to read, wished him a good dinner at the rural friend's, where it was hinted he would put up, and returned into the guardroom to resume telling a dream which he wished interpreted.