husbands. The little children had been taken because their mothers, who
were fond of travelling and, like their husbands, were natives of all
countries, possessed no relatives in Brussels who would care for them.

The jealous spouses especially had not joined the party without cogent
reasons, for the mirth in the first long wagon, covered with a linen
tilt, was uproarious enough.

Wolf and his companion heard shrill laughter and loud shrieks echoing
from its dusky interior.

The younger men and the women who liked journeying were sitting in motley
confusion upon the straw which covered the bottom of the vehicle, and the
boisterous mirth of the travellers gave ample proof that the huge jugs of
wine carried with them as the Emperor's provision for the journey had
been freely used.

In the second cart, an immense ark, swaying between four wheels and drawn
by a team of four horses, grave older artists sat silently opposite to
each other, all more or less exhausted by the continual rocking motion of
the long ride. These men and the other travellers were joyfully
surprised by the news that the goal of the journey was already at hand.
Pressing their heads together, they gazed out of the open linen tilt
which arched above the first cart or crowded to the little windows of the
coaches to see Ratisbon.

Even the old Neapolitan nurse, who was predicting future events from a
pack of cards, dropped them and peered out. But the noise in the second
tilted wagon was especially confused, for there the gay shouts of the boy
choir, only half of whom were on horseback, mingled with the loud talking