atures and the filling in
of the two sums, namely, the purchase-money and the price of
redemption, in case he should return within the four weeks, and again
asked him in a cheerful tone to make an offer, assuring him that he
would be reasonable, and would not hesitate about trifles. The wife
walked up and down in the room, her heart palpitating to such a degree
that her handkerchief, at which the child was pulling, seemed ready to
fall from her shoulders. The farmer said that he had no means of
estimating the value of the Dresden property, whereupon Kohlhaas,
pushing to him the documents that had been exchanged when he had
purchased it, replied that he valued it at one hundred gold crowns,
although it appeared clearly enough from the documents themselves, that
it cost him almost half as much again. The farmer, who read the
contract over once more, and found that on his side also the liberty of
retracting was specially provided, said, already half determined, that
he could not make use of the stud that was in the stables; but when
Kohlhaas replied that he did not wish to part with the horses, and that
he also wished to keep some weapons that hung in the gun-room, he
hemmed and hesitated for a while, and at last repeated an offer which,
half in jest, half in earnest, he had made in the course of a walk, and
which was as nothing compared to the value of the property. Kohlhaas
pushed pen and ink towards him that he might write, and when the
farmer, who could not trust his senses, asked the horse-dealer if he
was really serious, and the horse-dealer somewhat sharply asked the
farmer if he thought he could be in jest, the latter, with a somewhat
scrupulous countenance, took up the pen and wrote. He struck out the
part relating to the sum to be paid, in case the vendor should repent
his bargain, bound himself to a loan of one hundred crowns on the
security of the Dresden property, which he would on no account consent
to purchase, and left Kohlhaas full liberty to recede from his contract
within two months. The horse-dealer, touched by this handsome conduct,
shook the farmer's hand very heartily, and after they had agreed on the
chief condition, which was that a fourth of the purchase-money should
be paid in cash down, and the rest at the Hamburg bank three months
afterwards, he called for wine, that they might make merry over a
bargain so happily concluded. He told the servant-maid, who entered
with bottles, that his man