peror, in a note which he despatched through the state chancery,
replied that he was greatly astonished at the change in the elector's
sentiments, which seemed to have occurred so suddenly, adding, that the
information laid before him on the part of Saxony, made the matter of
Kohlhaas an affair of the whole sacred Roman empire, that he, the
emperor, as the head of that empire, was bound to appear as prosecutor
in this suit with the House of Brandenburg; that now the
court-assessor, Franz Mueller, had gone to Berlin as imperial attorney,
for the express purpose of bringing Kohlhaas to account there for a
violation of the imperial peace, it would be impossible to set aside
the complaint, and that therefore the affair must take its course
according to the laws. The elector was completely cast down by this
letter; and when, to his utter confusion, he shortly afterwards
received private letters from Berlin announcing the commencement of the
proceedings before the chamber-council, and stating that Kohlhaas, in
spite of all the endeavours of his advocate, would probably end his
days on a scaffold, the unhappy prince resolved to make one attempt
more, and he therefore wrote a letter himself to the Elector of
Brandenburg, begging for the horse-dealer's life. He pretended that
the amnesty which had been promised to the man, would render improper
the fulfilment of a capital sentence; assured him, that in spite of the
apparent severity of the proceedings against Kohlhaas, it had never
been his intention to put him to death; and stated how inconsolable he
should be if the protection which seemed to be granted him from Berlin,
should by an unexpected turn prove more to his disadvantage than if he
had remained in Dresden, and the affair had been decided according to
Saxon law.

The Elector of Brandenburg, who perceived much that was obscure and
ambiguous in this request, replied by stating that the urgency with
which the imperial advocate proceeded would not allow him to depart
from the strict injunctions of the law to accede to his (Saxony's)
wishes. At the same time he remarked that the anxiety of the Elector
of Saxony in this matter seemed to be carried too far, since the
complaint against Kohlhaas, which was now before the Berlin
chamber-council, and which concerned the crimes pardoned in the
amnesty, did not proceed from him who granted it, but from the head of
the empire, who was not in any manner bound by it. He also impres