"
So, wasting no time in farewells, I set out. By ten o'clock I was
at Hofbau, for I rode furiously. From there I sent to Bernenstein
at the palace word of my coming. But there I was delayed. There
was no train for an hour.
"I'll ride," I cried to myself, only to remember the next moment
that, if I rode, I should come to my journey's end much later.
There was nothing for it but to wait, and it may be imagined in
what mood I waited. Every minute seemed an hour, and I know not
to this day how the hour wore itself away. 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.
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