lie far more contentedly in a ſingle ton than ſeven ſoldiers in the moſt roomy oven: but inexorable neceſſity at this time acted as Quarter-maſter, wearineſs enjoined unanimity, and ſleep ſilence. One pair of eye-lids fell to after another, and the aſſociates in misfortune ſlept till broad day-light, though they had agreed to decamp quietly at the peep of dawn.
Before the ſeven ſleepers were awake, they were diſcovered by a peaſant’s wife, who, for joy of the victory which was by this time noiſed abroad all over the country, had kneaded a cake, and wanted to bake it in haſte. Looking into the oven, ſhe perceived the lodgers, and concluded from the doublets and hoſe that the gueſts within were ſome of the runaways. She hurried into the village, and reported the diſcovery to her neighbours. Immediately an army of women, equipped with ſpits and fire-forks, was collected; the oven was formally blockaded, and a council held how they were to proceed, and in
