en asked what had happened, immediately began to
speak, and while, on the one hand, the dogs set up a murderous howl at
the sight of the stranger, and, on the other, the knights sought to
quiet them, he gave the Squire a maliciously garbled account of the
turmoil the horse-dealer was making because his black horses had been
used a little. He said, with a scornful laugh, that the horse-dealer
refused to recognize the horses as his own.

Kohlhaas cried, "Your worship, those are not my horses. Those are not
the horses which were worth thirty gold gulden! I want my well-fed,
sound horses back again!"

The Squire, whose face grew momentarily pale, got down from his horse
and said, "If the d----d scoundrel doesn't want to take the horses
back, let him leave them here. Come, Gunther!" he called; "Hans,
come!" He brushed the dust off his breeches with his hand and, just as
he reached the door with the young knights, called "Bring wine!" and
strode into the house.

Kohlhaas said that he would rather call the knacker and have his
horses thrown into the carrion pit than lead them back, in that
condition, to his stable at Kohlhaasenbrueck. Without bothering himself
further about the nags, he left them standing where they were, and,
declaring that he should know how to get his rights, mounted his bay
horse and rode away.

He was already galloping at full speed on the road to Dresden when, at
the thought of the groom and of the complaint which had been made
against him at the castle, he slowed down to a walk, and, before he
had gone a thousand paces farther, turned his horse around again and
took the road toward Kohlhaasenbrueck, in order, as seemed to him wise
and just, to hear first what the groom had to say. For in spite of the
injuries he had suffered, a correct instinct, already familiar with
the imperfect organization of the world, inclined him to put up with
the loss of the horses and to regard it as a just consequence of the
groom's misconduct in case there really could be imputed to the latter
any such fault as the castellan charged. On the other hand, an equally
admirable feeling took deeper and deeper root the farther he rode,
hearing at every stop of the outrages perpetrated daily upon travelers
at Tronka Castle; this instinct told him that if, as seemed probable,
the whole incident proved to be a preconcerted plot, it was his duty
to the world to make every effort to obtain for himself satisfaction
for the injury su