uch a law might not
have been passed in Saxony for the protection of the newly started
industry of horse-raising.

On his arrival in Dresden, where, in one of the suburbs of the city,
he owned a house and stable--this being the headquarters from which he
usually conducted his business at the smaller fairs around the
country--he went immediately to the chancery. And here he learned from
the councilors, some of whom he knew, that indeed, as his first
instinct had already told him, the story of the passport was only made
up. At Kohlhaas's request, the annoyed councilors gave him a written
certificate of its baselessness, and the horse-dealer smiled at the
lean Squire's joke, although he did not quite see what purpose he
could have had in view. A few weeks later, having sold to his
satisfaction the string of horses he had with him, Kohlhaas returned
to Tronka Castle harboring no other resentment save that caused by the
general misery of the world.

The castellan, to whom he showed the certificate, made no comment upon
it, and to the horse-dealer's question as to whether he could now have
his horses back, replied that he need only go down to the stable and
get them. But even while crossing the courtyard, Kohlhaas learned with
dismay that for alleged insolence his groom had been cudgeled and
dismissed in disgrace a few days after being left behind at Tronka
Castle. Of the boy who informed him of this he inquired what in the
world the groom had done, and who had taken care of the horses in the
mean time; to this the boy answered that he did not know, and then
opened to the horse-dealer, whose heart was already full of
misgivings, the door of the stable in which the horses stood. How
great, though, was his astonishment when, instead of his two glossy,
well-fed blacks, he spied a pair of lean, worn-out jades, with bones
on which one could have hung things as if on pegs, and with mane and
hair matted together from lack of care and attention--in short, the
very picture of utter misery in the animal kingdom! Kohlhaas, at the
sight of whom the horses neighed and moved feebly, was extremely
indignant, and asked what had happened to his horses. The boy, who was
standing beside him, answered that they had not suffered any harm, and
that they had had proper feed too, but, as it had been harvest time,
they had been used a bit in the fields because there weren't draught
animals enough. Kohlhaas cursed over the shameful, preconcerted
ou