d not know what in the world he should do with
the horses, which the swineherd of Hainichen had, as it seemed, sold to
the knacker of Doebbeln, unless indeed they were the horses on which the
devil rode through Saxony, asked the squire to put in a word, and when
his kinsman, with pale trembling lips, answered that the most advisable
plan would be to buy them, whether they belonged to Kohlhaas or not, he
wrapped his mantle round him, and not knowing what to do, retired from
the crowd, cursing the father and mother who had given him birth. He
then called to him Baron von Wenk, one of his acquaintance, who was
riding along the street, and resolving not to leave the spot, because
the rabble looked at him scoffingly, and with their handkerchiefs
before their mouths only seemed to wait for his departure to burst out,
he bade him call on Count von Wrede and by his means make Kohlhaas come
to inspect the horses.

Now it happened that Kohlhaas, who had been summoned by an officer of
the court to give certain explanations as to the surrender of property
at Luetzen, was present in the chancellor's room when the baron entered,
and while the chancellor with a fretful countenance rose from his chair
and motioned the horse-dealer aside, the baron, to whom the person of
Kohlhaas was unknown, represented the difficulty in which the von
Tronkas were placed. The knacker had come from Doebbeln in accordance
with a defective requisition of the Wilsdruf courts, with horses
certainly; but their condition was so hopeless that Squire Wenzel could
not help feeling a doubt as to their belonging to Kohlhaas. Hence, if
they were to be taken from the knacker, in order that their recovery
might be attempted, an ocular inspection by Kohlhaas would be necessary
in the first instance to clear up the doubt that existed. "Have then
the goodness," he concluded, "to fetch the horse-dealer out of his
house with a guard, and let him be taken to the market-place where the
horses now are."

The chancellor, taking his spectacles from his nose, said that he found
himself in a dilemma, since, on the one hand, he did not think the
affair could be settled otherwise than by the ocular inspection of
Kohlhaas; and, on the other hand, he did not conceive that he, as
chancellor, had any right to send Kohlhaas about guarded, wherever the
squire's fancy might dictate. He therefore introduced to the baron the
horse-dealer, who was standing, behind him; and while he sa