I ate, I drank, I smoked, I walked, sat, and stood.

The stationmaster knew me, and thought I had gone mad, till I told him that I carried most important despatches from the king, and that the delay imperiled great interests.

Then he became sympathetic; but what could he do?
No special train was to be had at a roadside station: I must wait; and wait, somehow, and without blowing my brains out, I did.
At last I was in the train; now indeed we moved, and I came nearer.
An hour's run brought me in sight of the city.

Then, to my unutterable wrath, we were stopped, and waited motionless twenty minutes or half an hour.

At last we started again; had we not, I should have jumped out and run, for to sit longer would have driven me mad.