Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/248

 pondency. The hardiest among us counted cover the company to see if none had lost himself or staid behind. What was our surprize to find the valorous knight and Baron Braggart among the missing! Already a thousand railleries began to dispel fear from every heart, when the company found they had wronged him. In great haste, and with big drops of sweat on his front, the latter overtook us, alledging that some want had made him quit the group for a moment. He loudly asked for whom we were waiting, and what could make us hesitate? The company animated with his bravadoes moved up a few steps, and halted again. Our hostess kept back her spouse by the skirts of his coat, and would not let him loose, till he sternly asked her, whether she took him for a child. Braggart now discharged another volley of oaths from the rear. The marquis advanced, I and another gentleman followed him closely, and all the rest kept motionless on the stairs.

"The torches having likewise kept behind, I was obliged to step back and wrest