who shook hands with him and bade him farewell, the
castellan of the electoral castle pressed forward to him with a
disturbed countenance, and gave him a note which he said he had
received from an old woman. Kohlhaas, while he looked upon the man,
who was little known to him, with astonishment, opened the note, the
seal of which, impressed on a wafer, reminded him of the well-known
gipsy. Who can describe his astonishment when he read as follows:

"KOHLHAAS,--The Elector of Saxony is in Berlin. He is gone before thee
to the place of execution; and thou mayest know him, if, indeed, it
concerns thee, by a hat with blue and white feathers. I need not tell
thee the purpose for which he comes. As soon as thou art buried, he
will dig up the case, and have the paper opened which it contains.

"THY ELIZABETH."

Kohlhaas, turning to the castellan in the greatest astonishment, asked
him if he knew the wonderful woman who had given him the note.

The castellan began to answer: "Kohlhaas, the woman----" but he stopped
short in the middle of his speech; and Kohlhaas, being carried along by
the train, which proceeded at this moment, could not hear what the man,
who seemed to tremble in every limb, was saying to him. When he came
to the place of execution, he found the Elector of Brandenburg on
horseback there, with his train, among whom was the Chancellor Heinrich
von Geusau, in the midst of an immense concourse of people. To the
right of the elector stood the imperial advocate, Franz Mueller, with a
copy of the sentence in his hand, while on his left, with the decree of
the Dresden Court chamber, was his own advocate, the jurist Anton
Zaeuner. In the midst of the half-open circle formed by the people, was
a herald with a bundle of things and the two horses, now sleek and in
good condition, beating the ground with their hoofs. For the
Chancellor Henry had carried every point of the suit, which, in the
name of his master, he had commenced at Dresden against Squire Wenzel
von Tronka; and consequently the horses, after they had been restored
to honour by the ceremony of waving a flag over their heads, had been
taken out of the hands of the flayer, and, having been fattened by the
squire's men, had been handed over to the advocate in the Dresden
market, in the presence of a commission appointed for the purpose.
Therefore, the elector, when Kohlhaas, attended by the guard, ascended
the court to him, said: "Now, Kohlhaas, t