d every moment as if
they longed to die, said that these were not the horses which he had
taken from Kohlhaas, when the chamberlain casting upon him a look of
speechless rage, which, had he been made of iron, would have crushed
him, stepped up to the knacker and asked him, as he flung back his
mantle and discovered his chain and order, whether these were the
horses which had been in the possession of the shepherd of Wilsdruf,
and which Squire Wenzel von Tronka, to whom they belonged, had
required. The man, who with a pail in his hand, was watering a
stout-bodied horse, that drew his cart, said: "Do you mean the black
ones?" Taking the bit out of his horse's mouth, and setting down the
pail he said that the animals tied to the cart had been sold to him by
a swineherd of Hainichen, but where he got them, and whether they came
from the Wilsdruf shepherd--that he knew nothing about. The messenger
of the Wilsdruf court, he said, as he again took up the pail and rested
it against the pole of the cart, had told him that he was to bring them
to Dresden to the house of the von Tronkas, but the squire to whom he
had been directed was called Conrad. After these words he turned round
with the remainder of the water, which the horse had left in the pail,
and flung it upon the pavement.

The chamberlain, who amid the gaze of the scoffing multitude could not
get a look from the fellow, who continued his work with the most
insensible zeal, told him that he was the Squire Conrad von Tronka, but
that the horses he had with him belonged to the squire his cousin, that
they had come to the Wilsdruf shepherd through a servant who had run
away, taking advantage of the fire at the Tronkenburg, and that they
originally belonged to the horse-dealer Kohlhaas. He asked the fellow,
who stood with outstretched legs and hitched up his breeches, whether
he really knew nothing about the matter;--whether the swineherd of
Hainichen had not purchased them from the Wilsdruf shepherd (on which
circumstance all depended), or from some third party, who might have
obtained them from that source.

The man rudely said that he understood not a word that was said, and
that whether Peter or Paul or the Wilsdruf shepherd had the horses
before the swineherd of Hainichen--it was just the same to
him--provided they were not stolen. Upon this he went, with his whip
across his broad back, to a neighbouring pot-house to get his breakfast.

The chamberlain, who di