dvice of the chamberlain, Herr Conrad himself, who wished to
retreat out of the affair, called Prince Christian of Misnia from his
estates, and was induced by a few words from this intelligent man to
deliver Kohlhaas to the court of Berlin, in compliance with the request
that had been made.

The prince, who, although he was little pleased with the late unseemly
proceedings, was obliged to undertake the prosecution of the Kohlhaas
affair, in compliance with the wish of his embarrassed sovereign, asked
him on what ground he meant to prosecute the horse-dealer, in the
chamber council at Berlin. To the fatal letter to Nagelschmidt
reference could not be made, so doubtful and obscure were the
circumstances under which it was written, neither could the early
plunderings and incendiarisms be mentioned on account of the placards
in which they had been pardoned.

The elector, therefore, resolved to lay before the Emperor of Vienna a
statement of the armed attack of Kohlhaas upon Saxony, to complain of
the breach of the public peace, which he had established, and to
request those who were bound by no amnesty to prosecute Kohlhaas in the
Berlin court through an imperial prosecutor.

In eight days the horse-dealer, chained as he was, was placed in a cart
and transported to Berlin with his five children (who had been got
together again out of the orphan and foundling asylums) by the night
Friedrich von Malzahn, whom the Elector of Brandenburg had sent to
Dresden with six troopers.

Now it chanced that the Elector of Saxony, at the invitation of the
seneschal (_Landdrost_) Count Aloysius von Kallheim, who held
considerable property on the borders of Saxony, had gone to Dahme to a
great hunt, which had been appointed for his recreation, accompanied by
the chamberlain, Herr Conrad, and his wife the Lady Heloise, daughter
of the seneschal and sister of the president, besides other fine ladies
and gentlemen, hunting-attendants, and nobles. All this party, covered
with dust from hunting, was seated at table under the cover of some
tents adorned with flags, which had been set up on a hill right across
the road, waited upon by pages and young nobles, and recreated by the
sound of cheerful music, which proceeded from the trunk of an oak, when
the horse-dealer, attended by his army of troopers, came slowly along
the road from Dresden.

The sickness of one of Kohlhaas's little delicate children had
compelled the Knight von Malzahn, who