n which the chamberlain arrived, sentence was
passed against Kohlhaas, and he was condemned to be put to death with
the sword;--a sentence which, seeing how complicated was the state of
affairs, no one believed would be executed, notwithstanding its
mildness; nay, the whole city, knowing the good feeling of the elector
towards Kohlhaas, firmly hoped that the capital punishment, by a
special edict, would be commuted into a long and severe imprisonment.

The chamberlain seeing at once that no time was to be lost, if he would
fulfil his sovereign's commission, went to work, by appearing one
morning, sedulously attired in his usual court-dress, before Kohlhaas,
who was innocently watching the passers-by from the window of his
prison. Concluding, from a sudden movement of his head, that the
horse-dealer had perceived him, and particularly observing, with great
delight, how the latter clutched, involuntarily, at the part of his
breast, where the case was situated, he judged, that what had passed in
the mind of Kohlhaas at that moment, was a sufficient preparation to
advance one step further in the attempt to gain possession of the paper.

He, therefore, called to him an old rag-woman, who was hobbling about
on crutches, and whom he had observed in the streets of Berlin among a
host of others, who were trafficking in the same commodity. This
woman, in age and attire seemed to bear a pretty close resemblance to
the one whom his elector had described, and as he thought that Kohlhaas
would have no clear recollection of the features of the gipsy, who had
only appeared for a moment when she gave him the case, he resolved to
pass off this old woman for the other one, and if possible to let her
take the part of the gipsy before Kohlhaas. To put her in a proper
position to play this part, he informed her, circumstantially, of all
that had passed between the two electors and the gipsy at Jueterboch,
not forgetting to tell her the three mysterious articles contained in
the paper, as he did not know how far the gipsy might have gone in her
explanations to Kohlhaas. After explaining to her what she must let
fall in an incoherent or unintelligible manner, for the sake of certain
plans that had been devised to obtain the paper, either by force or
stratagem--a matter of great importance to the Saxon court--he charged
her to ask Kohlhaas for it, under the pretext of keeping it for a few
eventful days, as it was no longer safe in his posse